Going into Ninja Gaiden 2, I had the basic gist of what to expect. A veteran of the series, I had played Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black, and while I wasn’t the best at these games, I had gotten used to the intense difficulty and speed of the gameplay, and I was expecting it in Ninja Gaiden 2. Sadly, Ninja Gaiden 2 doesn’t quite live up to its predecessors.

Developed for the Xbox 360 by Team Ninja, Ninja Gaiden is your traditional fast-paced hack and slash game, although it does require more combo mastery than most hack and slash games. The game takes place after the events of the Ninja Gaiden:Dragon Sword, a DS-exclusive title. It follows Ryu Hayabusa, who returns from the other Ninja Gaiden games to fight the Black Spider Ninja Clan. Aside from this little bit of knowledge, the game’s story never truly progresses, and it’s really an unnecessary part of the game…this game does just fight without a complicated, well-plot out story like Metal Gear Solid’s, and it’s better because of it. When I play as a badass Ninja, I wanna feel like a badass Ninja:barely talking, always killing. And this game accomplishes that.         

The combat displayed in previous games returns, with some notable improvements. For example, Ryu has new execution moves, in which he rips his enemies limb from limb. Aside from that, the developers added quite a few weapons to the mix, all with different attacks, aside from the Ninpo(magic) moves, making fights much more layered and fun. However, just like in previous games, the camera hampers the fun somewhat, as sometimes you’ll lose site of Ryu behind a wall, and he becomes totally vulnerable during these points. Also, enemies have the ability to attack from off-screen, a major annoyance, as you can be killed by enemies you can’t even see. While the game does have four gameplay types, the easiest shouldn’t even be played if you’re not a casual gamer…and chances are if you bought Ninja Gaiden 2, you’re not a casual gamer. Stick to the harder difficulties, because despite quite a few points where the game does grow pretty hard, especially during confusing boss fights, this game’s difficulty never reaches that of the higher levels of Ninja Gaiden Black, a fact which may disappoint the more hardcore game in search of a challenge. However, the huge moveset and variety of weapons should appeal to anyone with a desire to truly master the combat, and not just button mash their way through every boss fight. Also, as you’re forced to block quite a bit, as the enemy A.I. is unforgiving, but you’ll also be forced, in between blocks to constantly move, as this is a fast paced game, and if you’re not attacking, you need to be constantly attacking. If you’re not moving, you’re dying, as hesitation will have you on the ground in seconds.

Aside from the occasional framerate drop, this game is very impressive graphically when you consider the amount of enemies it has on-screen at once. Aside from crisply displaying all of Ryu’s attacks, it also keeps the rest of the setting and the enemies in focus, ensuring that you never see a muddy, unclear background or enemy. However, the graphics never have a chance to truly strain themselves, as the game is full of fixed environments, being completely linear.

While the enemy A.I. has been seriously improved since the previous games(enemies constantly keep attacking, and are relentless to the point of madness), at times it can become grating, as they now use shuriken and other long range projectiles quite often. This is somewhat offset by the inclusion of a rechargeable health bar(which seems to be in every game now), but its still tiresome to constantly be forced to dodge. However, there’s such a wide variety of enemies, that you’ll actually enjoy fighting new enemies, as they all have different strategies of attack, and they force you to be inventive in your combat tactics.          

There’s nothing much to be said about Ninja Gaiden 2’s sound…it’s not great, but it’s also not bad. The soundtrack, while not phenomenal, is fun to listen to, and is definitely one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard this year. While the voice acting isn’t amazing, it’s also not helped at all by the script, which is generic and poorly written. It just feels like it was written slightly last minute, and you somewhat lose a feel for the characters after listening to them. My advice: go online and read the game’s story, if it truly matters to you, and turn the volume off during the cutscenes, so you can just admire the graphics.

In my humble opinion, Ninja Gaiden 2 is an improvement on its predecessors in almost every way. It has great combat, with great variety both in attacks, weapons, and enemies, great graphics, great A.I., and good sound. However, it’s not all good, as the boss fights are unforgivable and annoying, the story is unnecessary (something I’ll almost never say about a video game) the camera can be very bad at times, and difficulty goes from being incredibly easy, to pretty damn hard without any middle ground. If you’re a fan of Ninja Gaiden, or just hack and slash games in general, then this is a definite buy. If not, I would still recommend renting this, as every needs some violent action games from time to time. If the violence bothers you, just tell yourself it relieves stress, and you’ll have a blast with Ninja Gaiden 2.