Ninja Gaiden 2-Xbox 360

[SIZE="4"]Ninja Gaiden 2-Xbox 360[/SIZE]



Let’s put it simply shall we? Ninja Gaiden is one of the best if also most frustrating action games for your beloved Xbox. And that simple statement sums up the game nicely. The action parts are incredible but there are some parts which make it very, very frustrating. And unless you live under a rock, you will already know that this is due to the insane difficulty level.

So let’s get the hassles out of the way. First of all: camera. It is a damn pain at times. Its movement has been mapped to the right thumbstick which means you do have some control over it. However it’s slow, gets hung up on corners and just always seems to be in the wrong places. It gets worse in combat situations where it seems that wall would be a nice view as opposed to the angry ninjas trying to shove swords up your behind. However that being said, it isn’t a gamebreaker but it does drop the score slightly.



Second: Story. Generally I pay attention to the story in my games. I have given up for Ninja Gaiden. And that’s saying a lot for me. But in reality it’s just an excuse to travel all around the world fighting a whole bunch of bosses.

Now it’s worth mentioning the difficulty. Yes it is brutally difficult. A lot of people are going to love the difficulty but a lot of people are also going to despise it. Now for the most part, it is not cheap. Yes your face will be grinded into the dust but you will feel as if this is your own fault. You realise that you didn’t block in time, you didn’t attack fast enough or you just haven’t got the hang of it yet. (Or it was the damn cameras fault.) However there are notable parts which just are not fair. Ninjas hurl rockets at you. Machines spray bullets at you. It gets to be rather annoying, considering Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox avoided this cheapness most of the time. (Exception for Alma)

So what makes Ninja Gaiden 2 so great and my current love interest (My friends aren’t happy.) Well it’s due to the combat. Quite frankly, Ninja Gaiden 2 has group combat nailed. All the fighting is fast, bloody and looks awesome. You have a variety of weapons which range from your standard Dragon Sword, to the Kusari-Gama, a massive Scythe and a pair of Tonfa. All weapons feel different to each other and have an absolutely massive move list. I’m not joking; the moves list is completely huge. All weapons have their strong point and their weak point so have fun finding out which is which. (Or look on the internet.) Platforming is essentially nonexistent now and what is there is not going to strain you in any way whatsoever. And essentially that’s good because the combat just works so well. Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of the games that rewards you as you put the time into it. In the first level you will probably be restricted to trying to pull off simple 5 hit combos but as you start to upgrade your weapons and learn their various techniques, suddenly that 50 hit combo was a piece of cake. Boss battles range in their difficulty. Some are ridiculously easy (chapter 1, chapter 5) and some are a downright pain (chapter 3.) However, each fight is a memorable one and satisfaction is felt as each one falls. And that is true of all Ninja Gaidens combat. It is just extremely satisfying to see your enemies to fall to bits.



So what it comes down to is....it’s not a huge step forward. And there’s the rub. The first Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was a huge leap forward. Ninja Gaiden 2 just doesn’t have that. It graphics are great but not the best available. So while it is a worthy addition to the franchise it just doesn’t move it majorly forward.



However, all things considered, I score it - 8.5/10


[SIZE="4"]Written by[/SIZE] - Urban Darkfire

mass text messaging
Übersetzungsagentur