Ninja Gaiden 2 shows a few frustrations thanks to the camera, but it serves as a great addition to the series.
The story is something that Ninja Gaiden wasn't really known for and this game is certainly no different. The game follows the continuing adventures of famed Ninja Ryu Hayabusa, who is now off to recover an ancient artifact stolen by Great Fiends who which to use the artifact for it's power. The story is relatively weak and most things don't tend to make sense. However, the story is easily forgiven thanks to the game's biggest claim to fame: it's fantastic gameplay.
Ninja Gaiden 2 follws under the same formula of the first Ninja Gaiden. The game is a 3-D action adventure game where you get to explore huge levels and fight off wave after wave of enemies of many different flavors. The combat of Ninja Gaiden 2 is some of the most satisfying you can get out of the action genre. You'll pull off quick, stylish, and brutal attacks which will lead to torn limbs and fountains of blood. You'll be able to decimate your enemies with a variety of cool-looking attacks, fun weapons, and even some magic using your Ki. You also get to do other cool ninja abilities, such as wall jumping, wall running, and even water skipping. The action not only looks great, but it is thankfully great to control. The control is very fluid and responsive, which makes pulling off such amazing feats all the more satisfying.
Even though the action is fantastic it still remains true to the series by being really, really hard, even on the lowest difficulty. Enemies are smart in their patterns and can pack quite a punch in their attacks. Most of the time when you die, you simply didn't do well enough. The game has you relying on quick reflexes and guarding is especially important. Once you have cleared away all of the enemies at that particular moment your health can regenerate. Just keep in mind of a red bar on your health meter which signifies how much damage you can withstand. Bosses are very much frequent and while some are actually a little easy most of them can still give you a challenge. To ease away some stress you can restart at the beginning of boss battles rather than go through previous chunks of gameplay.
If there is one thing that can make combat feel a bit cheap it's the camera. The camera is mostly fixated on Ryu and at many points you will be blindsided by off-screen enemies. The camera is at it's worse underwater since it's even more fixated on Ryu.
Technically, the game looks visually pleasing. The characters look great and animate with great fluidity. Some environments clearly look better than others. There are places that look rather drab with some flat texture quality, but for the most part many of the locations look rather nice. The music is also great, which perfectly suits the action and the voice acting for both the English dub and the original Japanese are pretty solid for the most part.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Visually pleasing, especially the character models and animations
-Excellent combat
-Rewarding challenge
-Great controls
-Good music and voice acting
CONS:
-An often frustrating camera
-Some environments look rather bland
If you can overcome the camera issues, Ninja Gaiden 2 serves to be great, brutal fun that can last you for quite sometime. It's one of the best action experiences that you can get for your Xbox 360 and it is a great recommendation among fans of the series and action fans in general.