Ninja Gaiden II

So Tomonobu Itagaki; everyones much loved, some what introverted man of modesty got around to finishing up Ninja Gaiden 2 much to the squealing school girl delight of many and it has a some what large pair of boots to fill. Ninja Gaiden wasn't just good, it was awesome and arguably (I said arguably people) the best action game of last gen. Finally, 3 years into next gen we can finally sink our teeth into the fully fledged sequel.

Straight off the bat one thing is immediately obvious; Ninja Gaiden, like the original is brutal; in all senses of the word. It's brutally fast, brutally gory and much to the lament of lesser beings, it's still brutally difficult. From the moment you gain control of Ryu you're thrown into a foray of visceral action so blindingly fast and persistent you may need to actually consciously remind yourself to breathe. Blades clash, shurikens pierce and limbs divorce torso's so fast it all makes your head spin. If Ninja Gaiden was a quick as a cut cat, Ninja Gaiden 2 is faster than a ferret on meth amphetamines.

Ryu does fortunately have a rather large arsenal of weapos to at least give players some hope of keeping some resemblence of sanity throughout the course of the game. A few family favourites make returns; the Dragon Blade, Vigorian Flails and the Lunar Staff are all mainstays of the series, while claw draped boots and wolverine like claws give players more options and depth to lop limbs of readily. Again, each weapon can be upgraded at Muramasa's shop; yes, the old crone with the 3ft eyebrows makes his geriatric return.

Giving reason to the madness, Ninja Gaiden 2 starts out with our moderately mammoried heroine being abducted by members of the Spider Clan, a clan that has waged war with members of the Dragon lineage for many years past. From here, the story gets nuttier than squirrel turd, to put it lightly anyway. There's ninja's, demons, ninja's with rocket launchers, ninja demons with rocket launchers, mechanised robots with rocket launchers, dragons, bats, ninja dogs with explodey shurikens and swords and ninja sloths that shoot fireballs from their *** (that last one may or may not be made up) but suffice to say, don't expect to see Ninja Gaiden 2: The Play performing at a local stage theatre near you any time soon.

So it's the same old Ninja Gaiden we've grown to love (and hate equally) then yeh? Well, it is and it isn't.

One of the games major criticisms of the first game was the ball crushing difficulty, a concern Itagaki reitterated in an interview; commenting that this is one department the team would be working on for the sequel to make it more accessible. So is the game actually more n00b friendly? Honestly, not really, it's just difficult for entirely different reasons, for what Itagaki giveth with one hand, he uses the other to crush testicles. Unlike the original, Ryu will actually regain health after enemy encounters. Not all, just some. Repeated blows will drain Ryu's potential maximum health until it can be reset by collecting blue essence or using herbs. In return however, the maximum allowable health herbs that can be carried at any one time is now 3. Having trouble beating a boss? Well stiff cookies. You have 3 minor health herbs and 3 moderate health herbs in which to deal with boss creatures or to trek from one check / save point to the next. Not an easy task when some enemies will leave Ryu with wobbly legs from a single combo or throw especially when compounded by the fact that some sections of Ninja Gaiden 2 just plain feel 'cheap.' Too often players find themselves in fights for life or death surrounded by anything up to a half dozen enemies in melee combat while support enemies rain down rockets from afar sending Ryu stumbling about the place hapless to do anything but take the incoming barrage of melee assaults. Similar frustrations arise when players are to required to take out rocket foes from afar with the bow an arrow; a weapon that requires significant time to build potency and power capable of taking an enemy out, all the while constantly every rocket hit requires the player to charge up again from scratch.

The series is well known for being hard, but unlike the original, portions of Ninja Gaiden don't just feel hard; they just feel poorly designed and ill conceived. Poor design choices isn't just limited game design either. With such a severe difficulty curve it's fair to say players will die...and often, with each death followed by an excruciatingly frustrating waiting period while the game loads. In times of sheer frustration, loading periods frequently draw the player back out of the game for unacceptably long pauses. Accessing the menu often requires a small load, using or changing items often require a small load and the break down of mid level sections also require a loading period. In all, there's just too much loading going on. All might be forgiven some what if the game was in other area's a technical marvel, unfortunately though it's not.

Ninja Gaiden 2 utilises the same engine as the original. It looked gorgeous in 2004, now however it just looks dated. That's not to say the game is ugly, not by a long shot. NG2 often serves up incredibly detailed enemies, often in groups of up to a dozen or more, all zipping about the screen at lightning pace with superb visual effects at 60fps. There are some drops in the frame rate here and there but for the most part it's solid. That however can't change the fact that the environments in NG 2 are static, lifeless and largely uninspiring. Occasionally there's a glimmer of brilliance, but it's too few and far between to get excited about.

Mercifully however, the audio is brilliant. The *****s and groans of combat are all superbly realised but it's the music that really steals the show, fusing a blend of traditional Japanese percussion with modern electronica Ninja Gaiden 2 is an audio feat, certainly one to crank the 5.1 too.

At this point you must be thinking I'm not really digging NG2. The truth is actually the opposite. I infact love the game but it does raise an issue with how 'reviews' are often written. You see, putting on my 'I'm completely impartial and reviewing the game objectively hat' the game is maybe a 6 from 10 at best. The game lacks technical polish and is fraught with poor design choices that may leave many gamers too frustrated to continue. Now taken in context of my own opinion, Ninja Gaiden 2 while not exactly reinventing the wheel still rules the roost as far as action slasher games are concerned. Small changes to the health system call for a new challenge in strategy while the combat is even faster and more visceral than ever, it's an exercise in precision execution that is as rewarding as it is punishing and really, that's the most important part. The rest there after, is trivial by comparison. For that, I would score it 9/10.