Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Developed by: Team Ninja
Score: 70

Back in 2004, Team Ninja (at the time best known for breast physics and mediocre fighting games) released an update of the classic title Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox. Featuring a level of difficulty not seen since the NES days, some (pussies) deemed it too hard, but those who persevered were rewarded with an action game experience like no other. Ninja Gaiden quickly became one of the Xbox’s top titles, playing an important role in the Great Gamefaqs Board Console Warz of 2004. 4 years and two “updates” later, Ninja Gaiden 2 was finally released for the 360 and, well, some things really aren’t better the second time around.

The plot in this installment is largely the same generic tale from the previous one. Hayabusa village is once again attacked (seriously, who the fuck is in charge of security there?) and Ryu returns to seek vengeance and destroy the Black Spider Clan once and for all. Ryu once again has the requisite busty albino sidekick to join the fray (I seriously don’t remember her name, somehow she ended up being even lamer than Rachel), teen-ninja-suddenly-turned-MILF Ayane also makes a cameo, and the OG ninja Joe plays a role this time as well. But really, who gives a shit about a plot? That’s not why we play these games. We play these games to tear shit up relentlessly and escape the cold bitter reality where gas prices are ridiculous and your ex keeps hitting you up for child support DAMMIT HE DON’T EVEN LOOK LIKE ME RHONDA! Ahem. Anyway what really matters here is gameplay, and that’s where this title delivers. Um, sorta.

If you played the original Ninja Gaiden you’ll feel right at home here. Luckily Team Ninja knew it wouldn’t be smart to mess around with a good thing, so the controls and maneuvers are largely the same. Old weapons utilize the same button combinations that you’ve probably committed to memory by now, and the new weapons only take a few fights to grow accustomed to. Weapons are still leveled up in Murasama shops using Essence, however unlike the last game you won’t be able to take advantage of respawning enemies in order to harvest it easily. The only real additions to the combat system are the regenerating health bar (though the amount of damage you take in a single encounter will make a significant portion of the bar unrecoverable until you hit a save point/use a health item)and new “finishing moves”. When an enemy is close to death (you can tell because they’ll usually be missing limbs), pressing the Y button will activate a small cutscene with Ryu brutally bringing an end to his opponent. These moves aren’t just for show though, during the process Ryu is temporarily invincible to all enemy attacks, and it can give you a much needed breather in order to re-adjust yourself and plan your next course of action.

The first thing you’ll realize during your first enemy encounter(aside from the fact that it now has Kill Bill Crazy 88 fight-levels of blood and dismemberment) is that the number of enemies you’re pitted against has drastically increased. Instead of fighting four or five Black Spider Ninjas at a time, it’s now commonplace for you to be up against 10 at a time, with more respawning. The fact that you’re up against so many doesn’t mean they become any easier though. They’re still the same incendiary shuriken-throwing, crackhead-jumping bastards you’ve faced before, except they’ve doubled their numbers. Luckily, your new weapons like the Falcon’s Talons, Kusari-gama, and Eclipse Scythe are (usually) enough to keep the odds in your favor. In addition to the Spider Ninjas there’s a whole new assortment of monsters for you to fight here, but frankly none of them are really interesting at all. Even the bosses are pretty lame, generic designs all around, a huge step down from some of the awe inspiring bosses from the first game. It also has to be said that most of the main bosses are much easier too, though judging by the rest of the game I figure this wasn’t intentional and instead was the result of a rush job (more on this later).

This adventure sees Ryu ditching the traditional “Japanese village and a bunch of caves” affair for a world-wide tour. In addition to the aforementioned Hayabusa village Ryu will also visit a decimated New York, Venice, and an armed gunship among other famous locales. A few of the environments are breathtaking, especially the New York and Venice stages. Sadly this standard doesn’t hold up for the entire game, and later on the stages start to resemble the drab, colorless levels of the first game. I also would have preferred there to be some life shown in these vast cities, because seeing New York completely barren and desolate in the face of such a huge crisis is almost comical. However given the slowdown issues that arrive from just Ryu and his enemies on the screen alone, this was probably for the best.

Now if the only issues with this game were generic enemies and women who look like crack whores this would still be up there with the original Ninja Gaiden as one of the finest action games ever released. Sadly this isn’t the case, as it’s plagued with so many issues that it’s difficult to even call the game a finished product, let alone a great title. The first issue you’re likely to run into within five minutes of playing the game is slowdown. This game suffers from massive slowdown when the screen gets crowded with enemies, and this happens multiple times in each stage. It’s a pretty big nuisance, especially in a game that’s supposed to require quick reflexes and strict timing. Another problem I had with the game was the lack of an option to select levels after you’ve beaten them (an option that somehow APPEARED IN AN EARLY VERSION OF THE GAME but is mysteriously absent now). Not only are some levels more fun to replay than others, but there are some very valuable items and weapons hidden in each of the levels and if you miss them, that’s it. So word of advice, if you don’t plan on using a FAQ/strategy guide or think you may want to play a particular mission over again at some point without going through the whole fucking thing, use manual saving and save often.

A bigger issue this time around is the camera. Now, I was one of the few people who didn’t complain about the camera in the original Ninja Gaiden, since it never presented any problems for me. This time however, I can sympathize with whoever whines about camera issues in this game, because it just simply isn’t up to par. The camera control is largely unchanged from Ninja Gaiden Black, but given the number of enemies Ryu now faces at a single time, many of whom just linger off-screen and toss projectiles, it just doesn’t work. It would help immensely if the camera panned out a little bit during large scale battles, but instead it just continues to assume you’re fighting against three enemies at a time while the other fifteen are steady throwing shit at you like you’re the gym class nerd. Another example comes from an early boss battle in a train station versus a giant electric worm (I really wasn’t kidding when I said they were generic). Instead of the traditional boss battle camera that’s fixed on the boss, allowing Ryu to dodge and maneuver as he pleases while keeping the boss in sight, apparently somebody thought it would be a good idea for the camera to just follow Ryu around only. The result is that the boss will end up off-screen plenty of times, and you will have to focus less on dodging and more on re-adjusting the camera to line up your attack, which of course will occasionally lead to cheap hits.

These camera issues combined with the comparatively worse room design (you’ll frequently find yourself in small rooms that offer limited maneuverability while being surrounded by enemies) make portions of the game void of any fun. The challenge of the first game which punished the player for his mistakes has now been replaced by a challenge that punishes you for factors that are completely out of your control. There is a section of the game where you have to run around a swamp with several enemies shooting a hailstorm of rockets at you and it’s just a huge annoying chore to complete. These issues only get worse as you attempt higher difficulty modes, and I pray for whoever out there who has completed the Master Ninja difficulty because he has surely died as a result of high blood pressure by now. Other issues that could’ve easily been addressed before the game shipped were present as well, like several instances which would lead to the game crashing (I believe they have since been fixed in patches however). Hilariously enough, glitches keep showing up to this day in the form of downloadable content, as the Mission Mode pack will crash all of your Achievements and the newest game update will reportedly make the game crash at several points.

These problems are not at all consistent with Team Ninja’s usually high standard of quality, and it leads one to wonder why this game was released as is. It’s no secret by now that Itagaki has since left Tecmo quickly following the release of NG2 and is currently involved in a lawsuit against said company. Now I’m not a big enough conspiracy theorist to suggest that he intentionally messed with the game as a final “fuck you” to Tecmo, but there might be some sort of correlation between him leaving and the game being released as a glitchy, slowdown-ridden mess. Another possibility is that the game was rushed out in order to take some of the hype away from MGS4, which was released a week later. If that was the case then we all saw how well that worked out.

Either way, it’s sad to see that such a potentially great game was ruined by a myriad of bad decisions. This was one of the games I bought a 360 for, and to see it fall so drastically short of my expectations was shocking. In spite of all the problems the game does do a lot of things right, and hopefully a “Black”-style upgrade will be released that fixes many of these issues. Until then, I can only recommend a purchase if you’re a die hard fan of the series who can willfully ignore its glaring flaws. For the rest of us, it’s a rental at best.