Ninja Gaiden 2 Impressions
Managed to sneak a purchase by the wife yesterday - Xbox360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2 just hit US retailers Wednesday June 4th. I put the disc in and let her do its thing, that familiar jet engine that powers the 360 kicks on and off we go. Normally I’m knee deep in new game smell by now, but the AAA titles get a slow approach, opening cinematics usually show off the production values, so my rear is on the couch and a bag of popcorn kernels are getting nuked close by. So I climb the familiar Team Ninja hill and wait through a a cool looking title screen for something I had not anticipated, pure style. This is next gen Gaiden, and Ryu is wearin a tux. (Metaphor, not really wearin a tux, imagination people) I won’t spoil it for you, all I’ll say is it was a classy opening, and encouraged pressing start immediately.
Ninja Gaiden Black takes up like 3 or 4 gigs on my harddrive, so I’ve been trying to practice. Started the game on easy to tip the scales in my favor this time, not sure much good it will do me considering past difficulty benchmarks its predecessor had set. I’m starting to uncover a world that beckons nostalgia without smelling old, and a few things I like about playing games in general I may have forgotten. This new generation of HiDef games has brought with it alot of good, graphics/hardware/obvious arguments aside, games have gotten closer to becoming movies/media events, accessible to larger audiences then ever before. Its refreshing to see the movies at a minimum and the action to the max.
Don’t buy into reviews of a bad camera, most likely the reviewer just can’t hack it. Right stick w/right trigger auto center for 3rd person. 1st person is used to look around from a standing position but no Halo Gaiden action if thats what you were hopin for. Although mildly frustrating at the very beginning, thats exactly what it was - A Beginning. With my dope dragon clan ninja skills combined with a save-film feature, that right stick is a directors chair next to left stick of destruction, wielding upgradeable weapons and gallons of blood. This game has more blood then Mortal Kombat, but personally I think its got more style then blood.
Posted by Erick - June 6th, 2008 -
June 6th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Sounds good Erik! I’ve long been interested in picking up Ninja Gaiden, having not played one since the absolute original eons ago, I’ve heard the difficulty can be rather trying at times.
There are a lot of people who berate games if a difficulty level is rather extreme but there are many games that function well off of this:
I don’t think I would have enjoyed Call of Duty 2 quite so much if I hadn’t decided to go through it again on veteran, yes it was hard in places but oh so much more rewarding! I for one felt a great sense of achievement from slugging through it despite the infuriating amount of times I died.
Like wise with N+ while the game mechanics are simple, it’s easily pickup and playable but you look at the clock a few minutes later and boom, two hours have gone by! And then a little later still, you unlock the “Died 1000 times” achievement and think, what? I’m still playing?! But then you realise, although you’re gnashing your teeth at every death, when you finally finish a level you’ve been stuck on for a while: Sense of achievement +1, proud winning smile ability added.