My Ninja Gaiden II Review

Oh, the great sequel to one of the best games on the original Xbox. So much to live up to. I have been waiting for this game for who knows how long. I reserved and picked it up the day it came out. Drove home in excitement and popped it in. At first, I was as pleased as could be with the game. The game delivered everything I thought it would, plus more. You can't go wrong with blood and limbs being flung all over the place.

The gameplay is almost identical to the first, except for the new decapitation moves. Once an enemy has a limb missing, all you need to do is press Y and you finish them off with an awesome move. You receive a variety of different weapons as you progress through the game. You travel across the globe, finding yourself in Venice, Japan, America, and Russia, fighting ninjas, demons, crazed dogs, magicians, and crazy boss fights including three story tall armadillos and a gugantic metal worm.

I finished the first two difficulties, so natural I moved onto the harder ones. That's when the biggest problem emerged. The game's difficulty skyrockets to unbelievable levels. I consider myself a great game, and I can't think of any game I haven't beat that I commit to. But the harder difficults are very cheap. The enemies constantly span exploding shurikens, and grab you everytime you are near and self destruct. And believe me when I say this...this is all they do. Once your stuck one with one of these shurikens, you're done for. Most moves are unblockable, or they block stun you and kill you quick. It took one long month for me to beat Master Ninja Mode, the hardest difficulty. They could have made the enemies smarter and and use a variety of moves, but with the internal problems with Team Ninja before the game was released, you could tell the game was rushed with no quality control.

A lot of people complain about the camera in the game, but I really didn't have the same issues. You have complete control of the camera at all times. It can get frustrating in certain corridors and small rooms though.

This game would receive a perfect score with me if it wasn't for the wrong type of difficulty. I love challenges, but the harder modes felt more like a chore than a challenge.