After beating Metal Gear Solid 4 I found myself in a games drought. Luckily I was able to borrow Ninja Gaiden II from a co-worker, who suggested I play the game on “Warrior” (hard) mode. I followed his suggestion and ended up crawling to the 3rd act after dying numerous times (mainly during boss battles).

Despite the lukewarm reviews for this title, it’s certainly grown on me. The combat is improved over the first title and much more furious. I think reviewers were particularly disappointed because there is no real cohesive plot to justify all the locale changes. In addition, enemies feel cheaper overall and death is often due to bad luck instead of the player’s fault. The camera issues are certainly annoying, but I found myself adapting around them. The increased difficulty is countered by the partially regenerating health bar, which is very welcome change. I wonder how much abuse I’m going to take until I have to restart in Acolyte (easy) difficulty. If you’re a fan of action games, difficulty, and pure gameplay mayhem, then this is the game for you…. even if it doesn’t live up to Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Posted on July 14th, 2008 by denny