Romance is in the air between me and my Xbox. Alongside my passionate affair with the supreme Rallisport Challenge 2, I've developed a very tempestuous love/hate relationship with Ninja Gaiden. The reasons I love it are too numerous to mention in this introduction, that's what the rest of the review is for. The reasons I hate it? Well there's only one - it's a very tough and unforgiving game.

Hate is probably too strong a word; it can be very frustrating and demoralising at times but that only makes persevering and progressing all the more rewarding. The fact is, this game is extremely challenging and has taken every ounce of my gaming skill to play through. I'm definitely a better gamer for the experience and that's not something you can say about many games you play. However, this difficulty (and I'm only talking about the "Normal" mode!) will without doubt alienate some of the less patient gamers amongst you and so this is something to be wary of.

It is the only thing to be wary of however, as Ninja Gaiden is a glorious triumph of gaming goodness in every single way, at least if you consider the high difficulty to be a plus point. You are Ryu Hayabusa, a highly trained and dedicated Ninja warrior. Whilst there have been a proliferation of stealth games released just lately, action fans everywhere will be delighted to know that this is not one of them. Sure, Ryu is the slickest looking, fastest, most limber game character ever but there is never any need to stealthily avoid enemies, unless you want to. Yes, the approach of this game is very simple - kill everything that moves before it kills you.

That's not to say it's brainless, indeed this is anything but a button masher. The combat system is one of the most accomplished I have ever played with, in fact I'm hard pressed to think of its equal outside of a dedicated beat 'em up like Soul Calibur II or Dead Or Alive 3. The buttons are all put to good use for a system that gives you loads of combination moves and lightning fast dodges without having to memorise endless button sequences. Green is jump, blue and yellow are the light and heavy attacks and red uses your projectile weapon, whilst the left trigger blocks and the right trigger resets the camera behind you. The use of the right trigger is an unusual and slightly unwieldy idea at first but after a few hours you're jumping around and using it like second nature. Every melee weapon, of which there are a number, has its own set of moves that are similar to pull off but very different in the way they look, enabling you to quickly master each new weapon you find but still be surprised at the incredible results of pulling off each move.

Most importantly, the controls are super responsive, taking action gaming to new heights. You know how in some games the blocking is unresponsive and the dodging comes too late and the homing attacks don't quite home in how you'd like? Well there's none of that mediocrity here; the controls in Ninja Gaiden are so instantaneous that Ryu is a joy to play as. It's a good job too, as your enemies are absolutely merciless. They will take advantage of every pause and they keep on coming at you. Mindless slashing will get you a nowhere but a trip to the afterlife. With such intelligent and deadly foes, mastering the controls is a must but they're just so intuitive that in no time you'll be controlling Ryu as if you've really had all that ninja training.

When you first play Ninja Gaiden you won't quite believe how gorgeous everything looks. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the quality of the CGI cut scenes and the game's graphics engine are on a par with Panzer Dragoon Orta, which is without doubt one of the most beautiful looking games ever. The textures and attention to detail in the scenery are simply wonderful, making ever the most mundane of locations, like an aqueduct or a cave, into something you can admire. The action begins with Ryu infiltrating a Ninja fortress and launches you straight in. Thankfully helpful shuriken come flying from above and hit the wall on a regular basis, with notes attached that give you hints and instructions. Before you meet any enemies you'll get to see just how nimble Ryu is as he runs up a wall, grabs the ledge above and gracefully leaps up. You can also run along walls and jump from them, a technique that you'll soon master, as certain areas require running and jumping across multiple walls and the end result looks very cool. If you run straight up a wall you can do a flying bird leap off it and if you do that in between two walls that are close together you will leap your way up.

Everything about Ryu is dripping with class in the same way that Halo drips with it. He is the most smoothly animated, beautifully crafted game character I've ever seen. When it comes to the fighting, things only get more impressive. Starting off with your dragon sword, in time you get hold of nunchukas, Vigoorian flails (double-ended blades), a massive sword and a war hammer, amongst other things. Projectile-wise you start off with shuriken (an unlimited supply) and find other things like a bow along with regular, metal and explosive arrows, a shuriken that returns like a boomerang and incendiary shuriken, which stick to your enemy then blow up a couple of seconds later. There are groups of enemy ninjas a few levels into the game that are incredibly tough and annoying as they stick you with these exploding shuriken - it is so, so satisfying to get your own back and kill a whole group with their own favourite weapons!

Every move that Ryu pulls off with every weapon looks completely realistic and supremely stylish. He can dash, stab, whirl, duck and jump as you pull off big combination moves with ease. Not all of the moves use your weapon either; you can execute a luscious throw manoeuvre, drop kicks, sliding kicks and many more. As long as you are close enough to an enemy your jump attacks home in automatically, whilst your blocking adjusts to every attack (although some assaults are unblockable) and you can roll whilst blocking to dodge around your enemies too. You can counter attack if you time a button press right whilst blocking an enemy strike and the combo moves often hit enemies all around you, stopping them advancing on you whilst you focus your attention on a single individual. It's a full 360-degree combat system without the need to pick your direction or lock onto baddies, as you twirl and slice at every enemy nearby. The nunchukas are great fun for multiple enemy combat; you whip them around so fast that it's ridiculous and the sounds as they whirl and smack your enemies are spot on. Every single animation as you swing your blade, spinning and leaping, is totally awesome and for some moves a kind of blue wind can be seen as you move super fast. The attack effects on your enemies are great too.

Anyway, back to that lovely looking fortress at the start of the game, where you face off against a bunch of ninjas and work your way through the place. There are trees covered with blossom that look lovely and the architecture and ornamentation are authentically oriental. There are a couple of basic puzzles to complete, in the form of finding a part of a headpiece to release a key but that's about it. When you reach the end of this level you will be faced with the toughest end of level baddy ever to grace an opening mission. He will kill you, kill you again and kill you some more for good measure. Just make sure you save before you go up against him. I'm not kidding, he is ridiculously fast, strong and adept at blocking your attacks. In the end I had to resort to running and dodging, using jump attacks almost exclusively to wear him down and I still had to use several health boosts to keep from dying. When you defeat this man it turns out he's your mentor and you have a pleasant chat until a woman comes running up to say that the village has been attacked and the Dark Dragon Blade, the evil and powerful sword that your clan guards, has been taken. Ryu, as holder of the Dragon Sword, another ancient blade used to help guard the Dark Dragon Blade, must set off to see that it is recovered; its power must not fall into the hands of those that would use it.

And so the next mission takes you into a burning, wrecked village where you'll face plenty of enemies and have to navigate your way through the wreckage, as well as discovering a few out of the way goodies if you explore a little. In this level you face off against samurai on horses and their captain is again a very tough boss to beat. At the end of this mission something very surprising happens - all of a sudden you're on a futuristic airship belonging to the group that attacked the village and that's when it becomes clear that Ninja Gaiden is set in a futuristic world, where your village and fortress were one of the few traditional areas left. This is such a great change of pace and a good twist, as the gleaming and luxuriously decorated airship interior is completely different to the previous levels. You even face off against a massive cyborg man with an energy cannon at the end of it (again, a real tough boss but you know the drill by now).

As you continue on with your quest you'll work your way through a city in the Vigoorian empire and the grand buildings are really impressive. There's a wonderful scene in a bar where a mysterious and very busty woman called Rachel slays a hideous red demon called a fiend. Later on in the city you're fighting some guards when one of these fiends leaps in and slaughters them. You think it's a boss but it's not, as there are a number of the things to fend off. Cue lots of death, although you've been dying a lot already because of those cursed black ninjas that turn up in Vigoor that are so damn tough to deal with. As you progress you'll find a gorgeous church, an old monastery, ancient underground passages and so much more. You'll face off against all manner of beautifully rendered, intelligent and tough enemies, with some of the biggest and most unusual bosses you'll ever see in any game, who appear not just at the end of the level but mid-level too.

The range of locations is complemented by the fact that you can always backtrack whenever you like and there is no jumping from place to place between levels (at least after you get to Vigoor). You start at the exact place the last level (or chapter in this case) ended, which is a really nice touch and gives a strong feeling of actually being stuck in the middle of an enemy city. The level designs are also extremely clever, bringing you back to key locations but opening up a different route because of something that's happened recently. One great example is in one area of the city, where you see a big moat area with massive fish in it. A few chapters later and you're on the other side of the wall, swimming around and shooting the fish with your newly discovered spear gun. The variety just keeps on coming and the way you get to access previously seen areas later on adds to the completeness of the environment. Every sound effect is brilliant too, with echoing clanks of metal on rock, slashes, smacks, thumps and swipes all sounding very substantial. There isn't actually that much dialogue but the voice acting is fine. The musical score deserves a special mention as having some of the most atmospheric, varied and complementary music you are yet to hear in a game.

The balance between exploration and combat is just right, as there are a number of areas with puzzles to solve, tricky ledges to negotiate with your mad ninja jumping skills and many objects to find and use. There's nothing too taxing here but the puzzles are somehow more fun than your average game because everything looks so gorgeous and Ryu's moves are so indescribably slick. It's just a very interesting and engaging game to play and I for one am thoroughly addicted. There is plenty more I haven't mentioned, like the way you use the essence left behind by enemies to power super attacks, the various goodies hidden around the place for you to enhance your life and ninpo attacks, plus the ninpo magic attacks themselves that use fire, ice and electricity in a stunning and lethal visual display. After a few levels, the majority of the guards and ninjas are replaced by far more interesting and cool looking fiends and the mixture of future, traditional and ancient worlds has everything. There's downloadable content to be had, a master ninja tournament with online rankings, the original 3 Ninja Gaiden games in their fullness to be unlocked and played, your ability to enhance your weapons and unlock new and even more lethal combat and so much more.

There is only really one gripe with this game and that is the difficulty. It really needed an easy mode for those players who find Normal a real struggle, which will be most of you I'm afraid, myself included. The save points aren't really frequent enough either and there are several very tough bosses that don't have a save point very close and so every time you die you have to traipse back through the same old surroundings to reach them again. This, combined with a difficulty curve that is very steep with a couple of almost insurmountable rises, could very well ruin the experience for some gamers. You will really have to work hard and use every move and tactic at your disposal to progress, but this means that when you eventually do succeed you get a true sense of achievement. The pay off for perseverance has rarely been higher and for those who do persevere, this will be one of the most stunning, exciting and rewarding game experiences you've ever had.

Ninja Gaiden is a gleaming triumph of a game that truly redefines the action genre. There is nothing here that hasn't been done before in some form or another, but no other game has mixed so many fine ingredients together in such a stylish and well-designed fashion. This is to the action genre what Halo is to first person shooters - a game that excels in every area and makes the genre more fun and compelling than it has ever been before. And it looks simply fantastic. I really struggled to choose the final mark and the only reason this isn't getting a 10 is because it's so tough. Nevertheless, it is a landmark title and one that every Xbox owner should experience - just rent it first if you're not a very patient gamer.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).