Ninja Gaiden II Review - Xbox 360

8

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 9
Audio: 5
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Ninja Gaiden's revival on the Xbox was a long time coming. A decade and a half after the original NES trilogy, and some time after series hero Ryu Hayabusa reappeared as a playable fighter in Tecmo's Dead or Alive series, the Xbox Ninja Gaiden made a lot of people, including yours truly, very happy.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is no less anticipated.

Ninja Gaiden 2 continues the adventures of Ryu Hayabusa, of the Hayabusa Ninja Clan. Ryu must recover the demon statue kept safe by his clan for so many years, stolen from his family home during a battle between his father, Joe, and Genshin, leader of the rival Black Spider Clan.

While the story is mostly filler, it does a nice job of tying together the new Ninja Gaiden series with the earlier trilogy on the NES, and throws in some fan service to boot.

Ryu is joined by newcomer CIA agent Sonia, a blonde, a large-breasted, impossibly-figured leather-clad woman who carries a rocket launcher. Not to be mean, but I miss Rachel from the previous title. You know, the blonde, large-breasted, impossibly-figured leather-clad woman who carried a large axe. But I'm not complaining. I wasn't playing Ninja Gaiden for the story. I was playing it for the kick-ass battles and smooth ninja gameplay, and, alas, I was somewhat disappointed.

Gameplay

First things first: the combat is exquisite. There are other action games available, but none of them have the depth or fluidity of Ninja Gaiden. While some games focus on style, and some focus on easy brutality, Ninja Gaiden is a series that focuses on skill. To succeed, the player must master different weapons and skills for different situations. Each individual weapon has more depth than most action games have in their entire arsenal, and there are eight different weapons, each one useful in its own way.

The standard weapon, the Dragon Sword, has incredible versatility and is great for duels and boss fights, while the staff is great for dealing with large groups of weaker enemies. Even the newer weapons, like the massive Eclipse Scythe and the agile Falcon Claws, feel balanced and useful. There are also projectile weapons: throwing stars, bow and arrow and exploding shuriken, the classic windmill shuriken, and that's not counting the ninja magic.

Ninpo comes in a variety of flavours, from huge burning fireballs to gusts of razor sharp whirlwind that surround Ryu and cut through swarming enemies. Ninpo is powerful and easy to use but if the player relies on ninpo, they will lose points, as the game ranks you at the end of each level depending on your performance. While not a crucial element, it is a welcome one, allowing players to compete for high scores on the Xbox Live Leaderboards, and adding replayability to what is, essentially, a fourteen level, ten hour game. (continued next page)