Now Playing: Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360)
Since Gamefly is incapable of sending anything released in the last 6 months my way, I am now maiming and slaying a crimson coated path through Ninja Gaiden 2. It’s funny that after four years and three iterations of what is essentially the same game, the sequel has me feeling kinda homesick.
As dazzling as the idea of skyscrapers with traditional Japanese pagodas and gardens on top of them is, I keep thinking about the humble City of Tairon. Running through Hayabusa Village in Ninja Gaiden 2 brings back memories of the well-worn path I plodded through the same village and how everything is in the wrong place now. Even the swarms of Essence-dropping bats aren’t the same as they once were. There’s also a lot of similarity between Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on the DS. Both were developed alongside one another and it looks like assets from the Xbox version were rendered as still images and used to build Dragon Sword’s backgrounds. Several of the new environments in Ninja Gaiden 2 and even some of the level layouts feel familiar.
All this means nothing really as the gameplay has been lovingly honed to an even deadlier edge with new moves and old, tons of weapons, and… well, that’s about it. The rest of the game, from the camera that likes to wedge itself behind objects and below the ground (!!!) to the try-and-retry platform jumping feel familiar in all the wrong ways. But, figuring that most everyone in the last four years has managed to stumble over a copy of Ninja Gaiden in one form or another, Team Ninja really cranked up the difficulty. Only a few minutes into the game on the normal difficulty and I’d already been obliterated by what was probably a fourth-string Black Spider Ninja Clan footsoldier.
It’s been a while since I’ve played Ninja Gaiden so I ran back to the title screen with my head hung low and started over again… on easy. Fortunately, there’s incentive to play through again as the majority of the game’s Achievements are based on completing the story mode with a single weapon. I don’t think I’ll be playing through on each of the five difficulties in order to finish the game with each of ten weapons, but I’ll most likely run through it once more.
For now, I’m running around a ruined Times Square, fending off mutant dogs with swords in their mouths while watching a trailer for the most disturbing fake movie I’ve ever seen on a jumbotron. That’s something they didn’t show in the previews and it’s classic Team Ninja humor and action that I can’t wait to get back to.
