I have a bit of a history with this game. When I was a kid my best friend let me try Ninja Gaiden Black on his xbox and said I'd never be able to beat the first boss. I remember trying over and over and eventually being able to beat him, but then never got past the second boss. Years later I found Ninja Gaiden II's demo on xbox 360 marketplace. I ended up playing it over and over to the point of obsession. The combat felt so insanely satisfying and addicting that I couldn't let it go. Sadly I didn't have the money to buy the full game at the time so I had to let it go. Years later I've played Ninja Gaiden Black and both Sigma games countless of times, but it only took me until now to finally play the original Ninja Gaiden II. And what a joy this was to play.
This has the best hack n slash combat of any game I've played. It feels extremely fluid, responsive, fast paced and intense with a huge amount of moves, weapons and other things to play with. It's by far the biggest strength of the game and it fully focusses on it. Unfortunately that does mean that the almost metroidvania-like level design with the interconnected world of Ninja Gaiden Black is traded in for fully linear levels with nothing but combat. For that reason I still prefer Black. But at the same time it's hard to go back to Black after playing this one, with the huge amount of combat improvements and overall quality of life additions.
This game is so over the top it makes Bayonetta, DMC and God of War feel grounded and restrained. It throws dozens of lethal enemies at you in many occasions and just pushes you, and the game engine itself to the absolute limits. Thankfully I played this on the Xbox Series X which ran it in a perfect 4K 60FPS, which feels utterly breathtaking for a game as fast paced and bonkers as this one.
It's very flawed, has plenty of bullshit sections, enemies and bosses. But man, 80% of the time this game feels like an absolute dream to play. When everything falls into place perfectly, it's hack n slash bliss.
There is no game like Ninja Gaiden II and there probably will never be.
This has the best hack n slash combat of any game I've played. It feels extremely fluid, responsive, fast paced and intense with a huge amount of moves, weapons and other things to play with. It's by far the biggest strength of the game and it fully focusses on it. Unfortunately that does mean that the almost metroidvania-like level design with the interconnected world of Ninja Gaiden Black is traded in for fully linear levels with nothing but combat. For that reason I still prefer Black. But at the same time it's hard to go back to Black after playing this one, with the huge amount of combat improvements and overall quality of life additions.
This game is so over the top it makes Bayonetta, DMC and God of War feel grounded and restrained. It throws dozens of lethal enemies at you in many occasions and just pushes you, and the game engine itself to the absolute limits. Thankfully I played this on the Xbox Series X which ran it in a perfect 4K 60FPS, which feels utterly breathtaking for a game as fast paced and bonkers as this one.
It's very flawed, has plenty of bullshit sections, enemies and bosses. But man, 80% of the time this game feels like an absolute dream to play. When everything falls into place perfectly, it's hack n slash bliss.
There is no game like Ninja Gaiden II and there probably will never be.