Ninja Gaiden II - it's bloody but it's fun

The sequel to Ninja Gaiden brings gory goodness to the Xbox 360.

Ninja Gaiden II

(Microsoft. Xbox 360, R18)

The release of Microsoft's

Ninja Gaiden II

means Xbox's sturdy action game gets a great sequel on the 360.

It's one of those games where you just get right into the action and are so busy spilling blood and severing limbs, you don't stop to intellectualise too much. I loved it. Behold the carnage and gore!

The graphics are much more impressive and so is the blood as you carve up ninjas and demons alike. The plot is secondary to all this busy hack-and-slash mayhem. Challenging and non-stop adrenaline-pumping action. It looks great in motion.

The battles get intense. Check out this boss fight with a water dragon:

Ryu Hayabusa melds a more authentic fight as the code of the ninja is borne out with honour in a quick death for his enemies - especially by the blade of an upgraded dragon sword.

Not are the weapons extremely lethal, but when looking at the claw and scythe weapons, you feel as if the blade could literally slice through metal. Yes, new weapons have been added to the arsenal, alongside magic ki combos with particularly useful strikes.

The gore-making obliteration technique and powerful weapons like the chain blades are big winners when the battle gets tough. That's both a good and a bad thing, dependant on how much fun you want to have.

The original sometimes seemed set at such a difficult level, you got bogged down in completing missions. This time around, Ninja Gaiden II has undergone vast changes and all for the better.

After repeating frustrating boss battles you finally flick the blood off your glinting lunar staff and flash a satisfied smile, knowing you were badass. The polar opposite of owning the enemy however is getting killed after combat when suddenly out of nowhere a carefully hidden ninja pounces on you and takes that tiny health gauge down to zero. Perhaps not skimping on dragon-bone imbued Grains of Spiritual Life (health packs) is a good idea.

The glory of successful dismemberment attacks, zero health loss and consecutive wall and water running under fire is really cool, but the magic ki attacks do it for me.

Others would argue the graphical splendour and fluid attacks combined with the peach blossoms and the merging of old and new technology in an epic demons-unleashed global furore of demon and ninja claw sets them off.

The downside: there were seldom random frame rate issues, but it's the camera that is the big problem here. It was tiresome in the first game and now so maddening with the use of the bow and exploding knives it makes attacks on several enemies at once pretty hard without using ki.

You can see the action but it's impossible to judge the whole picture of what's in front of you or how many enemies are left. A targeting ability would be great and stealth kills from behind wouldn't be too much of an ask for the next version.

Overall though, there's a lot to recommend it.

The looks are spunky, the hectic boss fights are good carving sessions with none of those irritating 'three sets' enemy life gauges found in other games.

See pictures

here

.

MadGamer rating: 9/10