Games like Bioshock and Grand Theft Auto IV are pushing the boundaries in terms of storytelling and emotional evocation from a video game.
Ninja Gaiden 2 does no such thing.
What it does do, is provide the most exhilarating, visceral kickassery that you’ll experience on the Xbox 360.
An way to describe the kind of game you’re getting yourself into might be that it’s what Michael Bay would make were he to make a summer blockbuster involving ninjas, demons, explosions, decapitations, blood, and big-breasted women. It’s as easy to play as mashing buttons, but the combat also has the depth of a fighting game like Soul Calibur.
If that sounds appealing to you, or if you just love action games, go out and buy this game now. It has some flaws in both design and camera work, but as an overall experience, it’s still great fun.
You don’t need to have played any other Ninja Gaiden to enjoy this one, as the plot of the game is mainly an excuse to put you in various locales to maim ninjas and demons. There’s some cool stuff that you’ll notice if you’ve played Ninja Gaiden (Black or Sigma), such as going through some familiar locations backwards.
The game plays like a beautifully choreographed ballet of destruction, kind of like Kill Bill Vol. 1. The controls are blisteringly fast and responsive – you’ll feel like an awesome ninja even if you don’t really know what the hell you’re doing on the controller. There’s several weapons that you can switch between from claws, a sword, a morningstar, a staff, and more. They’re all fast and fun to use.
The Ninja Gaiden series have the reputation of being punishingly difficult, and this one is no exception. Be prepared to die and die a lot. I played through on the “Path of the Warrior” difficulty, and died about 105 times throughout the course of the game. The good news, though, is that most of your deaths are going to come from the boss fights, and the game lets you continue right from the beginning of a boss fight even if you are fighting a series of them. You’ll also get any restorative items back that you may have used in your previous attempt. Save points are also properly placed in that you’re rarely in the position of replaying long sections if you happen to die. The thing about the difficulty of the game is that while it may be brutal at times, never do you feel like you are hopelessly outmatched. I may have constantly yelled curses at my TV, but every time i felt that it was very possible for me to complete the section if I tried just a little harder. The game does offer an easier difficulty level for those who are less skilled.
However, despite the greatness of the core gameplay, there are still some glaring flaws with Ninja Gaiden 2. First and foremost is the camera. There will be a lot of frustrating times where you’ll not be able to see either your character, Ryu, or the enemies that are attacking you. Presumably this is because the game moves so fast and has such large monsters, at times, that the camera can’t keep up. Nothing is more annoying than dying to an enemy you cant even see. This will happen with enough frequency that you’ll notice it. At the end of the day, I worked around it – the gameplay is just so fun that you learn to live with it.
The second big flaw of the game are the boss fight designs. There’s some wildly inconsistent difficulty levels of bosses. Some require great mastery of the game’s fighting mechanics and you’ll feel very accomplished once you beat them. Others, though, can be taken down by just spamming the same attack over and over again. There’s also bosses that throw out the great weapon mechanics and ask you to defeat them using your Halo skills to aim a bow and arrow. Overall, most of the boss fights are fairly uninspired and lack the ingenuity that the bosses in the first Ninja Gaiden did.
There are also some frame rate issues, but they crop up later in the game. If you’re that far into the game, you’re not really going to be complaining too much as you’ll be having too much fun lopping off heads and killing demons.
If you’re the type of person who gets discouraged easily by having to retry things over and over again, Ninja Gaiden 2 may not be the game for you. If you liked any of the following games: Ninja Gaiden, God of War, Devil May Cry, you need to buy this game now – it may be flawed, but it’s still loads of fun. Otherwise, if you’re an action games fan, you should definitely at least try the demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace – you’re in for a hell of a ride.
