 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Team Ninja |
| Publisher: | Microsoft | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 720p/1080i/1080p, In-game Dolby Digital, Xbox Live (leaderboards, upload videos) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
The gameplay in Ninja Gaiden II is really more strategic than it may seem at first glance however. If you approach this game expecting to simply hack and slash your way through it, you’re going to quickly realize that this isn’t the best approach. When facing off against most enemies (especially when surrounded by multiple ones) blocking is extremely important, and a good strategy is often to first parry an attack and then quickly follow it up with a counterattack that catches enemies off-guard.
While Ninja Gaiden II is still very much a hardcore gamer’s game, it’s been made a little more accessible over its predecessors. First, Ryu’s health is now partially regenerative, in that most of it will refill after each wave of enemies. However, depending on the damage Ryu takes some of his health bar will be red and will not refill naturally (think of it as “lasting damage”), and can only be cured by certain items, blue essence dropped by enemies, or by visiting save points. Which leads me to my other point, in that save points are really intelligently laid out throughout the entire game; almost always coming right when I needed them.
As you should expect from this series by now (dating all the way back to the NES), the bosses are also noteworthy in both their size and frequency. Throughout the game you’ll frequently encounter multiple bosses in each of the game’s 14 chapters. Some are relatively easy to defeat while others are frustratingly hard, but they all demand technique, critical thinking, and patience to overcome. Bosses in this game vary greatly in size and ability, from standard humanoid boss battles to giant flying worms that shoot out baby worms and more. Indeed, the majority of boss fights are truly awe-inspiring encounters.
Unfortunately, all of this gory glory is mangled by a horrific camera system. The camera frequently pans around to an angle completely opposite of what the player actually needs to see (namely enemies), requiring the player to fight against it as well to get the best view at all times. Regularly it simply did not keep up with my on-screen movements (particularly when using the Flying Swallow move), and it even made certain boss fights much more difficult than they should’ve been. Not only did I have to continually re-center and pan the camera, but I also found myself keeping a running count of the number and position of enemies I faced during each wave, and then relying on the game’s loose auto-aim to attack enemies that were literally right behind where the camera was placed. A fast-paced action title is one genre where the camera absolutely needs to be spot-on, and the fact that it isn’t here adds a little too much to the frustration you’d normally experience simply going up against the game’s difficult enemies.
What you do see is very nice though. I’ve already described the sheer level of gore in detail, but it wouldn’t be that way if the enemy designs weren’t also spot on, with a diverse and wacky range of enemies throughout the game. Most of the game’s 14 chapters take place in areas with excellent art direction and plenty of vibrant colors as well (not to mention the splashes of red and green blood), from a futuristic Tokyo, to giant underground caverns, to a Venetian-like city of water canals and more. Sure, Ninja Gaiden II has its share of relatively boring underground tunnels and same-looking corridors, and the framerate dips during some of the most intense moments, but by and large the game’s environments remain interesting from start to finish.
I only had one other complaint with Ninja Gaiden II, and that lies with navigating the environment. For example, Ryu cannot fall off of certain ledges unless the player makes him jump. Even then the game tries to make the jump “sticky” and land it on the next ledge over, which requires a mid-air adjustment if you simply want Ryu to jump off and fall down below. I found this to be unnaturally restrictive and unintuitive, when almost every other game will let me go where I want to go for better or for worse. The game is also rife with annoying invisible barriers that speak to some lazy level design (or perhaps compensation for the lousy camera), such as fences Ryu magically cannot jump over (or wall-run above) even though they’re easily low enough.
Bottom Line:
Ninja Gaiden II is a brilliant and bloody masterpiece, perhaps even the best pure action title on the market today, but it’s hurt considerably by frustrating camera angles and awkward design decisions. Regardless, if this is truly Itagaki’s final Ninja Gaiden, he’s certainly leaving Team Ninja on a high note and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.0 |
Posted: 2008-06-10 17:40:31 PST