Ninja Gaiden II Review - Xbox 360

For what will apparently be the last time, Tomonobu Itagaki has unleashed the heat of the ninja on unsuspecting Xbox owners. Ninja Gaiden II follows on the heels of one stellar Xbox game and two subsequent remakes, and it has some pretty big tabi to fill. Luckily for those who like to kill monsters with swords, Ryu’s second 3D outing is mostly up to the task.

Gaiden again

An unspecified amount of time following the events of the first game, Ryu is tracked down by Sonia, a CIA agent who looks like just about every other female character in Team Ninja’s games, and in fact could be easily mistaken for Rachel with a new haircut. She’s promptly kidnapped, Ryu shows up in the nick of time, and a plot by a really nasty Black Spider Ninja to resurrect the Archfiend, granddaddy of all evil demon things, is revealed. Ryu sets out to stop this, armed with a variety of cutting implements.

But, as any Ninja Gaiden player knows, the story is incidental. The point is the expertly balanced and designed combat against legions of foes that will stop at nothing to see your PVC-clad ass dead on the pavement. Ninja Gaiden II’s combat is even faster than the first game’s, and exponentially gorier. Ryu can hack limbs off his enemies with ease, and losing a leg or an arm will actually alter an enemy’s behavior. They’ll become more likely to use suicide bomb attacks or other nasty tricks to get their shots in. Conversely, Ryu can use an Obliteration Technique to dispatch a de-limbed enemy in a flashy and brutal finishing attack. Let your guard down at all, and the enemies in Ninja Gaiden II will gladly kill you.

The result is a stunning dance of blades, limbs and blood punctuated by moments of ninja badassery. After a fight, the battle area is painted red and littered with body parts. Few things are more satisfying than surveying the results of your Real Ultimate Power.

A greatly expanded arsenal shows off the new speedgore combat in creative and bloody ways. Numerous new weapons include Wolverine-style claws, bladed tonfa, kusari-gama, and a massive crowd-cleaving scythe. Each weapon has its own strengths and style of play, and part of the strategy of the game is learning which weapon to use against which enemies. The old standby Flying Swallow attack with the Dragon Sword returns, but in a very toned-down form, so your tactics from the first game will have to be heavily revised to incorporate more variety in your offense.

A new way of managing health factors into the faster and more challenging gameplay. After clearing an area of foes, Ryu’s life will regenerate. However, enough hits during battle causes the life bar to fill with red from the right side, indicating health that cannot be regenerated except through the use of health items or collection of blue orbs. This adaptation of the Halo shield system allows the fights to be much more difficult than the last game’s, which is good, but it also seems to have given rise to a slightly annoying trend. Many enemies, especially bosses, have several unblockable grab attacks that do extremely high damage. The thinking behind this seems to be “well, you’ll get the health back when you kill them, so what’s the problem?” The problem is the same thing that has plagued the Ninja Gaiden games since the first Xbox release.

Show Me Show Me Show Me

The camera in Ninja Gaiden II is your most dangerous foe. It actively hates you at times, refusing to show you what is going on and what your immediate threats are. You can use the right stick to rotate it, and the right trigger to snap it behind Ryu, but even when you have time to take your hands off the combat controls to make the adjustment, this isn’t much help when a giant monster is unleashing a lightning-fast grab attack off-stage left. It’s a larger problem during a handful of boss fights that almost feel unfinished. It’s like the camera doesn’t even know what’s happening. It’s especially problematic late in the game when you’re often pitted against multiple bosses at once, or bosses with numerous minions accompanying them.

It’s hard to believe that after four games, Team Ninja wasn’t able to come up with a smarter camera system. Due to this, the game becomes a series of highs and lows that make it feel uneven. Entire chapters will pass without incident, with epic boss encounters that are top-notch examples of why the “boss fight” has endured for so many years in the medium, then a boss fight will pop up that apparently just doesn’t interest the cameraman. In a game that does almost everything exactly right, it’s a horrible disappointment.

If you’re a Ninja Gaiden fan, or even just someone who loves action games, don’t let the camera woes scare you off. This is still one of the most expertly designed combat systems around, and gamers looking for a true challenge in this era of games designed to be beaten by anyone with enough time on their hands will appreciate Ninja Gaiden II for what it is – One of the last games around that values skill over perseverance.

Review by: Matt Keil