[Fallback]

I have been playing Ninja Gaiden II game off and on for the past few weeks since the first day of it’s release. I wanted to get through as much as possible before writing this review. I also played an early build of the game before its release and you can read those impressions here.

So is Ninja Gaiden II any good?

Ninja Gaiden vs. Ninja Gaiden II

I played through and completed the first (3D) Ninja Gaiden for the first time just two weeks before the release and my purchase of Ninja Gaiden II. With that Ninja Gaiden expreience fresh in my mind I can say that Ninja Gaiden II is a definite improvement over the previous Ninja Gaiden.

Ninja Gaiden II is faster, more intense and has a much deeper combat system than the first. When I first started playing I could not believe at how fast it was. There are many enemies coming at you and lots on the screen at the same time. By the time I was a few chapters in I guess I adjusted to the speed of the combat in the game and its seems fast but not “too” quick or as fast as it seemed at first.

Ninja Gaiden II is much more linear than the first Ninja Gaiden game. There is very little to no backtracking in Ninja Gaiden II and there are no puzzles that you need to hit GameFaqs to figure out. The linearity is a love or hate thing. In my case I loved it. I like the choice to keep it focused on action and I did not like the “puzzles” in the first game.

This is footage from the demo version that I captured but it does give you a feel of the combat, camera, and linearity of the level design and is pretty much representative of the essence of the final product:

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Combat Evolved?

There are a lot more moves, many more weapons and unlike the first game you want to try all the weapons because they all have distinct advantages in certain situations. Each weapon comes with distinct obliteration techniques, ultimate techniques, and combo sets. The weapons and the combat system is vastly improved or I guess I should say “expanded” over the first game.

Ninja Gaiden II is challenging. If you don’t like loosing, or have a “throw the controller” temper this may not be the game for you. You WILL die. You will repeat certain parts of the game a few times though you can forgive the difficulty because the combat action is INTENSE. Blood splatters, cut limbs, decapitations are all there. The action is top notch and I never got t… read more…

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