Neenja Gaiden II

Playing through NG2 was an absolute must after the extreme awesomeness of the first one. By far and wide, NG1 was one of the best action games for the original Xbox. (Yes, you may fight me to the death over it) Anywho, NG2 didn’t quite turn out the way I expected. It was good, but it failed to knock my socks in to the next room likes NG1 did.

In lieu of death threats from fanboys, I will say that NG2 was entirely mediocre. The story/characters are almost all dead ripoffs from NG1. Also, Team Ninja managed to break fixed things and failed to fix a few broken ones.

Although, despite the games faults, it was still relatively fun. Thank god for the combat system.

Breakin’ it down:

Gameplay

Not surprisingly, gameplay is what makes up 99.9999% of this game. While that may sound redundant - it’s not. This game is not story, graphics, immersion, or quirk driven - it’s all about the gameplay.

With that said, the gameplay was the best and worst thing about this game. To break gameplay down even further:

Combat System

The combat system was impeccable, smooth, and an absolute joy to kill things with. Gone is the technical, rigid (by comparison) combat system of NG1. Regular enemies could be dispatched with an awesome flurry of combos, weapons, obliteration techniques. Bosses were awesomely fun, as well - forcing you to get up close and personal in order to do any damage.

It’s not entirely without faults, however. In the end, only about 3 combos are even worth using and the regen health system can be easily exploited to make regular encounters a walk in the park. (On the lower difficulty levels, anyway)

Camera

I’m just going to say it - The camera in this game blows chunks. Big, fat, nasty chunks. I can’t recall a single situation where the camera actually helped me. I was almost constantly fighting with it to be able to see what was going on. It wasn’t so much a problem during the normal levels, as the boss fights.

Camera control in the boss fights was ridiculous sometimes; especially if the boss was flying or moved around really fast. (Think Zedonius, or the Quetzalcoatl) Rarely, if ever did I have trouble fighting a boss due to the difficulty. It was almost always because of the god awful camera.

Difficulty Consistency

GAH! I deplore the pacing and inconsistency issues of the difficulty in this game. No, I am not whining about how hard the game was. End of story. What bothered me was how immediately and often the difficulty would change. The game would go from stupid easy to impossibly hard at a moments notice. The end game wasn’t difficult at all, but some of the earlier chapters had you pulling your hair out. One example which comes to mind was the beginning of chapter 8, which had you fighting rocket spammers and mech soldiers, then suddenly switched to stupid easy ninja groups.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I die hundreds of times to bosses earlier in the game only to waltz through the last 6 bosses (Think Chapter 13/14) , I’m a bit miffed. It’s rather anticlimactic.

Okay, seriously…

Incendiary Shuriken Ninjas on any difficulty above Warrior. ‘Nuff said.

Story

It’s a Ninja Gaiden game, the story consists of over the top teetees, muscles, explosions, monsters, and the world ending.

Don’t mind the fact that it’s almost a direct clone of the first game’s story and you’ll do just fine.

That Jazz

Graphics, Sound, Menus, etc. were all mediocre. Graphics looked marginally better than NG1, but that’s it. Ryu grew a bigger codpiece and put even larger baby whales into his quads.

Sound is slightly above average, but it’s no better than the first one. It provides the signature one-of-a-kind, Ninja

Gaiden experience that NG1 did. Good, but not noteworthy.

Interface/Menus were pathetic. Not the actual menus themselves, those were fine. They are the exact same as the first one, and those weren’t bad. The problem is the godawful lag to get into and out of a menu. You would push up on the D-Pad or Start only to wait 1-2 seconds before anything would happen. By the time you actually go to the menu to do what you needed to do, you probably had mashed the button a 2^nd or 3^rd time and were immediately send back out (after 1-2 seconds) - usually to meet your death. Incredibly frustrating and distracting.

oPg Factor

Can I recommend this game in good faith to the average joe? No. The only reason I bothered to trudge through it was out of dedication to NG1. If you’re the type of guy who loves split second combos, taking replays of yourself and competing with others at the Master Ninja level, then I recommend it. Otherwise, rent it, borrow it, or just pass it up.

Would I play this w/ my mother? No
Would I play this w/ the guys? No
Would my dog enjoy this game? Maybe.
Is the Izuna drop awesome? Yes.
Why in god’s name were there so many arrow bosses? I don’t know.
Whose idea was it to make the four armed, 12ft tall werewolf the weakest boss in the game? Someone stupid.
Does the end boss STRONGLY resemble Diablo. Yes.

If you’ve never heard of the ninja series before, go check it out - you may just like it. You may just hate it with every fiber of your being and curse team ninja until you die. Depends on how much you suck at life.

Overall Score:

Gameplay: 8.2/10
Story: 4/10
That Jazz: 6.7/10
oPgFactor: 5.8/10
Total: 6.175/10 = Meh