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Out This Month
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Prince of Persia Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC Release Date: 12/2/2008 Genres: Action, Adventure Developer: Ubisoft |
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Damnation Platforms: PS3, PC, Xbox 360 Release Date: 12/16/2008 Genres: Action Developer: Blue Omega Entertainment |
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Bomberman Ultra Platforms: PS3 (PSN) Release Date: TBA Genres: Puzzle Developer: Hudson |
| Ninja Gaiden 2 Review |
| Marcus Beasley. Associate Editor | |||||
| Sunday, June 22 2008 | |||||
 Ninja Gaiden 2, in which you play as infamous ninja Ryu Hayabusa as he saves the world, is the much-anticipated and gorier follow up to the controller-breaking, rage-inducing original that debuted on the Xbox. It offers new moves, more weapons, and an even cheesier story. Just like in the original, you can be prepared to be introduced to the Game Over screen very quickly, as the new combat engine takes some adjusting. You can now hack body parts off of your adversaries, but doing so will have consequences. If you let someone without an arm or leg wander around the battlefield for too long, they'll head right toward you in an attempt to blow you up! To combat this problem you can defeat them using a brutal and flashy finishing move called an "Obliteration Technique," which results in decimation of your enemies in a rather grim fashion. Sometimes Ryu will slice off an opponent's legs and stab him in the throat, or sometimes he'll leap off an enemy's back and slice him in half. Weapons range from the familiar Dragon Sword to new additions like Scythes and Tonfas, as well as the return of old weapons and spells like shurikens and staves.The most striking change to the familiar Ninja Gaiden formula is the new health bar. During combat part of the health bar will turn red, which represents health that won't regenerate; the rest will heal over time outside of combat. In order to completely restore Ryu's life, you'll need to find a save point, but the regeneration is essential for our favorite Hayabusa to take down the bad guys; dozens of enemies will appear on screen at once, turning the game into a frenzied constant bloodbath. Boss battles are also vicious - you'll fight claw-to-sword with several major bosses in frantic power struggles, all culminating in a final boss that is sort of anti-climactic compared to the last game's.Ninja Gaiden 2  The franchise has never been known for its epic storytelling, but the story in Ninja Gaiden 2 is pretty pathetic. A ninja clan named the "Black Spiders" wants to revive a demon known as the Archfiend and Ryu Hayabusa is once again called upon to save the day. Ranging from Tokyo to South America to Mount Fuji, the story has Ryu taking down different elemental fiends as well as working with a busty CIA agent named Sonia.One main grievance about the game is the camera, which focuses closely on the action rather than showing the overall picture -- like a Michael Bay movie. Lots of things wind up happening off the screen and out of your control, resulting in unavoidable damage. Sometimes you won't even be able to see the enemies ahead of you, as you stumble into an alley with no idea what's going to spring up next. The other sore spot is the stuttering frame rate; when the action is high, the engine gets low, and everything starts slowing to a crawl. Although things like that can distract from the flow of the game, you'll get over it after a while. Ninja Gaiden 2 is a stiff challenge, but nothing you can't have a good time with. 9/10 Share/Bookmark: 
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3.23 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |