Ninja Gaiden II ^{(Xbox 360)}

Genre: Fighting Publisher: Tecmo Developer: Team Ninja Players: 1

By Keith B (22nd Jun 2008)

Ninja Gaiden and the other offshoots of the brand have been well received, but does relentless hack and slash combat still cut it in today’s gaming world?

Reviewing a game after it comes out, as opposed to before it’s released in the form of preview code, is usually not the best way to do things. But in the case of Ninja Gaiden II, it’s served a useful purpose. You see, not only did the series creator take Tecmo to court, but so did all the rest of the staff. So there was upheaval in the office while this was being made, and you can tell. The first thing you notice is the lack of an intro of any sort, aside from a camera panning around a barren, fog-laden field with sword in the ground. Considering the scenes at the start and end of a game are done later in the cycle I imagine that whatever was causing the rot at Tecmo came before coding the intro.

The story is hardly necessary, but here you go. Ryu Hyabusa is on the trail of Elizabet, who has stolen an ancient artefact from Ryu’s father and she aims to resurrect the Arch Fiend, leader of the underworld. As she travels on her merry way it’s up to Ryu to track her and obliterate anything in the way, which happens with bone-jarring frequency. The trail not only sees Ryu visit real world locations like New York but also a smattering of other world areas too, where it rains blood and all manner of abominations reside. So off Ryu goes with his armoury and brings death to the fiends.

Moving Ryu about and performing any of his massive repertoire of moves is a breeze, thanks to there only being two combat buttons (three if you include the left trigger as block). Y is for hard attacks and X for weaker ones. Mashing the buttons in sequence allows Ryu to pull off extraordinary manoeuvres and when you throw wall running, magic, Ultimate Techniques and Obliteration Techniques it all becomes a bit frantic, yet thoroughly rewarding. And the lovely high-def graphics make it look impressive too.

Ninja Gaiden II doesn’t appear to be as difficult as the initial release on the Xbox, although there are points when it comes close. The variety of weapons available is also large although pretty much the same as we had in Ninja Gaiden. From single or double swords to flails, tonfas, a staff, and then the ranged collection of shuriken, exploding shuriken, bow and arrow and windmill shuriken there is plenty of ways to get creative with your killing.

So the elements are in place – weapons, ranged, tons of enemies, interesting level design. How does it all pull together? Well enough, but it’s not perfect.

Anyone who loves their combat games will get enjoyment of this, no doubt. As you meander your way through a wave of enemies, your cuts and slashes often chop the limb of an enemy. IF a limb is lot, Ryu can then perform an Obliteration Technique, which sees him go into a set pattern of moves that ends with beheading, splitting in two, lopping off more limbs before splitting in two. The OT is a very useful tool because not only does it allow you to finish off a foe for more essence, it also makes you essentially invulnerable while you’re doing it. The same also applies to the Ultimate Technique. To perform this, you hold down the Y button and Rye charges his power through two levels, and once charged, can be unleased to send Ryu into an unbelievable string of combos that removes heads and limbs like nothing else. The gruesome nature of the injuries brought furious giggle of child-like laughter from me and I’m a grown man.

Declaring Ryu as the best ninja in the world means you don’t really want to spend half a day trying to negotiate your way up a cliff face, and you don’t have to, because the character’s jumps and flips, and wall running, are all simple to execute and you never really feel like you’re struggling.

What will make you struggle, however, are the camera angles. As with the previous title, Ninja Gaiden II suffers from occasionally woeful angles, and while it’s fait to say that these things are inevitable in a game like this then shouldn’t there be a lot of work going into the development cycle to make it feel more organic. The frenetic action tends to lose its shine when you’re standing at the edge of the screen mashing buttons, killing something you can’t even see. It also serves to make your OTs redundant because you can’t see if the foe is missing a limb.

And in another page ripped straight from the ‘Stereotypes in Video Game Genres’ book you also have a number of items to locate on your journey, this time crystal skulls. There are 30 of them across the 14 levels and serve no other purpose than to garner you with Achievement Points. For the point-fanatics, the game structures the points well, keeping you in the middle of a continual flow of them from start to finish.
Boss battles, the essence of a game like this, are interesting and then not. Most of the characters you fight are really well done, from concept to execution. Some are gigantic, others gifted with teleport or other forms of magic. Killing them is a gentle challenge but stick it on the harder levels and you’ll know all about it. The ‘and not’ bit from the opening sentence of this paragraph is because you fight most of them multiple times. Across the 14 levels there are maybe 10-12 boss fights, but that is comprised of only six or seven actual enemies. Each time you encounter one they may have slightly different abilities but the same approach normally works for them all. Could this be as a result of the in-house Tecmo friction we looked at earlier?

No matter. For those who enjoy the carnage side of things then this is exactly what you need, as long as you don’t mind following set paths to your goals. Worth a look, but beware: if you seek depth and long term playing, look elsewhere.