I have been playing Ninja Gaiden II game off and on for the past few weeks since the first day of it's release. I wanted to get through as much as possible before writing this review. I also played an early build of the game before its release and you can read those impressions here.

So is Ninja Gaiden II any good?

Ninja Gaiden vs. Ninja Gaiden II

I played through and completed the first (3D) Ninja Gaiden for the first time just two weeks before the release and my purchase of Ninja Gaiden II. With that Ninja Gaiden expreience fresh in my mind I can say that Ninja Gaiden II is a definite improvement over the previous Ninja Gaiden.

Ninja Gaiden II is faster, more intense and has a much deeper combat system than the first. When I first started playing I could not believe at how fast it was. There are many enemies coming at you and lots on the screen at the same time. By the time I was a few chapters in I guess I adjusted to the speed of the combat in the game and its seems fast but not "too" quick or as fast as it seemed at first.

Ninja Gaiden II is much more linear than the first Ninja Gaiden game. There is very little to no backtracking in Ninja Gaiden II and there are no puzzles that you need to hit GameFaqs to figure out. The linearity is a love or hate thing. In my case I loved it. I like the choice to keep it focused on action and I did not like the "puzzles" in the first game.

This is footage from the demo version that I captured but it does give you a feel of the combat, camera, and linearity of the level design and is pretty much representative of the essence of the final product:


Get the Flash Player to see this player.



Combat Evolved?

There are a lot more moves, many more weapons and unlike the first game you want to try all the weapons because they all have distinct advantages in certain situations. Each weapon comes with distinct obliteration techniques, ultimate techniques, and combo sets. The weapons and the combat system is vastly improved or I guess I should say "expanded" over the first game.

Ninja Gaiden II is challenging. If you don’t like loosing, or have a "throw the controller" temper this may not be the game for you. You WILL die. You will repeat certain parts of the game a few times though you can forgive the difficulty because the combat action is INTENSE. Blood splatters, cut limbs, decapitations are all there. The action is top notch and I never got tired taking on hordes of ninjas, werewolves, soldiers or whatever.

Getting to your weapons and items is made easier. The main item, weapon select menu is redone and is much easier to navigate. A second 'quick select" menu is also available.



Graphics & Cinema

The in-game graphics are great. Its very hard to notice all the subtle details included in Ninja Gaiden II because the action in the game moves so fast. if you pause the action you or see screenshots of the action you can see just how detailed and crisp the graphics are in Ninja Gaiden II. When you kill their body stays where they died. Chopped off arms, heads and blood splatters remain. You paint the stage (ground and walls) with blood from kills and everything stays put.

There is a Ninja cinema feature that lest you record segments of your game play and upload it to Xbox live. You can also view the play of others. Some of the footage up on the leader boards is amazing.

The game does have its share of problems though. Once in a while the action will slow down if there is too much on the screen. This has happened rarely but it has happened and in my opinion a slowdown in a game this fast shouldn’t hurt you, it should actually inadvertently help. Also I have noticed some screen tearing though for the most part the game is fine.





Cameras & Action

Based on talks with various friends about Ninja Gaiden II game I have came to the conclusion that Ninja Gaiden II is a game I would put in the love or hate category. I would say this is mostly because of the camera in Ninja Gaiden II.


The camera does not stay behind you as you play. The action is insanely fast and to survive you will be moving and jumping around a lot. The camera will move but does not pan to remain behind you. You can control the camera with the right thumb stick but the action is too fast so your best bet is to center the camera behind you with the right trigger.


For some the camera in the game is something they can’t deal with and it ruins the whole experience for them. Others adapt their play to accommodate for the shortcoming of the camera. Personally I did not find the camera to be much of a problem at all. I got used to centering it behind me by using the right trigger when needed. There are times when the camera wills wing on its own and your view will be obstructed by objects but it did not happen enough to bother me that much. Its pretty much the same camera as in the first game. I think that if they made the camera follow you it would be a dizzying experience. The game seems too fast to have a camera that moves with you at all times.


Verdict

I LOVE Ninja Gaiden II. It has the best combat in any action game I have ever played and is the best Ninja game I have played. I think the game is top notch and is worth buying and definitely worth checking out. There are things like the random slowdown and maybe additional camera modes that could have been addressed/included but regardless Ninja Gaiden II is great and highly recommended though I would suggest trying the demo, or renting it to see if you can deal with the camera before purchase.

When you do play the game try this... Use "Enter the Wutang", or "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" as your custom soundtrack.