Ninja Gaiden is the definitive action brawler series. While new-comers like the recent Wolverine, and the long standing God of War and Devil May Cry series bring eye-popping visuals, no brawler can touch Ninja Gaiden’s level of game play. It demands everything you have as a player to beat it, and it grinds you into the dirt mercilessly with it’s obscene difficulty. I love it.
Now, Team Ninja has brought out a remixed version of Ninja Gaiden II to the Playstation 3–this time without the series’ controversal creator, Itagaki. Click the jump to see if Ryu’s katana is still as sharp as ever.
Aside from an extra coat of graphical polish, the first thing you’ll notice about Sigma 2 is that it is the easiest Ninja Gaiden to date. I’ve finished the game on Warrior, and I’m over a third through the Mentor level, without dying much at all. I’ve put in many hours into the original Ninja Gaiden 2, and some might think that I’m just used to the game, but the visceral difficulty in this game has been drastically tuned down from the original–at least on the first three difficulty levels.
The remaining differences between NG 2 and Sigma 2 regard the elements of the game. Some good–some, probably should have been left on the planning board. To help make up for Ninja Gaiden’s always quirky camera, Ryu can auto target with projectile weapons like his compound bow. This feature comes in handy–especially when boarding Genshin’s airship. However, it kills the challenge on some bosses–like the sewer fiend, and the Arch Fiend’s first form. Beating them now is as easy as taking a picture with a digital camera–just click and shoot. Another difference is the way you power up your weapons with Muramasa. Instead of paying in essence orbs, you can only power them up at shop stations with a blue lantern. You can only power up one weapon one level at each blue-light station. This helps in that you always have enough essence to buy health items.
The additional campaign content is interesting, but it isn’t original. If you played the demo, you’ve fought the “okay” hand-sign statue. In the retail version of Sigma 2, you fight the statue again, immediately after defeating the Spider Ninja atop the heliport on the Sky Tokyo level. Basically, this boss (and another one I won’t spoil) are like Tecmo’s interpretation of the Rhodes Statue battle from God of War 2–minus the quick time events.
Another change–one I didn’t care much for–are the changes they made to the enemies. For example, enemies like the Spider-Ninjas give visual clues to their attack patterns. Their claws glow red just before they execute their unblockable grab attack. Thats too much telegraphing for my tastes.
Playing as the overly buxumed characters Rachel, Ayane, and Momiji is fun. They are competent characters with varied move sets, but the levels–especially Rachel’s–have a tacked on feel to them, and their end bosses are either re-hashed from NG Black/Sigma 1, or they are new, but have the boss appeal of static cling. Not a whole lot of thought went into them, and it shows. Momiji’s boss is a complete joke.
Bonus modes include a chapter challange, and a Mission Mode that includes online play. All weapons, characters, and costumes accessed in Mission Mode are acquired through completing levels in the campaign. The only way to play Mission Mode is online. Most of my matches have been lag free, but when it is present, its like playing the game through a View Master. It usually clears up though. When you play them solo, you’re hampered with an AI partner who couldn’t fight their way out of a paper sack. Unfortunately if you or your partner dies, the mission ends, so you’ll spend most of your time babysitting them, than slicing enemy ninjas and fiends. I was hoping the rediculously addictive Weapon Master mode would be on the disc; hopefully it will be available as DLC sometime soon, as it was for NG 2. For those who don’t know, Weapon Master allowed you to select a level, and begin with Acolyte class enemies, and battle up through Master Ninja class enemies, using only your selected main weapon and shurikens. It was a great way to get better at a given weapon for harder levels, and its nice to see how your score stacks agains the worlds best.
So, at the end of the day, I do like the game. For those who were turned off with NG Black/Sigma/NG 2′s difficulty should give Sigma 2 a try. It’s a fun game that will remain in my collection like every other Ninja Gaiden release. It will be most interesting to see what direction Team Ninja will take the house that Itagaki built. If you have a Playstation 3, give it a rent at least. Even with its short commings, its still fun to play, but not as thumb bust challenging as I like it.
Tags: Reviews
