I’m surprised that Ninja Gaiden 2 isn’t receiving much publicity within the media or consumer market, as apposed to its highly successful prequel, Ninja Gaiden.
Ninja Gaiden is a third person action adventure game which was released exclusively for the Xbox in 2004. It’s hard to think it was four years ago such a great game was released, as I can remember like it was yesterday playing through, what would be, one of the most frustratingly difficult games I’ve ever played since Golden Axe (yes, that far back) but at the same time, one of the most enjoyable & satisfying games I’ve ever played to date.
I’m sure it’s extremely rare for anyone to have a game which is frustrating but enjoyable at the same time, as normally it’s frustratingly hard because the AI cheats or the game's controls let you down, here this wasn’t the case for either. The AI was tough, but didn’t cheat, and the controls were fine, actually, the controls were one of the major contributors to this game which made it so good. The controls themselves were good, but what you could do with them was what made the game sophisticated, it proved and redefined skill for the console controller. It was one of those games which you could retry over and over again until you perfected it, where as normally you would have given up, this was a rare occasion for any game, and now after hearing the official announcement of Ninja Gaiden 2, an exclusive for the Xbox 360, I’m intrigued on how Team Ninja will move this one forward.
Once again the game will be published by Microsoft, not so surprising now it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive, and developed by Team Ninja. Details that have been released have been fairly limited; the main chunk has come from the Tokyo game show press conference, which was held in September 2007. Here it was confirmed that new weapons have been introduced, a few of these were the scythe and the three bladed claws, which were shown being used in the game. There has been an official promotional trailer introducing the game and showing the scythe and three bladed claws, but since then only a slow stream of gameplay trailers showing off some of the new gameplay elements, nothing entirely official.
There will be a few changes in setting for Ninja Gaiden 2; you’ll find yourself in such places like New York, Japan and another fantasy like place called Aqua Capital, which from the screen looks like it’s inspired by the city of Venice. It has been quite recently discovered that a new health system would be put into place, now Ryu’s health will regenerate partially over time, I suppose this is Team Ninja’s answer to the overly difficult gameplay of the original
The Tokyo game conference trailer showed an in-production look at some of the fast paced action that can be found this time around. The footage was definitely familiar, it was still the same 3rd person sped up action packed game we left back in 2004, but now with the ability to cut off several limbs and spurt heaps of blood, I think the game will be rated an 18. Of course, the presentation offered a look at the extra weapons in sequence, in particular the scythe. This was an interesting weapon to watch being wielded about, as there were some interesting impaling moves been pulled off, a weapon which you’d least likely see in a ninja game. What also caught my eye were the longer, more progressive & fluent combo’s being displayed, there were times where Ryu had killed one enemy and then before you know it moved straight onto the next. Everything was being played at 100mph and it just didn’t stop, it was all very gracefully implemented and looked almost effortless, this will definitely be a plus for the hardcore fans of Ninja Gaiden. Except for the chaotic combat and a few new additions to the gameplay though, there weren’t any significant differences shown, but maybe this is a good thing.
Although at the moment the sequel looks quite featureless, it has been promised that there will be a lot more to the game such as a record/sharing feature similar to the Theater mode in Halo 3; the lack of details maybe due to marketing reasons, it could be due to the content being linked within the storyline or setting, or it just may be due to the game not quite being finished yet although there's not much time left until the June release date, who knows. But what I do know, from what has been said and footage that has been shared, that fans from the previous installments won’t feel any nostalgia, as this game looks reborn for this generation, and I can’t wait.
Ninja Gaiden II will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360 from June 3rd 2008.
Preview By: Lee Burton
|
|
