In the wake of Tomonobu Itagaki’s departure from Team Ninja/Tecmo, fans of the Ninja Gaiden series are left with a bittersweet sequel in Ninja Gaiden II, an exclusive title for the Xbox 360. The game is as fast, frenetic and tough as the original Xbox game; unfortunately, the same issues that plagued the previous game snuck in there as well.
Let’s get the unpleasant problems out of the way. It’s dreadfully disappointing that the same camera system from the first game was left intact. Be prepared to deal with it getting stuck behind walls and objects quite often. Players will be left fighting the camera controls almost as much as their enemies. Veteran players know the drill and shouldn’t have too many problems with it though.
For the graphics, Team Ninja opted to stick to a similar art style like the Dead or Alive series, where the characters are very smooth and glossy without much detail. It’s kind of disappointing that there is no “WOW” factor like the original Ninja Gaiden. That’s not to say that the visuals are terrible, they just don’t scream next-gen. Thankfully, the game does run at a blazing 60 frames per second making the action look buttery smooth… most of the time. There will be a few situations where the game will slow down due to having an intense amount of enemies on screen all vying to deal the deathblow to Ryu Hayabusa.
… and there’s a ton of news coming out of it. We’ve been busy putting together interviews, looking at upcoming titles and generally getting our ducks in a row to really squeeze every last drop out of the expo.
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