I really wanted to love this one. I wanted it to be everything the original wasn't. Well...
The next thing you'll notice is that the game's combat system is exactly the same with a few almost unnoticeable tweaks (such as running into your wrestling moves, which can actually be annoying).
After that you'll notice that the dialogue is going to be awesome, even more fun than the original.
You will definitely notice, at that point, that the GTA-esque overworld we all loved to hate and hated to love has been scrapped in favor of a map.
You'll also notice that the side jobs have been wisely replaced with 8 bit games! AWESOME!
Unfortunately, the assassination missions have been completely scrapped.
Then you'll notice, later on, that instead of assassination missions you have these lame revenge missions you can only do once each.
You may also notice that you basically get no money from ranked battles anymore.
You'll notice that any given sword has its strength and weaknesses, and there is no "best" katana like there was in the last game (with each successive katana making the previous one obsolete).
Lokivov balls? Gone. T-shirts in dumpsters? Money in dumpsters? Buried treasure? All gone with the open world.
The most annoying change by far is the workout minigames, which are incredibly tedious and nearly unbeatable after only the first few difficulties. I don't know how I'll ever get to full strength.
There's apparently a decent amount of T-shirts but about half or maybe even 2/3 of the shirts are just recolorings of other t-shirts. There are some cool outfits you can mix and match, but this time around all the items (jacket, sunglasses, shoes, pants, wristband) are all bought in a set that won't look good mixed and matched.
The bosses in this game are far less interesting than they were in the previous game.
You get to play as two other characters, as advertised, but it's not very fun and you'll just want to go back to Travis ASAP. Henry is OK but Shinobu is just frustrating to control because the camera hates her jumping. The thing that really blows is you can't replay other boss battles using these characters.
Deathmatch mode has been added after you beat the game, which allows you to just marathon the boss battles one after another. New Game + and Bitter difficulty are still present.
The game makes you think it's going to be long and deep, but the second or third ranking battle turns out to be 25 different ranked assassins, I guess, which you fight in your giant mech.
The giant mech battle was fun, but only because it was a novelty. The actual gameplay was not amazing.
The game still loses some framerate every now and then, but I've never had problems because of that.
The game is fun like the original but comes off feeling a little bit too streamlined for its own good. So much has been subtracted from the game, and very little has been added. Also, about the scorpion side job... WTF?
This game is a great game, but it doesn't successfully improve on the greatness of the original. Yeah, you can turn into a tiger. Yeah, you have a giant mech (which you use only once). Yeah, you get blood geysers a-plenty. Yes, the combat system is awesome (though not at all deep). Yes, they've added support for the classic controller (which is useless in the game except for a few of the minigames). Yes, getting rid of the terrible open world was probably a wise choice. But why scrap the Assassination Missions? Why make upgrading your strength almost impossible? Why only give side jobs as money-making options? I mean, he's an assassin, right? Can't he kill someone every now and then?
Will I ever get my jump attack (to finish a downed foe) back? I haven't seen any evidence that I will. Is there just simply less in NMH2 than in the original? This game is a sequel in the movie sense (not as good as the original, or at least not as fresh and creative), as opposed to ideal modern video game sequel (so much better than the original that you'll never feel like playing the original again).
So I really have a mixed reaction toward this game. The 8 bit minigames are awesome, but honestly, there's only so much of the same game i can take in one sitting. How about a few more? Even just 4 more 8-bit minigames and like 10 assassination missions cut from the mold of the best ones in the last game would raise this up to a 9/10.
It would be a 10 if the cursed strength raising minigame weren't so unforgiving.