After a successful resurrection of the Ninja Gaiden series on the Xbox (which then led to multiple revisions), Tomonobu Itagaki brings the series full force onto the next generation hardware. While not revolutionary or a massive leap forward, Gaiden II is gooey, bloody fun when it’s not annihilating the player.
Aside from the standard visual improvements, the noticeable change is the gore factor. Every battle is an orgy of gore, arterial sprays, and hacked off limbs. With the intensity and speed of the combat, this adds a visceral, brutal feel to every strike. Gaiden’s combat is coming close to being unmatched by any other action game on the market.
All of this is assuming you can see the battles. It’s amazing to think the camera is actually worse than it was in the original, but in execution, it’s a disaster. It’s not a matter of being attacked, it’s where you’re being attacked from. Any fight in which you’re surrounded means there’s an enemy off screen somewhere, and trying to fight with the camera to see them means you’ll take a hit anyway.
Difficulty plays a role here as it did in the original. Ninja Gaiden is still not one for the easily deterred. It’s tough. However, the Acolyte difficulty at the least makes it feasible. Still, excluding the inconsistent and rarely logical camera, Itagaki takes a number of cheap shots at the player. Killer dogs can be almost impossible to hit, soldiers with rocket launchers fire insurmountable amounts of ammo, and you’ll be forced to fight nearly every boss a second time in the final stages. That’s a cheap way to extend the game and a practice that should have died in the 16-bit era.
Level design can also cause problems. A number of chapters include identical looking corridors with minor variations that lead to the way out. It’s easy to lose a few hours searching for a simple pole to swing on or backtracking without a need to. Some walls require multiple wall run and jump combos that feel unnecessary as well, sending the player all the way back down should they miss a button press or if Ryu does not respond correctly.
While there are no multi-player options, leaderboards track your score as you play which can be uploaded. The Ninja Theater allows for recording of all gameplay to show off your finest moments. While not as in-depth as Halo 3’s saved films, Gaiden offers plenty of opportunities to boast about your top tier efforts. Maybe you could have survived the final boss with only one health power-up, the wrong spells equipped, an awful auto save spot, and limited life to start with. It can happen, and you have the chance to let your friends know.
While Gaiden II may not be a revelation to the action genre as its predecessor, as a product that builds upon that standard, Itagaki’s apparent series swan song does what it needs to do as a sequel. This is unquestionably flawed, loaded with annoyances, and a camera that seems to be controlled by an off screen player trying to help you die, but those that enjoyed the original (or find themselves deep in the combat system) have already ignored the problems.
4/5
Tags: itagaki, ninja gaiden, ninja gaiden 2, ninja gaiden ii, ninja gaiden tips and tricks, review, ryu hayabusa, team ninja, tecmo, xbox 360, xbox 360 top games, xbox 360 walk through, xbox 360 walk throughs, xbox tips for ninja gaiden
