2OpGaming

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It’s not often you walk into a room with every heavyweight behind one console in one place. Yesterday in San Fransisco this was very much a rare instance for the 2008 Showcase. The first thing I noticed once walking inside was none other than Team Ninja front man Tomonobu Itagaki playing Viva Pinata 2 during what was probably a much needed break from the early morning sessions. Once things got underway at about 2 the first game I got a chance to sit down with was Ninja Gaiden 2.

Ninja Gaiden to me on the first Xbox was one of the most impossible games I’ve ever played. Go ahead and ridicule, I’m just not hardcore enough. However, even Itagaki himself admitted in an interview which I will be posting soon that the difficulty in Ninja Gaiden was thrown in via pure unblockable moves by opponents that would take down half your health. In summation, it was the stereotypical overbearing unnecessary difficulty. Much to my pleasure, Ninja Gaiden II has an option to play a toned down mode known as the Acolyte. In acolyte difficulty the enemies are not as numerous but are still numerous enough where it’s definitely a fight. The damage they do is also not as much per hit. While this is obviously viewed as a wuss way to play by “hardcore gamers” it made Ninja Gaiden II enjoyable for those us wanting to avoid the numerous controlling throwing moments of Ninja Gaiden. On the harder difficulty setting the enemies are more numerous and do more damage and only those who were good at Ninja Gaiden should attempt this path at least at first.

Besides the new difficulty level a ton of improvements have been made to the combat in NGII which I really enjoyed. Everything seems a lot more fluid than the first one as far as sword fighting goes. I still felt like I was button mash a little bit between the weak attack using X and the strong attack using Y. However the level of gore and blood has been increased and it’s very satisfying. Actual limbs flying off of body parts in print do not do the visuals justice. Being able to perform a vicious finisher on an enemy by decapitation then watching blood obscenely pour from their neck has a very satisfying feel to it. There are new attacks from your enemies as well as you will be pinned down by your assailants. Also, some enemies will suicide bomb themselves when they die. Overall it adds a new level of tension not seen before in a Ninja Gaiden. Using B you can also use a ranged attacked throwing ninja stars but at early on in the reviewable build I played it seemed secondary. The level design has not changed much from the first game. You will have to fight enemies then either run on a wall, wall jump, or simply platform to the next area to fight the next set. The art style is also very much the same. The visuals in Ninja Gaiden are fantastic as they have always been and the frame rate remained smooth.

I was actually nervous going into the game because of my past experience but the newer difficulty level is going to allow a lot of people who did not have the patience for the first Ninja Gaiden to enjoy the game this time around. The action was fast, furious, and bloody. Just the way a game in this vein should be.