Ninja Gaiden 2 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 7th July 2008

Share:

Digg It

Ryu Hayabusa hits the Xbox 360, but not literally.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Details:

	Action
	Xbox 360
	Team NINJA
	Tecmo

TBA

Out Now

N/A

The thing that most sticks in my mind about the first Ninja Gaiden was how hard the game was, providing one of the most challenging third person action games that I can remember. However, despite its difficulty it was actually one of the best action games on the original Xbox, so does this latest offering from Team Ninja make the same grade as the original?

In Ninja Gaiden 2 you once again take up the role of Ryu Hayabusa, the game starts with the return of the Black Spider Ninja Clan who has waged war on Hayabusa village in order to retrieve the Demon Statue so they can summon the hordes of fiends and greater fiends. The game takes Ryu to various world locations as he battles to retrieve the Demon Statue and stop the fiends and their queen Elizébet.

Ninja Gaiden II is a pretty intense third person action game, the game offers a mix of exploration and blistering action as you battle to retrieve the Demon Statue. The game features a number of changes to that of the original, most notable is the difficulty of the game which seems to have been eased some what, you may see this as a bonus although I see it more of a problem, let me explain. The first game was simply hard, but with this new game you have hordes of ninjas that are easy to dispose of posing little challenge to anyone as you use the dragon sword and various other weapons to dispose of them. You then come up against area bosses who pose a fairly good challenge, but with a little skill they shouldn’t cause most gamers too many problems. Then there’s the end of level bosses who at times seem near impossible to beat, and you will often find there’s only one move that is effective against them meaning you have to time your attacks to perfection. This gives the game a very unbalanced feeling, despite the fact that minions and hordes provide a better challenge as the game progresses.

Ninja Gaiden 2 features a new combat system that allows you to pull off extensive and very impressive looking combos, allowing you to dispose of multiple enemies fairly easily. Combos are also pretty easy to pull off thanks to the games simple control system and only need a couple of button presses in order to successfully achieve them. The games combat system is also somewhat more gruesome then the previous game, with you being able to severe enemies limbs and heads which causes blood to squirt all over the environment. As well as combos to deal with enemies, Ninja Gaiden 2 also features ultimate attacks that allow you to unleash devastating attacks on groups of enemies, you would expect this to require complicated button combinations to perform, but these are simply done by holding down the Y button and allow Ryu to charge up the attack. The ease of use of the combat system in Ninja Gaiden 2 can make for some fast and frantic action which is highly enjoyable to watch on screen.

The game offers a number of different weapons for you to use against the Black Spider Ninja Clan and various fiends you will come up against during play. You start the game with the Dragon Sword and collect a number of different melee and projectile weapons as you progress including staffs, bows and arrows and ninja claws.

Weapons aren’t the only way in the game to defeat your enemies. Ryu can also cast nimpo spells unleashing powerful magical attacks that can cause enemies to burst into flames or slice them in two. Nimpo attacks are powered by Ki which is collected in the form of a red essence found when defeating enemies and hidden in various objects in the game environment.

Essence has a number of other uses in the game, as you collect blue essence to replenish your health and whilst yellow essence which is the most common can be spent within the game to buy weapon upgrades, potions and herbs that can come in useful during play.
In addition to the various attacks Ryu can perform he has all the standard ninja abilities you would expect, such as being able to run across water, run along walls in order to clear gaps and jump from wall to wall in order to reach high ledges, as you would expect these skills come in useful all the way through the game.

Ninja Gaiden 2 offers a pretty solid playing experience, the games control system is easy to get to grips with and the levels are large and allow you to explore various areas and will take sometime to get through.

Visually the game looks superb, it’s been done in a typical Japanese style, and almost has an anime look to it. The game runs at a very frantic pace and features excellent animation when Ryu, is dealing with the games various enemies, especially when performing his special and ultimate attacks. Environments have been done well, but you will find various features used throughout levels, but that could be said about a lot of games and overall the game looks amazing.

Sound in the game has also been done well, the music is very fitting with the on screen action and the sound effects add to the intense action of the gameplay, the only weakness with the game sound is some of the voice acting which has been done in a typical over the top fashion, but it is easily over looked.

Overall Ninja Gaiden 2 isn’t the game I was expecting, Team Ninja seem to have lost their way some what with this title, yes it’s a solid third person action game but yet it feels unbalanced with the varying difficulty of the levels which leads to a lot of variation, it doesn’t really make the grade like the original but does provide a good playing experience.