I played Ninja Gaiden on the PS3 when it first came out. I didn’t play it through to the end but, I fell under it’s charm and since then I’ve waited patiently for the day that I could play Ninja Gaiden again and this time round, on my beloved Xbox 360. My time has come.

BEGINNING:

Ninja Gaiden II begins in a plethora of action once you’ve chosen your difficulty level, Acolyte or Warrior (Mentor and Master Ninja levels are unlocked later in the game). Warrior is more for the hardcore players and Acolyte is more of a training ground to begin with but, it isn’t a walk in the park either.
ninja gaiden ii action

STORYLINE:

The storyline you can imagine, it’s been done before, it’s the ‘ninja story’. Your main mission is to restore the Demon Statue to the safety of the Hayabusa Village. The statue has been under the supervision of the Dragon Blood lineage and it’s your job to get it back. Unfortunately, The Black Spider Clan has other ideas as they aim to use the statue to raise an arch fiend to help them take over the world (or something like that, you know the score). Ryu is the only one that can stop them apparently (with the help of the CIA of course). That’s the jist of the storyline and it doesn’t really matter, a more complex storyline wouldn’t enhance the game, it’s fighting, it’s fun, the storyline is slightly absurd but, it’s easy enough to follow.

CHARACTERS AND GAMEPLAY:

Enemy character design is excellent, better than previous NG games. Each character has a different mode of attack which includes group strategies that blew me away at times (literally if I wasn’t concentrating). The bosses however, I found to be inconsistent in difficultly and none of which really threw me a huge challenge if I’m honest.

The combat is very fluid and fast paced, Ryu still has his signature moves of course and by using the in game ’stores’ you can level your weapons up nicely and become a more efficient killing machine. There are power attacks/fast attack combinations that can include jumps and a variety of weapons so experimenting is the key, you need to change strategies at times to defeat some enemies by finding their weakness and pouncing on it (with a huge scythe preferably!).

There is a good choice of weapons on offer, some deal out death in an incredibly brutal manner which is great fun. The new weapons include the scythe which is powerful with some awesome swinging combos and the boomerang shuriken which can make charged attacks. All in all I was more than a little excited by the choice of weapons.

My only gripe with the gameplay is that close quarter combat in confined areas can get hectic and at times the camera is frustrating, I hoped the developers would have improved on this from the last game but, it doesn’t spoil the game play too much, it’s just something I hope will be improved next time round.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND:

Graphically, everything that matters looks amazing. Combat looks stunning with blood gushing from wounds and from severed limbs and with sparks trailing from steel on stone encounters, it’s all just a tad mesmerising. The level design is great and looks a lot like Ninja Gaiden Sigma with an increased range and quality of textures. As expected, Ninja Gaiden II is ’spot on’ graphically.

To compliment the graphics in Ninja Gaiden II the sound effects had to be good and that’s just what they are. There are gory blood splattering sound effects and the sounds of clinking swords and explosions that bring the game right through your speakers and into the room around you.

FINALLY:

There are some problems with the game, some things to complain about. One problem being that the frame rate can be choppy at times, there’s a little slowdown if there is a lot happening on the screen. It isn’t a huge problem but, it can be frustrating when you are face to face with an opponent (or ten) in battle. There are also a few ‘glitches’ throughout the game, I had to reboot my 360 a few times due to freezing or recurring glitches that meant I couldn’t progress in the game. Hopefully those glitches will be patched. My final issue with Ninja Gaiden II is the camera movement which is limited and I had hoped this would have been ‘rectified’ from the last game to this but, it is something I learned to deal with and it didn’t spoil the game.

If you enjoyed other games in the Ninja Gaiden series then you’ll love Ninja Gaiden II. If you’ve never played Ninja Gaiden before then, what’s stopping you, buy Ninja Gaiden II, you might just love it as much as I did!!

SCORE:

As great as the game is I can only really award it a score of 8/10 which is a great score but, it could’ve been better. Roll on Ninja Gaiden III for that 10/10!