Xbox 360: Ninja Gaiden II

Published Aug 1, 2008

Share

Fans of the Ninja Gaiden series of games would have been waiting patiently for Ninja Gaiden II to arrive. Others would have gone out to buy an Xbox 360 in anticipation of Ryu Hayabusa's next adventure in martial arts mayhem. But what about those of us that are looking at Ninja Gaiden II with fresh eyes? Read on.

Ninja Gaiden II, even though technically a sequel, can really be seen as a stand-alone game. In NG2, players must guide master ninja Ryu Hayabusa through several levels of action-packed combat. Players must literally _become one_ with the ninja way to truly master this game.

Ryu must fight against the evil Black Spider Ninja Clan to avenge his own clan, and prevent the destruction of the human race. The story takes Ryu through several spectacular, vast environments, with numerous environmental effects, making the game give the next-gen Xbox 360 a run for its money. The action is gruesome, bloody, and over the top.

Gameplay

Through most levels, the gameplay is fairly simple, featuring several areas of enemies attacking with numerous weapons, and Ryu's arsenal of weapons and moves with each of these weapons, laying waste to each and every one of these enemies. Ryu has special moves, and many, many button combinations that make the combat interesting and varied. Every so often you'll have Ryu removing a limb or even cutting a deserving bad guy in half.

Watch the official trailer:

"http://www.youtube.com/v/uS-IhxhW4T8&hl=en&fs=1"

Graphics and sound

Graphically, the game is fantastic. Great scenery, varied environments, and impeccable attention to detail, even on this not-so-great game engine. There are certain short-comings in the graphics that only a trained eye will spot, and really care for. Such as shadows in the game being pixelated and water effects being not as natural as they can be, but with the amount of action happening on-screen at any given point in time, players will be too busy watching blood and limbs fly, to even notice these flaws.

Watch the gameplay trailer:

"http://www.youtube.com/v/OFmKzVLZob4&hl=en&fs=1"

The music in the game is unfortunately not as great as one would expect from a studio like Tecmo, and from a game originating in Japan. The music is repetitive most of the time, but thankfully changes along with the action on-screen, so fast-paced with combat, and more tranquil when moving around in quieter areas.

The sound effects are also fairly average, with not a great variety of sounds for similar actions, but let's face it, the sound of a man being cut in half doesn't change from one bad guy to the next.

Watch the boss battle gameplay video:

"http://www.youtube.com/v/kWd0rKoc2NQ&hl=en&fs=1"

Difficulty

The one aspect of Ninja Gaiden II that could put many players off of actually trying to finish the game, is the utterly insanely difficult boss battles, even on the easiest of difficulty levels. When fighting bosses, prepare to die. Often. Luckily there are game mechanics that allow you to purchase healing items and weapon improvements to make these battles easier, and when dying in a boss battle, you get to fight the boss again, and again, and again, so all is not lost. Perseverance is definitely a virtue.

Overall: 9/10

All in all though, Ninja Gaiden II is an enjoyable game for the more mature audience. Even gamers not familiar with the series, will have fun playing this game, but will likely get frustrated sooner than the rest. Only hardcore fans will likely finish the game though.

Ninja Gaiden II gets a limb-removing, decapitation-filled 9 out of 10.

Related Topics: