Rating

B-

Specific Ratings

GameplayA+
GraphicsA-
Learning CurveF
Replay ValueB+
SoundB

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Shiny new graphics with lots of textures
  • Tons of enemy variety and giant/cool bosses
  • Deep combat with loads of moves
  • Brilliant A.I. ...(sigh*)
Cons
  • Some screen tearing, load issues, & broken camera
  • Ninja Gaiden II is the toughest game ever made!
  • Brilliant A.I. (GRRRH!!!!)
  • Storyline...what story line?
  • Not enough memorable moments
  • Lacks more weapons and unlockables than previously

Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360)

Reviewed by:
Reviewed on:

Summary

Developer: TEAM NINJA Publisher: TECMO Genre: Action Release: 6/6/2008 Rating: 8.0/10 (B)

Images


Description

Ninja Gaiden II was released in 2008 as a direct follow-up to a previously released Nintendo DS game, which itself was a sequel to the first Ninja Gaiden. Even so, not a drop of storyline from the DS game is mentioned in here. Instead you’ll find a lot of references to Ninja Gaiden (XB), Ninja Gaiden: Black (XB) and, in particular, Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3).

Graphically, Ninja Gaiden II looks a lot like Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Yet, in a lot of other ways it looks better. Most textures and lighting effects in the game look absolutely amazing and the game looks damn sharp. Though some other things, like some camera effects, some other textures, and a lot of renderings (like Ryus’ Black Phoenix suit), look better in Sigma – so ultimately they both look great in their own special ways.

Unlike everything else, Ninja Gaiden II’s controls have no relation to Sigma’s. Instead, Ninja Gaiden II’s control scheme is a modified direct port of the XBox controls from Ninja Gaiden/Black. This means that fans shouldn’t have a hard time picking up and playing NGII (especially since NG and NG: Black are backward compatible). For me though, I found the controls a bit weak and far less precise than Sigmas, which feel a bit more expansive (it has more actions mapped to the buttons, to make chaining actions/combos easy).

Ninja Gaiden 2 features most of the same weapons found in Ninja Gaiden Sigma (like the dual Katana’s & the Vigorian Flail), as well as a few new (totally bad-ass) weapons, like my favorite (and nominee for most powerful NG weapon ever); the giant fiend Scythe and – the anti-True Dragon Blade – the Fiend Blade. My only complaint is that there just aren’t enough melee weapons here (about nine last I counted), and what happened to all the neat projectiles that where introduced in Sigma (there are only five projectiles, and only one type of arrow)?

For anyone who hasn’t play a Ninja Gaiden game by now - Ninja Gaiden is the premier action/adventure hack’n’slash series. You play a Dragon Ninja named Ryu Hyabusa, who is entrusted with protecting the True Dragon Sword (a sword made out of a legendary dragon claw), and protecting the world from Fiends (demons). At this point in Ninja Gaiden II’s storyline, Ryu is the sole survivor of his clan and must stop four greater Fiends, hell-bent on raising..well...hell on earth. He’s also got to contend with a new rival Ninja from the evil Spider Clan, and even face-off against an Infernal Priest trying to resurrect the king-daddy of them all, the Fiend Lord. This leads Ryu to fight in exotic places all over the world like Paris, Tokyo, and even New York – all while facing literally hundreds of enemies (dozens on screen at a time).

Fans are going to absolutely love this game. Everything is bigger and more big-budget than before. The locales are ginormous and the enemies range from dogs with swords to giant colossus, and feature some of the biggest foes in a fighting game. Even the boss battles take place in explosive venues; like atop the Statue of Liberty or inside a Roman Gladiatorial Colosseum – it just keeps getting better and better.

Ninja Gaiden II’s best attribute is its combat, which is nearly perfect. Aside from an extremely unforgiving camera (that often imposes on combat), the controls are extremely tight and the enemy A.I. is absolutely brilliant. This means that instead of just button-mashing like other games in the genre; the genius of the Ninja Gaiden games is, the complexity of the combat and the carefully planned actions of the enemies mean you literally have to learn the controls intimately and evolve you’re game as you play. Unfortunately the A.I. of every enemy, no matter how small, are so damn smart that this game quickly becomes outrageously frustrating – to the point that even on the easiest difficulty, Ninja Gaiden vets will want to break their controllers against their TV screens. The only time the game breaks away from its vexing difficulty is during boss encounters - which are all (minus the final one) much easier than in any of the other game. The shear amount of enemy variety in this game dwarfs most others games out there, and there are tons of mini-bosses to satisfy you – some of which are so intimidatingly large you’ll tingle with excitement over the prospect of taking them all on.

Ninja Gaiden II offers a bevy of new in-game options, including ‘Ninja Theater Mode’ – which, like in Halo 3 (XB360), allows you to record gameplay on your HDD and re-watch it with filter effects. This mode is great for showing off a good run or just plain impressing people with your awesomeness.

As far as problems go, Ninja Gaiden II definitely has its share of them. First of all, it is very apparent that the game was rushed to release before it was completed, and all the bugs worked out of it. And though there is some small glitches here and there, you’ll probably first notice that this game suffers from a lot of loading issues (the game constantly is loading something), and has a bit more screen-tearing than one might of hoped there would be. Otherwise the only major problem with the game (and the Achilles heel of this game) is the games camera -- which as I mentioned before, has a mind of its own. Having a movable camera will be a step-up for fans of the XBox games, but anyone who has played Sigma will cringe at the idea of anything but its camera in this sequel.

Luckily, since the games release, XBox Live has introduces many new updates to fix the launch bugs and tweaks to help tame the camera to a tolerable point (even allowing the camera to move in and out now). The updates also introduce over 20 new achievements to the existing 50 and a bit of unlockable costumes and modes on XBox Live.

Ninja Gaiden II isn’t a perfect game, but it has received an unfair amount of bad-press from people who’ve never even been fans of the series. It may have had problems when it first came out, but since then most of them have been fixed via XBox Live. Fans of the series (or of games like Heavenly Sword, Otagi, Prince of Persia, Devil May Cry, Genji, Onimusha, or God of War) should give this game a chance, because they will certainly find one of the best titles in the series and possibly a new favorite (as I did).

Review Page Hits: 0 today (362 total)