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Expensive Thrills and Cheap Tricks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

"Ninja Gaiden 2" probably will not be remembered very fondly. A game blighted by terrible camera, cheap difficulty-raising tricks, and a game engine generally hailing from the previous generation of consoles, NG2 nevertheless has enough of the magic dust of its XBOX predecessor to make it a fully worthwhile purchase.

Everything about "Ninja Gaiden 2" is intimidating. From the sturm und drang Tecmo video intro sequence to the final boss fight, the game retains the fearsome seriousness and difficulty of 2004's "Ninja Gaiden". That game was possibly the greatest action adventure of the 3D era. To attain success, "Ninja Gaiden 2" has to follow that and add the requisite gloss of current-gen gaming, whilst fixing the original's annoying camera and tweaking the controller-damaging difficulty level. In this regard, NG2 is a failure: the graphics are often bland and barren, the camera sits too close to the player character, and the admittedly lessened difficulty is soured in many places by cheap hikes in difficulty which the player cannot possibly avoid.

However, there is a big "but". The gameplay is as thrilling as NG, as beautifully detailed and rewarding as the rest of the game elements are shoddy and perplexing. While the sequel incorporates close-up Obliteration moves to kill wounded enemies and a regenerating health-bar (a nod to making the game more accessible), it is still fundamentally the same game engine as the original...but more. More blood, more fighting, more all-round violence.

The point is that the wonderfully fluid and responsive controls actually make the gamer feel in control of a master ninja. It makes you feel proud to have accomplished a tough boss fight or to have countered an enemy attack. This element alone makes this charismatic game worth paying serious attention to. And, having played such cutscene-heavy games as Metal Gear Solid 4 recently, NG2's non-stop action shines particularly brightly for me; the game represents a big gold star in favour of action gaming. Perhaps having realised this, Tecmo have gutted out the often tedious and obtuse puzzles from Ninja Gaiden in favour of added enemies.

To be clear, Ninja Gaiden 2 is a deeply flawed videogame. There are plenty of elements to the game which are not really good enough. In keeping with Team NINJA's Mount Fuji logo, the game is either peaks or troughs.. The peaks are fantastic, and the troughs are "fantastic", too. The camera, it must be stressed, is awful, locking up terribly especially in tight corridors and on flights of stairs. Graphically, the game has bland backgrounds, although the detailed character animations make up for this in large part. The story is the usual tosh about armageddon that game developers so love, with demons and devils spewing terrible dialogue -just ignore them. But Ninja Gaiden 2 has the magical charisma of a game which just knows it is special, that can treat you badly because it knows you will come crawling back.

Good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ninja Gaiden 2 is the sequel to Ninja Gaiden Black. The game plays like the first one which is a good thing. The only reason I give this game a 4 star rating rather than a 5 star is because of the camera angle. If you played the first game you know what to expect. The one thing I have to mention is that this game isn't as challening as the first one.

It's still hard but not like the first one. Once you reach the dragon statues to save your game, your health goes back up and in the first one you only had to rely on using the Grains of Spiritual Life or Herbs of Spiritual life to bring your health back up. This is a good thing for the second game though because some bosses are tough to beat and it would be really hard throughout the game if you just had health packs to rely on. No more throwing the controller to the TV :-) not that I did it but sometimes I felt like doing it because the bosses were just challenging and with low health it's what made it much more harder. Overall you will like this game if you liked the first one.

Ninja Gaiden II: Your average sequel

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you loved the first one, this one is just as good. Its exactly more of the same, with a few tweaks like regenerative health, execution-style finishes, and sweet weapons. Gets extremely repetitive. Definitely worth a rent, maybe even a couple rents to make sure you get thru it all. Spending 60 dollars on it tho? Not sure, unless your a die hard fan. Check it out yourself.

Great game, but still hard

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game has some of the best graphics that I've seen in a next gen game, but the level of difficulty is still hard. Even on the lowest difficulty level, it's still hard. But, the graphics, gameplay, and smooth controls make up for any imperfections it might have. I recommended this for any action junkie.

Fun, but very, very frustrating.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

ok, this game is very fun, but the bosses are crazy! I mean, you want to see how the game ends, but... The bosses kinda get in the way.

Keep in mind there are 14 chapters, all having at least 2 scenes. And each scene has at least 2 bosses... ya...
In my opinion, its a rent, not buy. Unless of course you kinda dig the whole crazy insanely hard thing.

ACTION.........

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

i wont talk much about this one cus if you want an expert review just check ign or something i JUST want to say that this is the best action game i have ever played in my life it is all about action no story no nothing just ACTION so if you are an action fan just cut the chase and get this one believe me you wont regret it ......

one of the best games in xbox360

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

i love the cover box and , the game is fast and cool with great fight like real fight. and its better than ninga daiden sigma. if you like fast action game buy it now. my score is 9.5
the graphic 9 . good graphic but small problem with camera.
sound 9 i like the japan's voice
gameplay 9 very fast action game with lot of blood

same old NG1 action.......on steroids, plenty of room for improvement

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Good-Improved graphics/LOTS of weapons/frequent save points/better music/semi-regenerating health bar/gore/finishing techniques

Bad-bland environments/glitches and bugs/camera seems to "fight" you/low replay value/VERY little unlockable content/enemy AI resorts to cheap tactics

This games combat is its saving grace, its addictive, fun, and satisfying with so many ways to off the opposition. The finishers can really bring out the masochist in you. I'm currently on master ninja having played the 1st 3 difficulties. The enemy AI is really intelligent that they'll adjust to always find the most effective way to take out Ryu, most of the time thats resorting to cheap tactics such as 6 enemies aggressively attacking you up front(2 of them looking for an unblockable throw while the remaining 4 relentlessly executes combos) and the remaining enemies stay in the back throwing shuriken after shuriken that explode. You will constantly be attacked as soon as you walk through a door without even sighting an enemy, constant cheap shots like this along with the camera looking at everything but the action will be more than enough to frustrate the avg. gamer. There is no theater mode/concept art, or anything of that nature upon completing the game. The unlockables include costumes(1 per difficulty) and these are color variants not even new costumes. This game seemed like a rushed product, but even after dying so many times you'll still keep playing because the combat was so well made.

Absolutely stunning

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is stunning to its core. Yes there are glitches and its not for the faint of heart, but the gameplay, action and graphics are really good. Some of these features stand out in themselves, but its the combination that makes it so special. I found some frame rate issues but not worth spoiling the game.

I remember playing the original Ninja Gaiden and getting frustrated with the diffculty. But the game attrected me into not giving up and getting better to finish the game and coming back to play it over and over again. This game is no different. I am almost to the end of my first playthrough and am already planning on playing again on a harder difficulty level. It has been easier than the original due to the presence of Acolyte difficulty. So for a first time player of Ninja gaiden, my advise would be to rent it, play it, and then buy it. Original NG players, do I need to say anything??

But remember to make full use of online walkthroughs/guides to get a feel and be comfortable with the game, since strategy is your best friend in this game. Every enemy has a different attack and you have 8-9 weapons towards the end, 1 to begin with), 3-4 projectile weapons and 4 magic tricks; each to be used more effectively in a certain situation. People get really frustrated because they try to button mash through the game and do not plan. Do not enter boss battles without enough health, there are save points and refill shops (Muramasa's) before all major boss battles. But to like it, learn it; and for that guides are really helpful. This is an intelligent and hard game, understand that before hating it.

I now call myself a Ninja Gaiden fan. This game will not set any sales records, but to the kind of gamers that like this genre and good graphics/gameplay, this is a must buy.

Incredible game... still think first one was better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After playing the original Nintendo games and being blown away by the first Xbox Ninja Gaiden, I sold my old Xbox to purchase the new Xbox360 when I learned this was to be released. Unfortunately I had to return the console as it stopped working after a month of owning it. I purchased the game and borrowed an Xbox360 console from one of my friends so here's my review.

Being this a sequel of a game that was a breakthrough in game play and graphics, it was supposed this would be better that the first version. While there are a lot of new features and new weapons, I still think the first one is way better than NG2.

Some enhancements made are welcome and some of them were needed, the problem is that many of these changes affect directly the game in a major decrease of the level of difficulty. I recall the first NG to be a very difficult game even in easy mode (called Acolyte in NG2), NG2 on the other hand feels a very easy game compared to the previous one even when playing in `Path of the Warrior' which is next to easy. You start gathering new weapons very early in the game and if you get to master the ultimate techniques, it is quite easy to upgrade your weapons to a maximum level very early in the game, by using more powerful weapons it is of course easier to get rid of the `difficult' enemies in later levels. Another change is the auto healing system, you get into a fight with a certain level of energy, after you defeat all enemies on screen your life bar will regenerate to almost the same level of energy you had before starting to fight, which leaves all the healing items to be useless unless you are fighting a boss. Team Ninja did not think the auto healing was enough and made another change, each time you reach a save point and save, your energy bar is filled to its maximum. To me, all this auto healing system takes away the emotion and stress of seeing your life bar decrease in the middle of a fight.

The graphics are definitely better than before, the stages are beautifully designed aesthetically, however, programmers failed when designing some of the levels as there are these `invisible' barriers in a lot of places that you cannot go through even though in many situations, these places behind these `barriers' are reachable by going around them. The camera movement is poorly designed and most annoying, using an ultimate technique or combo may result in a messy movement in which you may not see anything at all of what's happening on screen, I recall this being a small issue on the original game but this time the camera problem is SERIOUS. The story that was developed for this sequel is the most nonsense story I have ever seen even for a video game (in one of the stages one of the `Greater fiends' actually invites you to a Colosseum to fight him as he had been searching for a `worthy' opponent, all this as an excuse for a huge battle in the mentioned Colosseum) Fortunately, the game is filled with action and the plot only serves to set up the cinematic battles and sequences for Ryu Hayabusa.

The almost perfect sceneries and all the action compensate for this game. There are very few calm moments during the game, opposite to NG in which you fought groups of ninjas/enemies and some fooled around while you were engaged in combat with one of them, in this one, all of them will be attacking you at the same time so you'd better learn some combos or rely on ultimate techniques as enemies will be all around you. Battles are intense and leave no time to catch your breath until all enemies are defeated (after you kill the boss I mentioned in the Colosseum, all the enemies watching the battle in the audience will attack you, you'd think that defeating the boss would be the end of it), in many cases you'll fight a boss and kill it only to see a cutscene that puts you into battle with another fiend immediately after that (be careful when fighting the Armadillo, when defeated make sure you block as it explodes and can kill you) . Enemies that play the role of bosses or mid bosses will appear as regular enemies in later stages... sounds difficult? Don't worry, we now have autohealing!

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the game, I actually like it very much and have been playing it like crazy, NG had unlockables and hidden items that gave extra value to replay, NG2 does not have anything at all (at least not that I'm aware of) but it's still a great game to play, stages are incredible, longer and filled with action, there are things I didn't like but there are others I just thought were great and I will not mention as I wouldn't want to spoil a few surprises.

NG2 is a great game with beautiful graphics and filled with action from the very beginning, if you liked the first one like I did, you are definitely going to enjoy this one as well.

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