Ninja Gaiden 2 had so much potential, but is better in every way by more modern titles, and feels cheap as a result.
The original Ninja Gaiden for the original xbox was a masterpiece of action game design. It was tight, the controls were near perfect and the action a blaze of sword weilding ninja mystisim. Ninja Gaiden 2 however, tries to follow on from its almost flawless predecessor, but fails miserably.
Story is not this games strong point, but admittedly neither was it the first games, so that is not something you can really hold against it. It provides enough narrative to move the story along and generate boss battles, but thats about it. Team Ninja cannot tell a good story, that much is true, but this title fails in many other ways.
The biggest problem with Ninja Gaiden 2 is that it feels like it should have been released years ago, possibly about a year after the first one. Action games have moved on in design, graphics and story, Devil May Cry 4 certainly proved that, and while you cannot fault the action presented here for its blistering speed and gore filled intensity, it was bested about 6 months before this game arrived.
Technically, it doesnt match up to even its predecessor, let alone any of its contempories. The simple fact is that it looks like a very well polished xbox game, and although the slicing off of just about every opponents arms, legs and heads with a spray of blood looks great, so much more could have been accomplished, and the frame rate hits and occasional lock up only add to this. The power of the 360 can do better.
The graphics are simply poor for a 360 game, with Ryu hiding in water at one spot and seeming to clip through a stactic back drop image rather than an actual river. The blood spray from enemies is pretty cool, as is the effects for the ninpo magic, but theses are the only real stand out things.
The sound is a different matter and really gives the impression of fighting through hordes of enemies like the worlds most powerful ninja should be able to. The score is really good, setting the tone for a ninja vs demon world action game perfectly.
Aside from the graphics, this game gets really cheap with its enemies and is horribly linear. Admittedly, by thier very nature games like this are linear, so that isnt too bad a fault, but when combined with enemies that are obsurdly overpowered for standard grunts, it makes the gameplay feel dated and outclassed.
The worlds most powerful ninja should be able to avoid soldies firing missles at him at a steady clip, but what about when 3 or 4 of them send 10 missiles at him in quick succession? while he is also being hotley pursued by sword and machine gun enemies that will stop you from moving or blocking when firing at you, effectly stopping you from making any progress. I will say it again, action games have evolved from such archiac ways to enforce difficulty on you.
This game has an achievement for pressing continue 100 times. You will earn that, despite its relatively short 9 chapter structure. Hitting such a mark sinks your enthusiasm for what should have been one of the best games of the year, and while some may argue that it is a lack of skill on the players apart, they are probably wrong, as Devil May Cry was hard on the normal difficulty but never, ever felt cheap or made you spend a couple of days of play time just trying to get past a section that dosent even feature a boss fight.
Ninja Gaiden 2 could have been so much more, and while the action is as intense and viseral as ever, and Ryu Hyabusa is still a badass, its game conventions are mired in the past too much for it to be a worthy successor the first games throne.