Hmphf. Hard to say. In many ways this is the first "MUST-OWN XBOX GAME" of 2004, and if by some chance Halo 2 were to miss its release this year, Ninja Gaiden, would easily be the favorite for Xbox Game of the Year. Yet, at the same time the game is missing some of the elements that define an A+ videogame to me.

For starters, the story and the way it is presented are not exactly Academy Award caliber. One minute I was staring down ninjas in what I assumed to be ancient Japan, and the next I was in an airship. Soon after that, I was bouncing around a city that reminded me in many ways of Prague . . . only with more ninjas.

This isn't to say that I wasn't happy with the environments I found myself in; rather, that I wish the jumps between each were a little more understandable. Compared to the original installment, this ninja seems to have put a little more stock in style than substance. Characters lack depth. And I'd hate to be the one to have to tell this to Team Ninja, but silicon-inflated breasts do not equate depth. At one point it felt like Team Ninja was just looking for an excuse to get a female character all oiled up and panting.

I complain because Max Payne was able to use story to introduce me to people who I cared about, albeit briefly, and then make the pain of their passing the fuel that got me through the rest of the game. Here, there's no gut-wrenching pain that one would expect to precede a hell-bent quest for revenge. If anything, the FMV segments don't seem to mesh together into any kind of cohesive tale. I haven't scratched my head in deep thought this hard since watching the travesty that was Matrix: Revolutions.

But, gamers don't watch movies - they play video games! And as video games go, this one is a doozy. Take everything you know about action games in the vein of Devil May Cry and imagine that someone held a knife to the balls of the programmers and said, "Come on, you can do better than that." To put it simply: there is no other game so far this generation that moves with the fluidity and grace of Ninja Gaiden when it comes to pure action. You may think you've seen ninjas move fast in those "other" ninja games, but you haven't seen diddly squat.

Graphically, the game is a sight to behold, with the slickest character modeling yet seen on the Xbox. It's a testament to the hard work of Team Ninja that the in-game character models look nearly as sharp as the FMV-rendered models. It's nice to know that my little black Xbox can render boobies in real time as well as a high powered render farm can.

Beyond the boobies, the little details like Ryu's head moving to look at different foes or the subtle motion of his hand when he bounces against a wall make Ninja Gaiden the best-looking Xbox game of the moment. This position is cemented (perhaps forever) by the frame rate, which remains locked at 60fps.

I'm also impressed that the overall art style of the game remained consistent despite the wide variety of creatures and environments. I was never left feeling like anything was out of place in the Ninja Gaiden universe. Everything from the military tanks to the beasts with foot-long finger claws felt like it came from the same sick, twisted mind. In a way this is because everything is animated, from the average grunt to a final boss, with the highest attention to quality and detail.

Not that the game only looks good when you're running around looking for the next good fight. The fights themselves are amazing thanks to the slick special effects that come from using Ryu's weapons and ninja magic. The spells may not be of Final Fantasy Earth-shaking caliber, but they're enough to make the nearest hooded ninja piss his sweatpants in fear.