Ninja Gaiden II impressions

[Gamerforlife]

So I finally got around to playing NG II(I played the demo ages ago, but not the full game). I'm digging it. It's not as hard as people make it out to be. Thing is, Ninja Gaiden 2 is cheap, which means you need to learn how to fight dirty, or you get your ass kicked. I think the people that have the hardest time with the game try and take a fair approach to every fight. If you're in a room with melee fighters and archers, you don't just stay there and try to fight it out like an idiot. You run away, turn a corner and unleash an ultimate technique on the suckers that pursued you then go back to the room, find a spot the archers can't hit you and snipe them to death with your arrows. It's also key to know what the best attacks are for every situation. Most enemies have a weakness to something. I hate cheap games, but in NG 2, cheap goes both ways. You have to learn how to be cheap yourself and then the game becomes your bitch. This is a game about ninjas after all, not honorable samurais.

The combat system is brilliant, we all know that. Moving on...

The game does have a bad camera, though auto-targeting compensates. It's also full of glitches and bugs. However, I find more often than not this works to your advantage. There are many, many parts of the game where you can exploit an AI bug or glitch in the game to make your life easier. And of course, some parts of the game are poorly designed, but by the same token there are parts that are just designed perfectly. Some bosses suck(underground worm boss)and some are awesome. Overall though, I think there are more bad bosses in this one than NG 1 unfortunately. Not a deal breaker though

The level of gore and violence in the game puts it far above any God of War game in my opinion and I love it. Walk back to a previously done area and there are limbs, blood and body parts everywhere. God of War seems to save the violence for fatalities on large enemies and bosses, but NG 2 has you leaving a trail of blood, guts and limbs after every encounter and the weapon "flick" that Ryu does to get the blood of his weapon after every battle. Awesome. This is Kill Bill, crazy 88 scene in pretty much every fight and it's the only game I have played that gives you that experience in 3-d(Dishwasher Samurai is like the awesome 2-d equivalent of this game).

I also love how ridiculously over the top the game is. NG 2 has just about every type of enemy you could want. Mechs, zombies, wherewolves, ninjas, zombie ninjas, commando ninjas(that really made me laugh my ass off), demons, giant bugs. Jesus, it's like Itagaki really set out to make an all encompassing action game. This also shows in how dynamic the game is. It throws you into a variety of situations with some parts of the game even playing out like a modern shooter. Not everything the game does works(like the water based areas which never work in ANY game), but the everything but the kitchen sink approach results in more memorable stuff than crappy stuff I think.

Oh, and the eye candy. Elizabeth bathing in blood, anyone who has played through the whole game remembers that awesome scene. Now don't get me wrong, I love seeing smart, moderately proportioned women in video games. In fact, I'm always the first to praise a game that doesn't sexualize or stereotype women. However, NG 2 is the sort of game that is completely happy to just be a video game. It's not trying to be smart, forward thinking, artsy or intellectual in any way shape or form and it works.

It's a very flawed game in many ways. The game has performance issues, some bad design in some parts of the game and most of the levels seem much longer than they need to be. And of course the story is silly, particularly for anyone silly enough to actually play the game with the English dub. However, I think the game has more pros than cons and is quite playable even with all of its flaws.

I would recommend anyone who hasn't already finished NG 2 to check out Reims videos on youtube or maybe find a link to the direct downloads on the gamefaqs boards. He has a smart, strategic approach to the game showing how manageable the difficulty is even on Master Ninja mode and he provides helpful commentary on each video. Normally, I hate videos with commentary but this guy actually sounds smart and mature and has good tips. I'll be surprised if any of you read through this whole post though, specially since many of you have probably played NG 2 already.

[MrPopo]

So I was about to write a post about how wrong your statements were, then I realized you were talking about the bad Ninja Gaiden II, not the awesome NES one.

[reagan]

So I was about to write a post about how wrong your statements were, then I realized you were talking about the bad Ninja Gaiden II, not the awesome NES one.

+1. i was going to say the exact same thing.

[timewarpgamer]

LOL, I was hoping for some NES NG2 discussion as well...