Ninja Gaiden II

"The fine line between honour and vengence HAS been crossed by one."

Intro:
Ninja Gaiden 2 is an action game that is focused heavily on the combat. It is the sequel to Ninja Gaiden (xbox) but doesn't have much connection to it. NG2 is a game that caters for both the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer and requires a fair bit of practice to beat.

Game play:
It's all about the combat. NG2 has incredibly awesome combat and it is very fast paced for the most part. Throughout the game you'll be killing ninjas and fiends left right and centre with an assortment of highly kick-arse weapons pulling off over 200 dazzling combos on the ground, off of walls, on water and in the air. You can lop off an enemy's arm or leg and they will still come at you, usually more dangerous than before and at most times you will be surrounded by enemies and it can often be a bit overwhelming. Dismembering an enemy sets them up for an obliteration technique, a sort of execution, which all have different animations depending on the enemy, which limb they're missing and the weapon you have equipped. And don't think that you have to use a certain weapon to beat a certain enemy; you can go through the entire game using any one of the weapons in the game. However, don't think you can get away with button mashing; you need to learn the combos or you will be punished for it. You will also need very fast reflexes and reaction times to beat the higher difficulties. Be prepared to die, again and again and again. There are some parts that require you to run across walls, this is done simply by jumping towards the wall, you can also perform attacks off of the walls that lead into combos. The controls are very simple; every combo is performed by using combinations of the “X” and “Y” buttons, for example XYXXXY. All projectiles are used by pressing “B”. The camera takes a bit to get used to but it works well. It is controlled by the right analog stick and can be centred by pulling the right trigger. For boss fights it locks onto the boss but it can be unlocked by pressing one button. This little feature can be quite useful for those bosses that are hard to keep track of. The left analog stick controls your movement and the “A” button jumps. Holding the “Y” button charges an “ultimate technique” which unleashes an amazing combo upon the closest enemy or can hit multiple enemies doing large amounts of damage. Pressing “Y” and “B” simultaneously uses your “ninpo” which is a kind of ninja magic attack and can be very useful. You can also run on water by pressing “A” repeatedly, and you can attack whilst on or under water. A single playthrough on the easiest difficulty can take anywhere from 6-12 hours (or more) depending on how quickly you get good at this game. Later playthroughs will be done a lot quicker than your first.

Difficulty:
The level of difficulty NG2 presents you with will vary from person to person. The casual gamer may have quite a hard time beating this game for the first time whereas those who played the first NG or learn quickly may not have many problems. There are four levels of difficulty, the third and fourth being almost excessively hard to beat due to the sheer number of projectiles the enemy throws or fires at you. Upon reaching the third difficulty you WILL notice a huge jump up in the enemy's ability to kill you. You will die more times than you can keep track of and it can be extremely frustrating to those with little patience. Beating NG2 on the fourth difficulty is an exceptional achievement and requires huge levels of patience, persistence, determination, lightning reflexes, a proper understanding of how every enemy and boss fights, the best combos to use against each one and good knowledge of how to avoid all damage. Chances are that you will get extremely frustrated however, as difficult as it may seem if you try it, it is definitely beatable.

Graphics and effects:
The graphics in NG2 are stunning. The environments that you fight in are beautifully designed and look fantastic (if you have the time to look around).Everything seems well polished up but occasionally the blood decals land on the edge of a wall or tree and appear to be sitting in thin air, this is the only problem. Even through the very fast paced game play you can still notice the gleam of your weapons blade and the blood that sticks to it. All in all, the graphics are really good, you notice details on the projectiles coming at your screen, the blood effects and gore flying around isn't just different shades of red; it has detail. Small dust clouds appear when you jump or land and combos that scrape the ground flick rocks and sparks up. When you get blood on your weapon during a fight (which is inevitable) Ryu will flick the blood off of his weapon once all the enemies are dead. Also, if you jump into water the blood will wash off of your weapon. Two neat little features. Water actually looks like water, but sadly you don't get reflections from Ryu or your enemies, only static objects (buildings, trees, etc.). You do get refraction though, and this can make it a little difficult to see some enemies in the more murky water similar to real life. If blood splatters on to water or in the rain it doesn't just stay there, it dilutes and then dissipates which is nice to see. Overall the graphics are quite remarkable.

Sound:
It's an action game, so the main audio is in the combat. Everything from the sound of your weapon impacting on your enemy to the sound of the footsteps they make running around a corner before you can see them, it's all important to the game and it's all pretty balanced. You can hear the sound of a shuriken or arrow flying past your head or hitting a wall, enemy's footsteps alert you to their presence if you were unaware of them and certain enemies roar or chant to let you know they're about to attack. You notice the sound of you weapon slicing through the air and the distinctive slashing sound of your blade slicing through your enemies and the pulverising thumps of your blunt or spiked weapon crushing the enemy's corpse. There is also a sort of charm noise that bleeps constantly alerting you of a key item that has appeared after set fights. The music mostly seems subliminal due to the many other sound effects constantly coming through your speaker; boss music is more noticeable though. The music does fit with the combat though (if you notice it) and is quite enjoyable. If you get sick of hearing the English voices during cutscenes, you have the option of using the Japanese voices, this also changes Ryu's (few) screams during battle. Overall the sound effects and back ground music mix very well depending on your sound levels adding even more awesomeness to this game.

Story:
The story really isn't that good and has very little connection to the first NG. The main purpose of the story seems to be not to tell the story of how Ryu fights an epic battle against ninjas and fiends to save the world but more or less to simply introduce key characters and locations and bring them into the game. It does this with the use of the various cutscenes to transition from one location to another although it doesn't work real well in some cutscenes. The lack of an in-depth story doesn't harm this game in the slightest since it simply doesn't need a good story to be a great game.
Rent or buy? Definitely buy it. NG2 offers a huge amount of replayability and you could easily spend a couple hundred hours on this game. Single weapon runs and the higher difficulties can give you many playthroughs if you choose to try them.

Conclusion:
Ninja Gaiden 2 is an excellent action game which easily caters for both casual and hardcore players. The casual player will more than likely stick to the 1st or 2nd difficulty whereas the hardcore player will probably play right through the fourth difficulty and stay on that one. The graphics are beautiful and even with the fast paced combat you can still notice the little details if you have a quick eye. Sound is quite good depending on how you set it in the game menu. The camera isn't the best but it sure as hell isn't bad. It just takes a bit to get used to but once you get the hang of controlling it, it does become quite smooth. The controls are unbelievably simple allowing anyone to adapt with ease. The gameplay is absolutely incredible. I just can't imagine a game coming out anytime soon that will top the gameplay and combat NG2 presents to the player. This is one of the greatest, most enjoyable games ever made. 9.5/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

Game Release: Ninja Gaiden II (AU, 06/12/08)