TRUE CRIME: NEW YORK CITY CERTAINLY ISN’T GUILTY OF LAZY RACIAL STEREOTYPING!

Not in the slightest! This is a perfectly normal day in “The Hood” or “Brooklyn” or wherever it is “hip hop rapper” Redman lives (or pretends to live now he’s rich and has moved somewhere nice).

Jesus Christ, Activision! Isn’t making and distributing this type of image against the law?

EXCLUSIVE: Shadow The Hedgehog 2 on Xbox 360.

HOW THEY COULD’VE MADE IT BETTER:

Join the “Blue Sky In Games Campaign” today!

DID ROCKSTAR GAMES STORM OUT OF THE GOLDEN JOYSTICKS IN A HUFF THIS YEAR BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING?

No! Rockstar Games DIDN’T storm out of the Golden Joysticks in a huff this year because they didn’t win anything! Come back next year for an update on Rockstar Games storming out of awards ceremonies in a huff at not winning anything, like they REALLY AND ACTUALLY DID last year.

ALTERNATIVE “NEW GAMES JOURNALISM” REVIEW OF NINJA GAIDEN BLACK

Just in case the last one was too traditional for all you bedsit bloggers out there in tedium-land.

OF BLOCKS AND COUNTER MEASURES: A JOURNEY THROUGH NINJA GAIDEN (AND OUT THE OTHER SIDE AGAIN)
By Michael Zorg

A guard emerges from the shadows and slaps me in the face.

“Are you MAN enough?” he offers, roughly.

“Yes” I reply.

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH” he yells back, slapping me again. “Are you MAN enough to take any more?”

There was no way I would talk. He could slap me all he wanted. I had learned the importance of blocking and there was no way he could hurt me now. The secrets of my clan, the Hyabusa clan, would die with me if there was no other way.

“Tell me what you know about the Dark Dragon Blade”

“I know nothing”

I could see the anger building within him. He was almost at Master Ninja level, which would mean his slaps would get even harder and some I wouldn’t be able to block at all.

“Your family knows about the Dragon Blade… YOU know about the Dragon Blade. TELL ME NOW or I burn the village!”

He could burn the village and I still wouldn’t say. I knew from the high-resolution cut-scenes that ran at 50 frames a second that Ayane was safe. He could burn the village for all I cared.

He slapped me again. And again I managed to block, cleverly absorbing some of the essence his attack left behind to restore my health a little.

“TELL ME!”

It was a torturous time, just like Raskolnikov’s journey through insanity in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s fantastic novel Crime and Punishment, which I read all of at university.

My beatings went on for some 15 days (levels), with his slaps (by this I mean the game) getting harder each time but also being more satisfying to block (complete).

The graphics and gameplay are also great. 10/10.

A REVIEW OF NINJA GAIDEN BLACK WE WROTE FOR SOMEWHERE ELSE

But the ‘Somewhere Else’ decided they didn’t need it after all. Which is fine, so like all our rejected ideas here it is on the site.

Only seeing as we’re putting it on the internet, we’ve put the word “fucking” in where we originally wrote “damn”, changed “idiot” to “spastic”, changed “people” to “cocks” and have added some ironic gay bashing and several BONUS SEGA REFERENCES so you have to read it.

A REVIEW OF NINJA GAIDEN BLACK
For the internet.

CHAPTER 1: THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS

We’re not going to mess around with introductory paragraphs here. There is only one fact you need to know about Ninja Gaiden Black — it’s the best action game there has ever been and, we confidently predict, the best one there ever will be. No way can anyone ever make a better one than this. It’s perfect in all ways.

It’s the most arse-kicking, kick-arse, arse-destroying action game there has ever been. It’s like there’s ten million arses, and you’ve got a boot the size of a car to kick them with. And you can kick them so hard they’re going to be finding smashed bits of arse stuck in the walls of the International Space Station — THAT’S how hard Ninja Gaiden Black kicks arse. And it’s kick-arse, kick-arse, kick-arse all the way through, non-stop, from beginning to end, and is by far and away the greatest action game on Xbox or any other games console — even the Sega ones.

It’s a game for fans of Ninja Gaiden. It’s more Ninja Gaiden, more bosses, new enemies, harder attackers and a bigger, greater and even more focused and demanding challenge. But! It’s also easier too, courtesy of two things; (1) all the whining cocks who said it was “too hard” on the internet because they didn’t understand how important it was to use the ‘block’ button, and (2) the new ‘Ninja Dog’ difficulty setting made to shut them the fuck up.

CHAPTER 2: THE FEATURES EXPLAINED

Now, if you’re rubbish at games or a child or a spastic and manage to die quite a few times on the first level, Ninja Gaiden Black gives you the opportunity of playing through on its Ninja Dog setting where everything’s easy for grandad. Too easy for most, but a necessary easy seeing as a few loud-mouthed idiots found the original too hard.

The shame heaped upon you and your family by playing the greatest action game of all-time on I’M A FUCKING IDIOT difficulty will haunt you for the rest of your life, but if you found the first Ninja Gaiden too hard the option is there. You still see all the plot, levels and beautiful, beautiful scenery on Ninja Dog, it’s just the personal shame thing you’ll have a problem with in later life.

Oh, and lots of cocks whined about Ninja Gaiden’s camera. That’s a total non-issue as far as we’re concerned, seeing as pressing the right trigger always centres it behind Ryu — and the camera shot is fixed in small rooms so it never gets lost. It’s perfect. Black also features the option of using the Hurricane Pack’s altered system where the right stick can be used as a ‘free look’ thing, but that just makes this LIGHTNING FAST ACTION GAME harder to play. This game is about fighting ninjas all the time, not looking at stuff. There is no sniper rifle in Ninja Gaiden. Just get used to it.

However, this game is meant for people that ‘got’ and ‘liked’ the first game and want more of it. To start with, if you haven’t got a completed save position from Ninja Gaiden you have to complete it on Normal difficulty to open up Hard. That’s REALLY HARD to do! Then you have to complete it again on Hard to unlock the new Missions bits, which are fights against newer, clever enemies, and – we’re not exaggerating for effect here – are the hardest 50 things you will ever have to do in a modern game.

(We say ‘modern’ because a lot of retro games were harder than this but that was mainly because no one bothered to test games in the old days so some were actually technically impossible. Those technically impossible ones are harder than NGB by accident. Anyway.)

You’d better be prepared to play the same mission 20 times in a row before you do it, and that’s only on Normal.

CHAPTER 3: SUMMARY AND END

But it’s so amazingly awesome you HAVE TO DO IT. There is no try. The enemy AI is so perfect and mean it’s a personal grudge match, one that’s better than playing rubbish, predictable humans because Tecmo’s ace ninjas do such a great job of blocking, rolling and throwing your attacks back at you. It’s phenomenally, ludicrously difficult, perhaps ten times harder than the first game, but that’s exactly why this is dream material for Ninja Gaiden fans.

And if you’re not a fan of Ninja Gaiden — buy this, play it, don’t give up when it gets too hard because it soon ‘clicks’ and seems just right, and then you’ll realise what an epic you have. You will like it, even if you’re a puny effeminate man who usually only likes dancing games, puzzle games and watching imported anime with those girls who find you safe, non-threatening company.

And all this for only 20 quid? It’s the greatest video game deal in history! Even better than when Sega started giving away Sonic The Hedgehog with the Mega Drive! We’re off to complete it again for fun, and you’d better go off and buy it. Not via Bittorrent you pikey twat, via a shop. If Ninja Gaiden Black isn’t number one in the charts for AT LEAST a month starting from next Tuesday’s chart, you’re all in deep trouble and missing out on a genuine modern-day classic.

NEXT WEEK:
Something else we wrote for somewhere else, only this one was rejected for being “too weird”.

ROCKSTAR IS MAKING SOME RUBBISH GAME ABOUT SOME RUBBISH OLD MOVIE

Thankfully, they’ve stuck up an age verification thingy so that kids have to lie about their age before they can become serial killers (or even worse, gay) by looking at this:

Along with the classic driving on the wrong side of the road and shooting anything that moves vibe, this game includes baseball to give it that authentic American feel

There’s no telling how many junior baseball players this game could turn into deviants if it’s released! We just wish there were some sort of ratings system, or perhaps a magical laser forcefield, to protect young impressionable children from all this.

We have no idea what that ancient old movie was about but here’s what we think you might be able to do in this game:

  • Catch an STD.
  • Get a stupid haircut.
  • Form a gang of partially clad males (in a purely macho and heterosexual sense).
  • Pop caps into nigger’s bitches.
  • Go to a Village People concert.
  • Complete thousands of identical missions. Probably involving drive-bys.

SONY MADE A FUNNY JOKE, ONCE

Lots of self-conscious, fashionable, sub-viral, below-the-line, anti-marketing marketing ads from the history of PlayStation here. This one is probably best:

We mean funny in a clever way.

SAKURA WARS 3: IS PARIS BURNING?

Rampaging French demand Purple Saturn Day sequel

Yes!

TIM HENMAN IS RUBBISH, EVEN IN PRETEND-LAND

30-40 down in Virtua Tennis 3, with a look of resignation on his face. It’s so accurate.

On the plus side, this is the most realistic-looking video game man ever. If you had a Sega Lindbergh in your house it would be like having a friend!

CAPCOM: MINUS 500 RISPECK, INNIT

After two months of crying and denial, we got round to playing Beat Down: Fists of Vengance. The strategy of chavving your games up for fun and profit has finally reached Japan and, as you could probably predict, has come out like a kitten that’s shat itself on your bed. It’s adorable, but it’s still disgusting and has to be shut in the fridge until it learns.

'Hey, Raven!' 'What?' BONGGGGGGG! 'Doooooh!'

Join “A Street Fighting Man Raven,” “Clever Fighter Aaron” and the inevitable six foot black guy “JASON G” as they struggle to defeat Chester, Wallace, Fatima, Eugene and Ignacy. It’s like when you were sixteen and too embarassed to show your friends Final Fantasy because the main character was called Cecil, all over again.

Capcom’s biggest secret weapon for making the game feel “Street” and “Cred” and “A lot of other things in quote marks to denote that we’re making a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle while saying it” is the incessant repetition of the phrase “WE ARE ON THE BLACK LIST” which is clearly the “Street”-est thing anyone in Tokyo has ever heard.

Hot Coffee mod comes already unlocked!

Sorry, Japan. You do not have gangs like America has gangs. You do not even have gangs like Walton on the Naze has gangs. Please leave this nonsense to EA and Rockstar and go back to making happy games about hedgehogs and mice and mushrooms and rape and destroying the world with a giant beachball.

OUTRUN IN THE SKY

Afterburner Climax is why we will ALWAYS love Sega. The sky is SONIC BLUE, the sea is SONIC BLUE, the sun is SUPERSONIC YELLOW and it all looks like a memory of being on a happy childhood holiday.

Look! It’s a postcard from daddy saying he loves us and is coming home!

Or it’s actually the staggeringly hot Afterburner Climax and we’re going to go mad about until it comes out, and then probably for quite some time afterwards, too.

We have just climaxed…

…all over Wolf’s buff stomach. These are Sega’s new arcade machines and our only hope. Three cheers for games with blue skies that aren’t about being in a fucking gang.