Sigma

After my extensive playtime with Ninja Gaiden (on Xbox and now PS3) and the countless praise I have given the game, let me explore the other side of the coin. A few things that annoy me and hope they address in the "true" sequel:

- I don't like that the way you climb up stairs is to press a button at the base of the stairs and then you lose control of your character while he automatically climbs up. In a game that gives you such precise control (able to interrupt basically any move in combat if you press block), this comes across as annoying. Since the "use" button is also your main attack button, accidentally climbing up stars can be a pain. Also, there are a few sections in which you get attacked by bats (or these new spirit light . . . things) while climbing stairs and there is nothing you can do but take the damage, since you can't jump off or defend yourself. That is bad design right there.

- I like being able to run up and across walls (ala Prince of Persia), but in Ninja Gaiden, you do not need to press any buttons to activate the move. You just jump towards the wall at the appropriate angle. That is cool and works great 85% of the time. Other times however, because of the camera angle, you might be trying to do one thing, but instead you run up a wall or begin to run across one, and that can be bad if you are trying to navigate one of the platforming sections in the game where precise jumping is necessary. Running up a wall makes Ryu do a backflip off the wall when he reaches his peak and that can send you falling down a great distance if you were standing on a small elevated platform/edge. It can get frustrating.

- Speaking of jumping, I would like to have a little more control in jumping. I don't want to be able to change direction mid-air, but the jumping controls can be a bit difficult when having to jump from platform to platform.

- No more of those small flying mechanical sentry things that shoot laser beams. The beams are unblockable and they are extremely frustrating.

- I believe this was addressed in Sigma, but please, no more enemy spawns where save points are.

- Why is there no option to quit to the main menu in this game? It's been like that since the first one on the Xbox. You cannot change game settings from within the game, yet you cannot quit to the main menu without resetting the game. What gives?

Ok, that's all I have. The game rocks. :)