Ninja Gaiden 2 Review

By Rob Fahey Published 26 May, 2008

Come and have a go.

Version tested: Xbox 360

My living room is full of twenty-something gamers, and they're watching a friend play through the first level of Ninja Gaiden 2. The air is filled with laughter - hooting, cackling, whooping laughter, punctuated with sharp intakes of breath and observations that, well, everything looks like it hurts. Really quite a lot.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is a spectacle. Its predecessor has come to be remembered for a steep but perfectly pitched difficulty curve - but firing up NG2 for the first time is a reminder of just how cinematic and exciting the whole thing is, too. With Ninja Gaiden, we came for the eye-catching, beautiful combat, and stayed for the challenge. Ninja Gaiden 2 ramps up the first part of that formula to a whole new level.

Graphically, of course, it's a stunner, but it's the battle animation and choreography that really pulls in your attention. Ryu's adventure this time around is a far more brutal and violent than his last outing, which featured the occasional decapitation (excised from the European release, you may recall) as a finishing move. Here, the bloodlust goes into overdrive - and with it, Team Ninja's brilliant, over-the-top battle animations.

In NG2, limbs and heads are severed and tossed around like confetti at a wedding. A fairly wide selection of your basic attacks have the ability to sever arms, legs and even heads, assuming you hit them unguarded and at the right time. Every other attack simply sends huge spouts of blood-splatter across the playing area - and even your non-bladed weapons have the ability to cripple, except that instead of cleanly lopping off an arm, they smash the offending limb (or head) into chunky giblets, leaving thick lumps of ichor on the surrounding walls and floor.

'Ninja Gaiden 2' Screenshot 1

We take back what we said about Ryu being a fetishist. That costume is clearly for practical, wipe-clean purposes.

Adding to the ludicrous level of comic-book violence is the fact that your relentless foes aren't that bothered by losing limbs. Enemies without arms are restricted in the attacks they can make, but they'll still have a bloody good go; those without legs crawl across the floor and try to grab you for a suicidal bomb attack. To despatch them, you simply press Y in their vicinity. That'll perform a brutal finishing move (usually involving plenty more smashed or sliced limbs) on the nearest crippled enemy, and it's these moves which are likely to generate the loudest cackles and sharpest intakes of breath.

That, then, is the immediate hook of the game - and it's brilliant. No other action game comes close to Ninja Gaiden 2 for looks, for animation or for ferocity. NG2 doesn't even need a map to guide you around, because the section you're looking for is clearly signposted by the absence of blood, gore and limbless torsos, which are strewn and caked all over everywhere you've been. Even the solid and enjoyable Devil May Cry 4 doesn't have the mesmerising quality that watching someone play NG2 exerts. The problem, sadly, arises when you actually pick up the controller yourself.

Ninja Gaiden has always been a harsh mistress, and we've loved her for it. Ninja Gaiden Black, which is probably the high point of the series so far (the PS3's Sigma being essentially the same game), is hard as nails, demanding that you develop superb reaction times, a stunning mastery of Ryu's moves and a perfect understanding of your enemies' animations and abilities as you progress. For many players, it's simply too hard. The popular view around these parts, however, is that NGB isn't too hard, it's just right - as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort.

'Ninja Gaiden 2' Screenshot 2

These claw-like weapons are a nicely balanced between offence and defence - but you'll need to go toe-to-toe with the bad guys to use them effectively.

But Ninja Gaiden 2 strays from the path. Perhaps mindful of the series' reputation for difficulty, Team Ninja ramped up the difficulty level once again - and torn by the conflicting need to provide accessibility for less dedicated players, it's seriously messed up the balance. NG2 regularly stops being challenging and becomes impossible.

Where Ninja Gaiden balanced frustration with satisfaction, giving you a glow of accomplishment when you finally mastered a tricky section, NG2 breaks the equation on a regular basis. It spawns enemies on top of you - occasionally blinking them into existence right in front of your astonished face. It bombards you with unblockable, long-range attacks - and then restricts your movements, limiting your ability to dodge. It throws exploding kunai at you the second you walk through a door, from enemies you can't even see yet. It tantalises with the possibility of clever solutions or stealth (you are a bloody ninja, after all), allowing you to shoot out searchlights, and then instantly respawns the searchlights and bombards you with long-range rockets again.

These situations aren't something that you pass through by getting better at Ninja Gaiden 2. The game isn't challenging you to improve your skills or work out a cunning solution. It's just kicking your arse until you get lucky. Perhaps the AI will slip up and decide it can't see you, or it can't be bothered attacking you for a few seconds, or you'll score a somewhat random limb-removal against a tough foe and get to finish him off with the Y button.

This isn't to say that Ninja Gaiden 2 never gets it right. There are lengthy sections in the game - entire sprawling levels, in some cases - which capture the beautiful challenge and satisfaction of the previous game. Up against ninja-type enemies, or even some of the better-designed demons, the game flows like liquid silk. Every weapon becomes a joy to use, with its own strengths and weaknesses to master, and every encounter becomes a delicious trial of your reflexes, skill, timing and positioning.

In a sense, it's the knowledge that Team Ninja knows how to do this right that makes it so frustrating when it goes wrong. Some lengthy sections of truly excellent play, combined with genuinely great boss battles - which are still spikes in the difficulty curve, but encourage you to grit your teeth and try again rather than howl in frustration and smash your 360 pad - just make it even more painful when it all goes to pot.

The designers are extremely random in terms of putting save-points directly before or after bosses, although at least they have the decency to auto-restart you at the beginning of a boss battle if you die during one. But one encounter, where you fight two bosses in a row with no intermediate save point, perfectly sums up the overall problem. Upon defeating the second boss (one of the game's cheapest, with lots of phases where you're expected to dodge bombardments of projectiles covering most of the play area), you get the final animation - sinking your scythe into its unprotected skull. For most of the game, this means the battle is over. In this specific battle, however, the boss explodes, and if you don't have enough health to survive it, or can't turn and block in time (which didn't seem to block all the damage anyway), you die and have to do the entire battle again.

Cheap? They'd turn their noses up at this in the game design Poundsaver, frankly. What makes it even worse is that there are tons of other bosses who explode at the end, but Ryu calmly walks away from those without any interaction from you.

'Ninja Gaiden 2' Screenshot 4

One of the game's fastest weapons, the Kusari-Gama also has great range. That said, all the weapons here are fast - NG's slower types have been removed entirely.

The balance of the game, of course, ultimately comes down to opinion. It's our view that NG2 regularly fails to provide the same level of combat challenge that NG did, instead stooping to cheap shots at the player's health bar in order to create the artificial impression of difficulty. There will undoubtedly be huge NG fans who disagree, and we should add that even if we think this drops the game's quality well below that of its predecessor, it's still hugely compelling to play, as long as you've got a fairly dogged persistence and high tolerance for frustration.

What aren't a matter of opinion, however, are the technical flaws. Frame-rate is a persistent issue, and while a little slowdown can actually look quite cool in places, it's not so great when it prevents you from pulling off a move in combat or just makes the whole display laggy. This is especially noticeable if you're running in 1080p - we had to drop our 360's display back to 1080i to get the game to run at an acceptable frame-rate, and this on a brand new 360 running a boxed copy of the PAL release. There are other minor bugs, too. We occasionally got stuck on the legs of the larger boss creatures, and couldn't move around until the boss moved and we popped out.

The biggest issue, though, is one that's been around since the first Ninja Gaiden on Xbox and hasn't improved in all that time: the camera. NG2's camera is awful - really, speechlessly awful. It's manually controlled with the right thumb-stick, while the right trigger provides you with the ability to centre it behind you, but in a game this fast and intense, the fact that the camera has no intelligence of its own is as crippling to you as Ryu's limb-severing attacks are to his enemies. It'll happily sit there showing you the wall next to you while a boss pounds on you from off-screen, and it makes the game's otherwise-excellent platforming sections (a huge improvement on the previous game's, with definite cues from Prince of Persia) very painful at times. Worst of all, it's not just bad, it's buggy and bad; on several occasions it became stuck behind scenery and showed us a close-up of a wall while we got smashed into kibbles.

'Ninja Gaiden 2' Screenshot 6

The new Ninja Cinema feature allows you to record the action at any point and upload and share the results.

All of which is mainly depressing because Ninja Gaiden 2 is still a good game. It's beautiful, cinematic and full of fantastically detailed enemies, gorgeous animations and incredibly fast, exciting combat. But while it's good, it's not quite great. It's marred by technical problems and Team Ninja's previously perfect balancing act just isn't in evidence in major sections. There's too much trial-and-error gameplay, too many cheap shots, and not enough real challenge. There's a difference between kicking your arse until you learn from it, and kicking your arse until you get lucky, and Ninja Gaiden 2 fails that crucial test all too often.

None of which is to say that you shouldn't go out and buy the most balletic, explosive combat game we've seen in years - especially if you were a fan of the last one. Just don't expect it to be as good as its predecessor, allow for the fact that sometimes you're going to have to grit your teeth and accept that some bits just aren't fun - and always remember, if you have to throw a controller, your sofa's cushions make a better target than your TV.

7 / 10

Ninja Gaiden 2 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 6th June.

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Rob Fahey

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (237) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Mildew #1 4 years ago

    Not bad...

  • reddevil93 #2 4 years ago

    Not overly brilliant either. One for fans I think

  • DUFFKING #3 4 years ago

    I'm going to get it and I'm going to kick it's arse.

  • Beano #4 4 years ago

    Better than Haze!

  • Xerx3s #5 4 years ago

    Worse than halo.

  • lambtron #6 4 years ago

    "Better than Haze!"

    Having played the demo I would think that was true of pretty much every game, ever ;).

  • Scrumhalf #7 4 years ago

    Is this the review we have been waiting for? It appeared to be here at 1:30pm, so are we to expect something else?

  • AtomicBanana #8 4 years ago

    Interesting . . other reviews have said it's easier than the previous game, but it seems you do not agree :)

  • penhalion #9 4 years ago

    I don't recall having any problems with the ninja gaiden camera in either Black on the 360 or Sigma on the PS3. If the camera for 2 is the same, then I'm a little stumped about what exactly the problem with a self controlled camera is. I recall that you quickly got used to re-centering the camera during battles and simply leaving it at a vantage point while fighting.

    I'll go pre-order this now I think.

  • Yossarian #10 4 years ago

    Well-written review. I'm not sure if it reads quite like a 7, but the arguments throughout are good. I don't give a toss about the camera provided it hasn't somehow regressed since the Xbox games, but the balance being off is a serious worry if Eurogamer are on the money about this.

  • M83J01P97 #11 4 years ago

    Wasn't there meant to be a demo of this appearing sometime soon? Anyone know when?

  • patchbox360 #12 4 years ago


    schizophrenic review

  • FabricatedLunatic #13 4 years ago

    The designers are extremely random in terms of putting save-points directly before or after bosses...

    Oh dear.

    ...although at least they have the decency to auto-restart you at the beginning of a boss battle if you die during one

    Yay. Exploding boss, however, sounds like a remarkably retarded decision.

  • TONYgr #14 4 years ago

    well i will see for myself!

  • suicida #15 4 years ago

    Err, no thanks then. This bit:

    "These situations aren't something that you pass through by getting better at Ninja Gaiden 2. The game isn't challenging you to improve your skills or work out a cunning solution. It's just kicking your arse until you get lucky."

    ...reminded me of DOA4 - and that just wasn't fun to play singleplayer.

  • Yossarian #16 4 years ago

    Eurogamer: find out what Tom thinks!

  • muscleblade #17 4 years ago

    Same score as DMC4 so its kind of dissapointing. DMC4 is one of my favourite 360 games so im still buying of course. Still kind of dissapointing that they couldnt reprise their success with Ninja Gaiden Black. I never thouth they could either.

  • alimokrane #18 4 years ago

    there is talk of the retail version not having any of the technical problemes mentioned apart from the wacky camera but anyway 7/10 is still very solid.

  • The-Bodybuilder #19 4 years ago

    My heart sinks.
    I was never expecting this to get more than an 8, but some comments in the review hurt my heart. The loss of balance and the cheap shit especially.

    But I have £40 worth of HMV vouchers, so I'm definately getting this either way.

  • The-Bodybuilder #20 4 years ago

    @ Wonga

    I'm sure you must be chuffed at reading this.

  • kissthestick #21 4 years ago

    good review, since i got a thick back log i'll wait till the price drops 2nd hand
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 13:53

  • The-Bodybuilder #22 4 years ago

    What does tom think of this?

  • muscleblade #23 4 years ago

    "life is just too short to be sat inside playing 7/10 games"

    Do you only watch the highest rated movies too?. Reviews are very subjective and using them as the only source when you buy games isnt always the right move.

  • asphaltcowboy #24 4 years ago

    Hmmm... is there a demo coming?

  • Shinji #25 4 years ago

    Interesting . . other reviews have said it's easier than the previous game, but it seems you do not agree :)

    Actually, I sort-of do. The combat itself is easier, definitely, and in the areas where you're fighting against ninja opponents (sadly few and far between - lots more monsters, robots and rocket-launcher wielding soldiers this time around) it simply isn't as difficult. The bosses are easier, too - I reckon you could button-bash some of them, amazingly. However, the overall "difficulty" of the game is lifted massively by the desperately cheap design of a lot of the encounters - rocket launcher spam, enemies spawning on top of you, and so on.

    I wouldn't say it's harder - in fact, I'd say it's easier - but that's more than balanced by being more unfair in its design. I think that's a big step in the wrong direction.

  • Beano #26 4 years ago

    Sad to see the framerate issues mentioned in several reviews - must be a big problem if all reviewers (so far) are mentioning it :(

    Sticking to my Sigma copy then... flying limbs and overdone blood is not a reason for me to get this game.

  • sirtacos #27 4 years ago

    I'm certainly not buying this.

    The part about the 'exploding boss' tipped the decision. Such retarded game design would surely make me throw my controller at my TV, and I like my TV.

  • lambtron #28 4 years ago

    You're all wimps ;)

  • JonFE #29 4 years ago

    "This is especially noticeable if you're running in 1080p - we had to drop our 360's display back to 1080i to get the game to run at an acceptable frame-rate..."

    What does this mean for 720p or SD users? Does the framerate improve even more?

    As for the camera, I understand the criticism and would welcome and appreciate any genuine improvements, but if it is like NG:B I think it's passable.

  • Calgon #30 4 years ago

    Delay it ffs if there is framerate issues, delay it, fix the bugs and then release it in a polished state.

    Im also hoping Rob didnt really like the first game as much as others did because the "cheap" comments sounds like something I said of the first game when I was just getting into it... could well be the case.

    Still I hope MS delay this and ask them to fix the technical issues, this isnt right I dont want to be waiting for a "black" version a year later just for the polish that should have been there.

  • Yossarian #31 4 years ago

    There was rocket launcher spam in the Xbox games too, though.

  • Paulanator #32 4 years ago

    There are some strangely conflicting reviews up at the moment, and to be honest I haven't read one yet that felt paticularly well written or balanced. I'm wondering if everyones rushing to get them up as fast as possible rather than taking their time with the game.

    Having said that, it's reviewing pretty well so far, and don't forget that EG gave DMC4 a 7 as well and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that that was pretty awesome.

    I'll be getting this, that's for sure
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 13:57

  • Shinji #33 4 years ago

    Im also hoping Rob didnt really like the first game as much as others did because the "cheap" comments sounds like something I said of the first game when I was just getting into it... could well be the case.

    I loved the first game. One of my favourite videogames of all time, and one of the few I've played through more once - I think I'm up to five or six now, if you count Black and Sigma. I like NG2, but it seriously isn't on the same level.

  • Saladin #34 4 years ago

    Anyone know if a improved PS3 version is on the cards?

  • Yossarian #35 4 years ago

    Saladin, Itagaki is on record as saying that a PS3 version would be "a loss of face" for everyone involved.

  • AtomicBanana #36 4 years ago

    'Anyone know if a improved PS3 version is on the cards?'

    Judging by what's been said recently re: sigma and a possible port of NG2, I think the answer is 'hell no'. Never say never though ;)

  • Yossarian #37 4 years ago

    Oh well, I'm looking forward to playing this and beating it into submission. I racked up silly playtime in the first game, after all.

  • Saladin #38 4 years ago

    That's a shame. I played both Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and loved both. I was just hoping to have been able to avoid paying for two games this time before getting the definitive version.

  • Yossarian #39 4 years ago

    Well Itagaki says a lot of silly things (he's not kind about Sigma either), so I wouldn't rule it out.

    A 'Black' edition on the 360 a year down the line is more likely I imagine.

  • alimokrane #40 4 years ago

    To be honest, the camera in NG has always been bad, really bad in fact but it never bothered me to be honest.I am still getting this no matter what!
    Also, NG had also its share of CHEAP AI and enemies appearing out of nowhere and this has never bothered me either.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:08

  • Calgon #41 4 years ago

    Is it too late to delay it now? Has anyone delayed a game at a similar point of the scheduled release?

    I dont see why they havent, this isnt a busy time of year in the calander for game sales to begin with, a couple of months delay would only be a good thing for them if they fix all the issues.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:08

  • WinterSnowblind #42 4 years ago

    The complaints sound like the exact same problems I had with the first game. Awkward control and an annoying camera. If you could put up with that in the first game, I doubt it's going to be any more of a problem here.

  • The-Bodybuilder #43 4 years ago

    The fact that you fight less ninjas is probably the saddest story.

  • JonFE #44 4 years ago

    disc, the same could be argued about MGS4 and the x360 though...

  • The-Bodybuilder #45 4 years ago

    >"Still I hope MS delay this and ask them to fix the technical issues"

    What planet are you on?

  • Calgon #46 4 years ago

    JonFE "No teh blu-ray!!! Jibberjabber10-disks JibberjabberNot possible on 360 JibberjabberCell!!!!!... MGS4 most bestest game ever!"

  • The-Bodybuilder #47 4 years ago

    Fact is, some of the complaints sound like they were lifted from the first one. Respawning rocket launchers?

    And for those asking if it will come on the ps3? MS are exclusive shared publishers. They invested money into it's development.

  • Calgon #48 4 years ago

    The Bodybuilder Excuse me? Would you like help in expressing your confusion/lack of comprehension better?

  • knoxundead #49 4 years ago

    It seems Teamxbox were told the framerate issues were resolved in the retail build.

    Shockwave said:
    we are holding off for a retail build of the game because the review build discs had some framerate/load time issues that we've been told have been resolved in the retail release. So we wanted to wait to post a review so we can verify this.

    I'm surprised other sites posted their reviews already, more so by the ones that even pointed out the load time and framerate issues after we were specifically told about this and that it was something that's supposedly isolated to the review builds only, and NOT the final code.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:26

  • JonFE #50 4 years ago

    disc, I have to admit I cannot tell whether you were sarcastic or not in your reply; you really got me there...

  • Calgon #51 4 years ago

    Disk haha not aimed at you that mate, I just beat them to it. :)

  • Widge #52 4 years ago

    because we're all sitting about dying to chip in with that

  • Calgon #53 4 years ago

    See... See! ;)

  • AtomicBanana #54 4 years ago

    'I wouldn't say it's harder - in fact, I'd say it's easier - but that's more than balanced by being more unfair in its design. I think that's a big step in the wrong direction.'

    Fair enough, I can see what you're saying actually. Thanks for the clarification. I'm still going to buy it! :D

  • Ace_McCloud #55 4 years ago

    Hmmm, slightly disappointing... Probably still get it anyway. Ninja Gaiden made me happy...

  • Vice.Destroyer #56 4 years ago

    Reviews are subjective. Whereas some people might think that it is annoying that a boss' death explosion can kill you if you are not prepared to block or have enough energy, I just say "MAN UP". :)

    It's a shame that a game that I was looking forward to so much has been slightly sullied by this review. But then I'll try and remember that all these complaints of uneven difficulty, camera issues and other technical issues were raised as negatives in the first game. The only negative I thought had any merit was the removal of decapitations in the first game. Apart from that, one of my top three games on the original Xbox.

    Bring it on.

  • killyourtv #57 4 years ago

    OUCH!!

  • dudefella #58 4 years ago

    Thanks for the review Eurogamer. I cancelled my pre-order. I'm playing through the first game atm, and the camera and cheap bits already frustrate the hell out of me, so if they're worse and more common in this game, I don't want it.

  • ElephantMonkey #59 4 years ago

    "we had to drop our 360's display back to 1080i to get the game to run at an acceptable frame-rate, and this on a brand new 360"

    Are new 360s supposed to run games better?

  • NickD7 #60 4 years ago

    Just don't expect it to be as good as its predecessor, allow for the fact that sometimes you're going to have to grit your teeth and accept that some bits just aren't fun.
    --------------------------------------------------------

    I could say the same about GTA IV, I found the game dull as ditch water, terrible save points, if you die at the end of a mission you get ported to a hospital and have to do it ALL again, shoddy frame rate with pop in, terrible controls on foot. Yet that game gets 10/10, it's perfect a masterpiece of modern gaming. Yet you complain about the save points in Ninja Gaiden 2 even though they put you right back at teh start of a boss fight?. You complain about certain sections being impossible even though you are probably no authority on combat games and well probably aren't very good at them.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't give a shit what people score games after the fuck up that was GTA IV,
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:38

  • Shinji #61 4 years ago

    No - the comment was merely there to point out that this isn't a problem with a knackered old disc drive or anything like that. As it happens, the 360 I was playing the retail code on went RROD on me on Saturday, so I had to run out and buy a new one. Brand new 360, retail copy of the game - the framerate problems are still an issue.

  • Beano #62 4 years ago

    @knoxundead : I belive Eurogamer claims that they have reviewed the retail game.

    "...this on a brand new 360 running a boxed copy of the PAL release."
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:39

  • Apologie #63 4 years ago

    I already played some Ninja Gaiden games "SIGMA for the Ps3" and something was alway's lacking, the art concept, production values, personality, responsive and intuitive gameplay etc... in my opinion Heavenly Sword and God of War are both superior in all thouse areas.

  • Calgon #64 4 years ago

    seamonsterneil is that your Madlax or Swam impression?

    lol How could we forget the other one above! :D

    Apolol sure they are... go and play them then and stay out of Ninja Gaiden threads, this is for the big boys!
    Edited by 2 at 26/05/08 @ 14:47

  • Ihya #65 4 years ago

    I slogged my way through the first one, and kinda hoped the easy setting on the second would make it an enjoyable game. By the sound of all the cheap tactics the enemy have to snipe your health bar however, I'm going to give this pit of frustration a wide berth.

  • Krusty #66 4 years ago

    Kibbles?

  • lambtron #67 4 years ago

    "in my opinion Heavenly Sword"

    Now i have heard it all. Heavenly Sword had really weak combat. Although IMO NGB > NGS.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 14:47

  • asphaltcowboy #68 4 years ago

    Reviews are subjective. Whereas some people might think that it is annoying that a boss' death explosion can kill you if you are not prepared to block or have enough energy, I just say "MAN UP". :)

    Ah, but if it were any other game (perhaps one that wasn't heralded for being a bastard to get through), would you still be saying the same thing?

  • NickD7 #69 4 years ago

    Eurogamers main fault was the difficulty. It’s a Ninja Gaiden game :/ It's obvious it's not for the casual crowd we get it. Next time maybe you shouldn't invite your friends and girlfriends around for a afternoon to play the most hardcore action game on the market, maybe without all those pretty girls smiling at you from across the room you could have focused on the game more and not had so many problems with the learning curve or things NG fans have been dealing with since last gen such as the camera.

    Next time you review a gamers game, throw out the pretty girls and friends, the bottle of wine or should that be whine, and play the game as it's meant to be played. Alone, with skill.

  • Calgon #70 4 years ago

    From what Ive seen of GOW the gameplay isnt as good, with Ninja Gaiden almost everything you do feels like you were in control of, none of these QTEs/context sensitive button presses, give me oldschool manual hard graft because the reward feels much sweeter at the end of it.

  • The-Bodybuilder #71 4 years ago

    @ Calgon

    You're excused.
    If you think that MS in the last minute, whilst the game has been finalised, gold, pressed, mass produced, shipped globally, spent millions in marketing and launching the title, that they will just decide that they will just stop the delivery of the games, recall all of them back, kcik start development, then spend even more money developing the game whilst completely messing up thier entire plans, then you might be a bit naive.

  • MrDurandPierre #72 4 years ago

    So not as good as Sigma then, eh?

    That would almost be good news for me as I'm considering buying a PS3 mostly for MGS4, but if Sigma will hold up as being the best NG game to date then that would be all the more reason to take the plunge.

    Still, I would have wished for this to be better as the things they got right certainly do look impressive.

  • Calgon #73 4 years ago

    The Bodybuilder has it been shipped to stores then? Well a 9 or 10 out of 10 sells alot better than a 7 out of 10, was my reasoning, plus the time of year can play a part too into how well it sells(perhaps it is too late to do that though). Fact is alot of people have been waiting for this and will be sorely dissapointed with what seems like a lack of care and attention to the minor details, the original Xbox version earned a reputation for its polish(they managed to get an action game out there that looked better(technically), ran smoother and set a pace for the action that hadnt been seen or matched last gen in the same way) , its been slightly ruined now.
    Edited by 5 at 26/05/08 @ 15:06

  • Les #74 4 years ago

    Am wondering whether presentation is still at the same atrocious level of Sigma (and Black and the original). The cut scenes were an embarrassment and there's little to like about the character designs.

    But put this review next to that of GTA4. Both are hd upgrades of last gen games. Both share pretty much all of their predecessors' faults, while NG2 adds one. NG2 is rightly punished in the score for this, GTA4 is not. Makes you wonder...

  • MrDurandPierre #75 4 years ago

    I know EG gave the same score to DMC4 which I really loved, but at the same time they were reviewed by different people (I can't help but wonder what Kristan would make of NG2 or Rob with DMC4), but also criticized for different reasons. DMC4 had a lot of repetition, poor level design, and backtracking combined with respawning enemies. The funny thing about that game was that it got a lot better as you replayed it on harder difficulty settings once you knew the lay of the land and had an expanded arsenal. All my initial problems with that game went away by my third playthrough.

    NG2 however, sounds like it could in fact be the opposite where it'll be really impressive out of the bag, but the flaws would only become more apparent on harder difficulties. The respawning rocket launchers bring back all kinds of unpleasant thoughts of Lost Planet where you'd repeatedly get your ass handed to you for all the wrong reasons. But who knows, maybe with enough practice one can learn to circumvent the cheap aspects and it'll get better.

  • miiiguel #76 4 years ago

    I missed the Apocalypse Knight..., man this dude Les just hates everything, and everyone.

    "The world sux..., everything's bland and unoriginal, and I'm so awesome..., I'm buying yet another Joy Division LP (yes, because vynil rules and shit...)"

  • makeamazing #77 4 years ago

    Its not my kind of game, but 7 out of 10 isnt that bad a score is it?

    With regards to frame rate issues, there was a video (I think on IGN) that was some play video and that seems very choppy.... sometimes its difficult to know if they are capturing these things on some dodgy device or its really what you see is what you get.

  • Gnort #78 4 years ago

    Still looking for the answer to an JonFE's question earlier on - does it have framerate issues at 720p? The 360 was never designed to output at 1080p, and my TV can't display it anyway.

  • hokuto_no_rob #79 4 years ago

    Huge fan of the original, but I think I'll pass.

    Not enough time to struggle with a bad camera & poor game design.

    Also, what's up with the graphics? Not exactly the quantum leap forward the original was.

  • muscleblade #80 4 years ago

    @MrDurandPierre
    "but if Sigma will hold up as being the best NG game to date then that would be all the more reason to take the plunge"

    Sigma was a lousy lackluster port of the original. Ninja Gaiden Black was superior to Sigma in every way. And who actually thouth that NG2 could be better than Black. I didnt. I honestly hoped it would be closer than it seems to be from the reviews though.

    I agree alot more with your last post btw Mr DurandPierre
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 15:14

  • Prodigy_BE #81 4 years ago

    Hm... didn't that NG2 creator guy say that Ninja Gaiden Sigma was crap a few days back?

    Oh well, that won't stop me from playing it (I even bought Sigma, just for the HD graphics).
    But still, cool hardcore gameplay aside, God of War is just SOO much better on the story and "coolness" front.

  • knoxundead #82 4 years ago

    [link url=http://www .gamersyde.com/news_6534_en.html
    ]http://www .gamersyde.com/news_6534_en.html
    [/link]

    here are some 720p 60 fps videos for you guys

  • IronGiant #83 4 years ago

    Shit, that's bloody disappointing.. this has just gone from a must buy to a bargain bin pick up.

  • andywilkie35 #84 4 years ago

    i am not buying this game, fact.

  • Vice.Destroyer #85 4 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy

    Ah, but if it were any other game (perhaps one that wasn't heralded for being a bastard to get through), would you still be saying the same thing?

    I'll admit it. I am a Ninja Gaiden fanboy. After playing the first game and becoming quite proud of my NG skills, I find it hard to imagine that proper proficiency with the moves and weapons will still leave you feeling that this game is unfair. But then, I also thought that Dead or Alive 4 couldn't actually take 15 steps back in comparison with Dead or Alive 3. (Whoever thought that introducing a fourth reversal mechanic was a good idea is an idiot).

    The proof is in the pudding. When I finally get to play it and feel that the review is 100%, I will personally send an email to Rob Fahey, apologising for my cheek.

    Edit: I tidied up my Dead or Alive 4/Dead or Alive 3 comparison.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 15:28

  • UncleLou #86 4 years ago

    why is the EG site done over in the theme of a mediocre game that EG don't even recommend

    Would you really rather prefer it if the editorial content and the advertisements were somehow intertwined?

  • Zappa #87 4 years ago

    lol. floppy flop:)

  • knoxundead #88 4 years ago

    Gametap gave it a 9/10 and fapped all over it

    Pros: Excellent gameplay; nice variety in the later levels; great difficulty curve.

    Cons: Story isn’t all that interesting; camera can get in the way; few framerate hiccups here and there. 9/10

    "In a spanish web page (meristation.com) they reviewed the final build and they stated that there are NO frame rate issues at all. It got a 9/10"

    7/10 from Gamesradar but the quality of their review was terrible. Nowhere near eurogamer.

    One thing I disagree with in a ll the reviews in is the camera (assuming it the same as NGB). Its impossible to have a 3d game that follows the character like ng and not have these issue. If the camera was angled or fixed like GOW the game wouldnt have the same personal feel or accuracy IMHO. The game leaves it to you to centre the camera and not get in situation where you are boxed in (like a "real" ninja :] )

  • SuperBas #89 4 years ago

    I'm not interested in crap balance. I'll hold of for a rebalanced version.

  • NickD7 #90 4 years ago

    I like how the headline for the review is come and have a go if you think you're hard enough. The reviewer obviously wasn't hard enough,and the results are one page devoted to whining about how hard the game is. It's ok, Ninja Gaiden can do that to people. If you were good at the last game, enjoyed it and want more of the same, add 2 more points to the Eurogamer review.

    For everyone else, casuals, man babies ect,avoid this game, the 7/10 is for you.

  • muscleblade #91 4 years ago

    I have a feeling that Ninja gaiden fans like myself will enjoy this quite alot dispite of its faults if only for the memories from the best gaming hours of our lifes. People that never played Ninja gaiden will probably not enjoy NG2 as much.

  • IronGiant #92 4 years ago

    Well if the fans don't buy it up in significant quantities could this be the last in the series?

  • NickD7 #93 4 years ago

    You all know this game is at least a 8/10, I'll take IGN's review over this whiny one. They gave the game 9 in gameplay, 9 in graphics. It's a quality game, after Eurogamer gave RE4 7/10 I can't take them seriously.

  • JediMasterMalik #94 4 years ago

    I could smell the disappointment from a mile away, it always looked like more of the same, which is partly a bad and partly a good thing. It seems, sadly, that Team Ninja decided to take out some of the good and leave in the bad like the camera. They also need to fix the art which is something Team Ninja have always had a problem with. I'm kind of annoyed at this review that it doesn't mention the sound design, and art in the game, as I think for a game like this those are important factors.

  • lambtron #95 4 years ago

    "One thing I disagree with in a ll the reviews in is the camera (assuming it the same as NGB). Its impossible to have a 3d game that follows the character like ng and not have these issue. If the camera was angled or fixed like GOW the game wouldnt have the same personal feel or accuracy IMHO. The game leaves it to you to centre the camera and not get in situation where you are boxed in (like a "real" ninja :] )"

    Yeah. I mean a game as fast as GoW with a constantly moving camera? I think you would get motion sickness pretty quick (even if you could tell what's going on). The reason the fixed camera thing works for GoW is precisely that Kratos isn't exactly a quick mover.

  • MrDurandPierre #96 4 years ago

    @ Muscleblade,

    Care to elaborate on why Sigma isn't as good? I just saw that Rob said they were essentially the same game, but since Sigma is on the PS3 with better graphics I just assumed it was better, but I could be wrong. I never had an original Xbox, so I missed out on earlier Ninja Gaidens and by the time I got a 360 I just figured I'd wait for the new one since it would be out soon enough and I got spoiled on next-gen graphics. Ironically, it's upon NG2's reviews coming out that I'm more interested than ever in the previous Ninja Gaiden.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 16:03

  • Bumbuliuz #97 4 years ago

    Im skipping this one. The first one was way too hard also. I like a good challenge, but I hate a brow beating game like Ninja Gaiden is. The first bloody boss in game 1 was harder than some of the others, witch was bullcrap. It´s ok too make games hard, but for the love of good, include a normal and easy setting for players who just want to play and finish a good game, no throw their controllers out the window and never play the game again.

  • Shinji #98 4 years ago

    I think the art is something you can make your own mind up on, based on videos and screenshots. If it was inconsistent or badly implemented in the game, it'd be worthy of mention; as it stands, character design is a terribly personal taste, and I'm not sure it would improve the review for me to tell you what I think about Team Ninja's art style (as it happens, I like it - it's a little generic in places but it's consistent and works for my tastes).

    Still looking for the answer to an JonFE's question earlier on - does it have framerate issues at 720p? The 360 was never designed to output at 1080p, and my TV can't display it anyway.

    Just gave this a shot, and it seems to be the same at 1080i and 720p - still some significant framerate problems in heavy combat scenarios. 1080p is where it gets really nasty - downright unplayable, in places - it's just a slight annoyance at 720p / 1080i. Doesn't seem to be much to choose between the two modes.

  • Vice.Destroyer #99 4 years ago

    @MrDurandPierre.

    Thanks to the magic of secondhand Amazon.com games, you can pick up Ninja Gaiden 1 for a nominal £5. I'd recommend it. Just for the fact that it is a game that has stayed the test of time, in my opinion. And from everything that I have read about NG2, there seems to be a lot more effective magic in this game. Again, in my opinion, I actually think that is a bad thing. NG1 had a lot less emphasis on magic and more on evil fighting. Since there is a pronounced difference, and it is so cheap, treat yourself.

  • GuitarWolf #100 4 years ago

    no ;_; "kicking your ass till you get lucky" exactly why i hated DOA4 singleplayer. What happened to Team Ninja?

  • MrDurandPierre #101 4 years ago

    @ vicedestroyer,

    I was asking Muscleblade about the differences between Sigma and Black, but now that you mention it, is there really much difference between regular Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black? Enough to justify the price increase on the harder to find NGB? I figured I'd like the definitive version of the game (probably Black, but maybe Sigma if I get a PS3), but if the core game is largely the same maybe I could go for the original at that price.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 16:02

  • RejuvenationX #102 4 years ago

    The negative aspects of the review simply echo a lot of the common complaints made by the more casual gamer about the original Ninja Gaiden: the difficulty level and the camera. As a Ninja Gaiden fan, neither of these issues were ever a major problem for me, so it doesn't dampen my hopes for Ninja Gaiden 2 being another mind-blowing experience.

    Also, people that are being influenced (as far as purchasing the game) solely by this review should look around. It's not the only opinion in the world being offered.

  • Widge #103 4 years ago

    Although isn't comment about regardless of honing skills, there are sections where you need a bit of luck, or the AI failing to succeed a bit worrying?

  • lambtron #104 4 years ago

    @MrDurandPierre

    I own both Sigma and Black. IMO you are far better off getting black - its a far better game. Basically Black is a tweaked version of the original (so the things that were niggly about the original were all fixed). As such its very well balanced.

    Sigma on the other hand, doesn't feel as polished. And the levels they added where you play as Rachel are frankly quite poor. I'm actually thinking about trading it to buy NG2 (and I don't usually trade in games).

  • Vice.Destroyer #105 4 years ago

    @MrDurandPierre

    The difference between Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black is a simple free download. If I remember rightly, there were two add-on packs that you could download that are still available to download now. Obviously, there is no background downloading for Xbox 1 games using your 360, but it's a small price to pay.

    There is a bigger difference between Ninja Gaiden/ NG Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. But for that you would need a PS3. Look on Amazon, that's where I got my second copy from late last year.

  • Krelle #106 4 years ago

    Wonga, did the man in black ass-rape you as a child(just a few years ago of the sounds of it)? Your hate for the game shines thru. It may not be as good as people hoped, but..whats your agenda really? Well, aside from the obvious trolling?

  • Les #107 4 years ago

    "Sigma on the other hand, doesn't feel as polished."

    Probably because at high res the low quality of the original assets really stands out. Most reviewers (for whatever that's worth) that Sigma is the definitive version of NG but it hasn't exactly aged well (compared to e.g. GoW), which I can confirm. In any version however, you have to deal with Team Ninja's horrible taste and lack of artistic skill.

  • Widge #108 4 years ago

    I do think that fans of the series, and those looking forward to it, are going to find all that they want within this title. A sparkly next gen iteration in the series. The disappointment for them is that there isn't perhaps enough to convert the non-believers so to speak, as a result the 7 seems unjust for those who would like to hold it up as a shining beacon for the series they love. This won't sway the lovers away from the title though, and I bet they won't find disappointment within.

  • Hughes. #109 4 years ago

    Oof, same score as DMC4.

    I hope the next God of War makes a better transition to the new hardware than its Hack 'n Slash action progenitors.

    Whatever else, that limb slicing sure does make for some fun screenshots.

  • Gnort #110 4 years ago

    Just gave this a shot, and it seems to be the same at 1080i and 720p - still some significant framerate problems in heavy combat scenarios. 1080p is where it gets really nasty - downright unplayable, in places - it's just a slight annoyance at 720p / 1080i. Doesn't seem to be much to choose between the two modes.

    Thanks for the follow-up. I'm not particularly technically minded, but I believe 720p and 1080i resolutions take similar amounts of effort to render (1080p is a fair deal more), so that's to be expected, I guess.

    The slowdown is a little disappointing seeing as the game doesn't appear to be a massive leap forward visually, but as long as it's not game-breaking I'm sure I can put up with it. The random death and punishing checkpointing I'm not so sure about, I thought we left that school of game design back in the 90s.

  • vegard #111 4 years ago

    sounds like i should try ng black first, which i guess is also for the 360?

  • miiiguel #112 4 years ago

    "Most reviewers (for whatever that's worth) that Sigma is the definitive version of NG", but the creator himself disagree, as he says "Ninja Gaiden Sigma was no good":

    http://ww w.ps3fanboy.com/2008/05/21/itag...

  • The-Bodybuilder #113 4 years ago

    >"Well a 9 or 10 out of 10 sells alot better than a 7 out of 10"

    O'RLY?

  • Mr_Brown #114 4 years ago

    Bore of the same then...

  • The-Bodybuilder #115 4 years ago

    Oh and calglon, who says the game is a 7/10? Others rate it higher (9/10), some will rate it even lower (as the previous did). EG isn't the standard of all review scores (even if the quality of the reviews themselves should be the standard).

  • The-Bodybuilder #116 4 years ago

    >"Well if the fans don't buy it up in significant quantities could this be the last in the series? "

    Itagaki already said it is.

  • des #117 4 years ago

    @miiiguel

    The same reviewers that gave GTA IV 10/10,a 20 fps game with same old crappy missions structure.

  • mkreku #118 4 years ago

    Is this Xbox 360 exclusive?

  • Xephon1970 #119 4 years ago

    Nice to see it all over the front of Eurogamer too.

    I don't doubt it'll do well, but it'll be traded in just as quickly.

  • Calgon #120 4 years ago

    The Bodybuilder well I can still see it averaging at 7-8 by the impressions so far. I will buy it myself but Im a bit dissapointed that Tecmo and MS seems to have settled for this as the final build where a bit of extra time would have paid off IMO. There might not even be a "black" version if Itagaki really wants to move on to something new straight away.
    Edited by 2 at 26/05/08 @ 17:42

  • miiiguel #121 4 years ago

    des, yes, but one can't see GTA as a simple game, it's more like a contemporanean manifesto of urban decay.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 17:42

  • Dead_Man_Typing #122 4 years ago

    I thought that there was no force on earth which could stop me from buying this game day 1. I'm a spectacularly huge fan of the first game (and Black) putting around 200 hours it it. But frame rate issues? Balancing issues? These worry me, and are easily the sort of thing we could expect to see fixed in a Ninja Gaiden Black style update. So now I'll consider holding off on the purchase until such times as I see it for cheap.

    Of course if the demo is as good as I thought the game was going to be, then I'll be buying the full game, day 1.

  • miiiguel #123 4 years ago

    The Bodybuilder, to be honest I find those statements a bit "drama queen'ish"..., same was said for Viva Piñata, even for MGS4 if it didn't get 1 million pre-orders. And, ffs, they keep on doing that voleyball with huge tits thingy...

    A bit reality in here, I mean 360 was dead a year ago..., PS3 would never have any games..., Wii was a fad..., doom and gloom, always. Thing is, they keep coming.
    Edited by 2 at 26/05/08 @ 17:52

  • drumbaby #124 4 years ago

    Oh dear...not much cop then.

  • woodnotes #125 4 years ago

    Camera is always an issue in these fast action games. Same in DMC4, although at least you can use the right stick in that instead of the right trigger. Hopefully one day they'll come up with the ultimate solution. I know Dyack has been pimping the Too Human camera, will be interesting to see how that turns out.

  • septimus #126 4 years ago

    Wow, Edge was right.... cancels pre-order.

    Cheap Ai and shitty camera, definite 360 thrown out the window if I get this. Might pick it up when it's budget.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 18:10

  • Ryze #127 4 years ago

    Same frustrations.

    Fools! They could have made this PERFECT! Balance your game!

    Patch it. IDIOTAS!

  • ken694 #128 4 years ago

    Mmh. May, the 26th.
    Isn't it a bit too early? Wouldn't it be nice if reviewers said in their articles how long did they play the game before having to hastily write the review? Especially in this kind of game where true satisfaction comes from surviving the harder difficulties...
    I enjoyed NG1, and having done Master Ninja I can say I have been in Hell and back, but it wasn't a short ride, or something a human could possibly do in, say... one week? Or less? (gasp...)
    Of course can't blame the writer about playing times, I know time frames aren't their decision.
    Still it's nice to hear a bit about what's wrong in a game before buying it. But this won't change my pre-order of course!

  • drumbaby #129 4 years ago

    Been playing Onimusha Dawn of Dreams again, just so I could fight Gargant again on level 8. Great boss/ level.

    It's like Resident Evil 4 in its continues...die, it asks you 'quit' or 'continue', and you carry on until real life beckons or you win. Save points are generous, and the bosses can be quite tough, but always fair. Having two bosses on the trot is not uncommon.

    Why can't NG2 do the same thing? Perhaps the lack of story means they have to bombard you unfairly and ramp up the challenge, otherwise you'd get bored?

  • itsfuzzy #130 4 years ago

    So they are frustrated by tough sections of the game and give out about that camera that is manually controlled by you the player. And give it 7/10 for that. . I dont get it.

  • Krelle #131 4 years ago

    @itsfuzzy;

    Mayhaps, good sir, if you tried to re-read the article again, then you would understand, or as you say, "get it".

    I dare say the fault is with you. Alot of other were able to comment successfully w/o looking like morons. tata~

  • seasidebaz #132 4 years ago

    bad year for exclusives, first haze, now this... (ngSigma got the same score hehe)

  • Pulsar_t #133 4 years ago

    I'll pass on Itakagi's offering (I was anticipating this but now I'm ignoring the hack & slash genre).. Oh it would be awesome to get a 2D Shinobi remake on the DS!

  • captain-future #134 4 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden Black is still game I fondly remember as "hard but fair" and highly rewarding ... gonna buy this for sure.

  • The-Bodybuilder #135 4 years ago

    >"The Bodybuilder, to be honest I find those statements a bit "drama queen'ish"..., "

    "drama queenish" from me or from Itagaki?
    I'm just repeating what was said, I'm not claiming if it is true or not. In his last interview, he (Itagaki) stated that he wanted NG2 to be the definitive NG (which we now know it isn't) as he didn't feel there was anywhere he could take. He said it may continue, but he most definately won't be involved in it. Pretty fair justification, wouldn't you say?

  • NickD7 #136 4 years ago

    I find it odd that a game like GTA4 garners 10s almost every where despite having freezes, framerate issues, horrible quirky camera, pop in, disappearing items, save corruptions and many other issues but yet a couple of problems with this game and the reviewers are crying. After the 10's handed out to GTA IV and Halo 3 I lost a lot of respect for this site.

  • miiiguel #137 4 years ago

    from Itagaki BB, and some posters, tbh..., most of us thinks a game must sell as much as Halo to be sucessfull which I guess is not true.

    And, as far as I'm concerned I see NG games like John Carpenter's movies..., not to be taken that serious, but most times a lot of fun, and pretty hardcore.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 19:21

  • HardToast #138 4 years ago

    This had 7/10 all over.

    Anyone thinking a patch will make the game amazing are fooling themselfs.

  • mikeawmids #139 4 years ago

    The game is appealling enough, but it's not worth buying if I won't ever be able to get passed the second level.

    Just let us choose a difficulty at the start and be done with it. :p

  • Vin #140 4 years ago

    Only in a place this shitty would some find fault in a fucking seven.

    Geeks, damnit.

  • Widge #141 4 years ago

    maybe it'll have that DMC thing where if you die loads on one bit, you can take it down a notch.
    Although you always feel like you're giving in with that! (remembers slogging past Nightmare)

  • The-Bodybuilder #142 4 years ago

    >"most of us thinks a game must sell as much as Halo to be sucessfull which I guess is not true."

    Yes they do. Sometimes I can understand, if they feel a continuation of the IP is as stake (case study of shenmue for more information).
    However, since Itagaki said this was the final (from him at least), I don't mind anymore. I'm still getting the game.
    Those who won't super-seller tend to be fanboys who want another game to gloat with.

  • miiiguel #143 4 years ago

    Vin, this place is not shitty, but some fellow EGers are in fact quite keen on bashing. It's funny to compare the EG.pt with EG.net, the 1st lacks without a doubt a critical spirit and often glorifies almost everything, this one it's the complete opposite. I guess it's an age thing. This one's is getting old, its fauna, I mean.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 19:56

  • captainrentboy #144 4 years ago

    Ohhh a 7/10 just makes the grade for me, so I'll definitely be buying it on the 6th.
    The thing is, I bloody loved the first one on the Xbox, I was one of the guys that actually, y'know, got past the very first boss, (Still doesn't get why folk have trouble with that guy) saying that I did eventually give up, I think I was on Chapter 13.
    But until that point it was friggin awesome, fiddily camera or not.
    So even though it's a bit of a dissapointment to hear of number 2's faults, I'm sure I'll still thoroughly enjoy it.

  • Emth #145 4 years ago

    @des

    How can you hope to compare NG2 to GTA4?

    GTA has a gigantic open world environment with a day night cycle and a crap load of AI scripting running at any one time, it also is multi platform and unlike the precise and punishing combat of NG, does not require a silky smooth rate.

    NG is basically the opposite of all these things and it having a sloppy frame rate (probably a case of not enough time spent in optimization) is fairly unforgivable. My litmus test is Burnout Paradise. If Criterion can get a huge fast paced game that looks amazing running so solidly (newest patch problems excepted) on both consoles there is really no excuse for a lot of games having frame rate issues.

  • hybridial #146 4 years ago

    Why any of you listen to reviews and not form your own opinions I'll never know. Especially not here. Whilst Eurogamer is good for region specific news, and that is why I come here before you ask why I come here, they're reviews are garbage. Granted they're far from the only place that does garbage reviews, because most places do. There's just no replacement for actually trying the thing out and forming your own opinion instead of listening to the insipid agendas of others.

  • Saladin #147 4 years ago

    GTA does need, and should have had, a silky smooth framerate. If I'm driving at 80mph along a busy freeway, I don't want to feel like my car is driving through treacle, especially when I'm also trying to dodge angry policecars.

    Shitty framerates are not excusable in this day and age.

  • SomaticSense #148 4 years ago

    "Where Ninja Gaiden balanced frustration with satisfaction, giving you a glow of accomplishment when you finally mastered a tricky section, NG2 breaks the equation on a regular basis. It spawns enemies on top of you - occasionally blinking them into existence right in front of your astonished face. It bombards you with unblockable, long-range attacks - and then restricts your movements, limiting your ability to dodge. It throws exploding kunai at you the second you walk through a door, from enemies you can't even see yet. It tantalises with the possibility of clever solutions or stealth (you are a bloody ninja, after all), allowing you to shoot out searchlights, and then instantly respawns the searchlights and bombards you with long-range rockets again"

    Lego Indiana Jones that Friday it is then.....

    Seriously, that is a huge problem. To go from 'hard because you're shit and it's challenging you to get better and to focus' to 'hard because it can be an unfair wanker of a game' is a pretty big deal.

    Ninja Gaiden was hard yes, but anytime you got stuck it was always your fault and not due to the game design. This was what differentiated NG and NGB from other 'bastard hard' games, and was the reason why everyone whoever complained about it's difficulty was just wrong. The thought of playing a Ninja Gaiden where it's hard because of twatty and unfair game design really, really puts me off.

    I don't play games for that kind of stress. I have work for that.......

  • JYM60 #149 4 years ago

    NG is fucking boring after like an hour. The score isn't a surprise.

  • seasidebaz #150 4 years ago

    Only in a place this shitty would some find fault in a fucking seven.

    Geeks, damnit.

    they may be geeks, but the "xbox360 biased eurogamer" just gave what could have been an awesome game a 7.

    get over it, fanboys. ninja gaiden just isn't that great.

    this is another average game in a time where innovation has disappeared and the future of gaming is looking shit. and now the 360 fanboys are damage limiting by saying "oh, but (insert game here) had those flaws as well, and that was great (being on 360 and all...) so i will get it anyway" and ps3 fanboys are saying "no better than sigmalol"

    Cameras can be fixed with a patch, it's not like haze or DMC which needs giant overhaul

    errr... yes they can both be fixed. it just requires a new executable to be built.

    seriously people, stop being morons.

  • DAN.E.B #151 4 years ago

    PS3 fanboys shut the fuck up 360 got NG PS3 got HAZE

    Deal with it!

  • MattyD #152 4 years ago

    CANNOT... WAIT.

  • The-Bodybuilder #153 4 years ago

    >"(Still doesn't get why folk have trouble with that guy) "

    I had a specific save that I never overwrite, a save just so I could randomly pick up and fight the first boss. He's without doubt one of my fav bosses ever. People would sit round and watch me fight him, as I made it look so cool (made it seem like an even fight).

  • GamesConnoisseur #154 4 years ago

    Disappointment that this game did not merit a 8 or even 9 due to wonky camera, frame drops and ill advised artifical difficulties due to misplacement of save points. Sure would have wanted these faults to be bug tested and fixed but here it is and yes patch fix is no solution.

    NG2 Black may or may not happen in a year or two, dont wait up for it!

    Will still get the game as Rob have said its still good, that fans would still enjoy it but now we are forewarned and prepared for the disappointment and thus should still be able to enjoy the overall experiences.

    Same score as DMC and other games that gamers still had lots of fun with, so dont get it if you know you wont enjoy it.

  • miiiguel #155 4 years ago

    seasidebaz, so I don't get it, is EG "360 biased@ or not? I mean, that is beeing moronic. I also read IGN *was* "360 biased" up until they said they prefered GTA on the PS3..., it's difficult to understand nowdays. Whos 360 biased anyway? or it depends on the day of the week?

    I trully believe most of you aren't really into games anymore (maybe due to Playstation brand overall disapointment) because every time a 10 spawns - BioShock: Halo - EG is biased, when it's a high profile game that gets less than a 9 it's like " wooot wooot! I told you gaming is over!", you should try gardening.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 22:33

  • Yossarian #156 4 years ago

    It's worth pointing out that most other sites are giving this 9/10.

    Reality check maybe.

  • seasidebaz #157 4 years ago

    @miiiguel:

    tried gardening, it takes too long :)

    everyone knows about eg's bias, they have been biased for a while... but i don't mind, they're still my favourite gaming site (get me on staff, and they definately will be...)

    but seriously, gaming is in decline. i have been gaming for over 20 years, these 10/10 games that are coming out just aren't that great either, never mind the 8/10's and below.

    the playstation brand hasn't disappointed me, it's not as strong as last gen but they still provide me with good games, but gaming in general has degenerated into blood, gore, guns and cars.

    it is truly a sorry state of affairs.

  • miiiguel #158 4 years ago

    maybe what you call bias, is the fact that so far 360 has the best games. Or every site is biased, I mean, check metacritic.

    And I know for example of friends that they are too disapointed with this gen, but only the PS-ultras.
    Edited by 1 at 26/05/08 @ 22:45

  • seasidebaz #159 4 years ago

    miiiguel:

    i agree, the 360 has the best games, as long as you like first person shooters and arcade racers.

    anything else, buy yourself an amiga 500. or a playstation 2.

  • Santino #160 4 years ago

    so is there decaps in the pal version then?

  • miiiguel #161 4 years ago

    check my GT, you'll be surprised with the games I play. I have Gears for over a year and it didn't go into the DVD drive yet. I bet you're getting old like me, but I do make an effort to look past "punch titles", I just loved Lost Odyssey; Blue Dragon: Table Tennis and Haze (err. no not this last one, that is a shooter I think...).

  • seasidebaz #162 4 years ago

    blue dragon + table tennis: not bad.

    but ps2 has better jrpg's, and i don't like shooters anymore.

    and yes, i'm getting old :)

  • miiiguel #163 4 years ago

    That's another thing I never understood, I did have wonderful moments with my PS2s, but life goes on, and I didn't sign any exclusivity contract with Sony (they didn't ask, to be fair...), so I have the right to have awesome time with my 360s now.

  • Skywise #164 4 years ago

    so Ninja Gaiden Sigma is the ultimate version after all :D

  • hybridial #165 4 years ago

    "get over it, fanboys. ninja gaiden just isn't that great. "

    Actually it is, we think it is and that's all we care about... well those of us with common sense anyway. In my case I have seen nothing that says this game is not worth buying, and it very well could turn out to be the best game I've played this generation, or maybe not, but either way, I'm not into arguing what I believe with other people. I'm just irritated by the amount of people who seem to live or die based on what Eurogamer say.

  • Shinji #166 4 years ago

    I'm just irritated by the amount of people who seem to live or die based on what Eurogamer say.

    Holy shit, that's awesome. So if I write some secret messages into my next review, I can convince people to top themselves? Brilliant. I'm making a list.

  • Leeks! #167 4 years ago

    Wow, that's a pretty hefty main page reskin to go with this review. Hopefully Fahey doesn't go the way of Gerstmann for only giving it a seven.

  • RejuvenationX #168 4 years ago

    Some of these comments are mind-boggling. I have no idea how people could treat one review as the gospel, especially since Ninja Gaiden II has mostly been receiving 9/10 scores and there have varying views on the supposed 'cheapness' of the difficulty. Rob provided a solid and highly informative review, but it represents a single opinion.

    Maybe people should look around or play the demo (when it arrives) to formulate their own opinion before concluding that Ninja Gaiden II fell short of expectations?
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 01:06

  • Rash' #169 4 years ago

    hybridial: That's a matter of opinion. I'm not one of these flaky people that thinks their opinion matter's no matter what. I can understand it (my girl is that way inclined so I have no choice), but that doesn't mean I agree with it. Reviews are there to help you understand why the subjective view of a publication does or doesn't appreciate a game. It is then up to the consumer to decide whether they then want to make an informed opinion on that purchase. Opinions aren't important to me unless they are educated responses. NG2 seems to be a excellent game hampered by a broken camera and inconsistent learning/difficulty curve. Do I care enough about the game to want to make my own experienced response to it? Not really. Edge slated the game in their preview and Eurogamer support some of their concerns. That's enough for me to know not to bother with it.

    An experienced response and an educated response are very different things. Ideally, we would want to share opinions informed by both, but if pressured into a choice an educated response is imo always more valid than an uneducated experienced response. Is the opinion of the guy that thinks Rise of the Robots is good because he's played it more valid than the guy that thinks it isn't because he's bothered to read up on why it's not?

    I'm not saying reviews are the only way to appreciation (Golden Eye, Radiant Silvergun and Rez prove otherwise) but they are a more consistent way of finding quality gaming in a congested creative industry.
    Edited by 5 at 27/05/08 @ 02:53

  • niteninja #170 4 years ago

    Tecmos games are all the same technical brilliance, but as shallow as a puddle.
    I wasnt impressed when I saw videos of this,word of advice tecmo reinvent dont rehash.
    New prince of persia game will blow this away.

  • myke6699 #171 4 years ago

    Not as good as Gran Tourismo 5 Prologue (aka glorified demo).

  • Krelle #172 4 years ago

    fightman:
    well played dude. Too bad everyone got you on ignore from now on, no matter if your banned or not. (y)

  • drumbaby #173 4 years ago

    NG2, the DMC 2 of NG games.....

  • Darren #174 4 years ago

    I'm getting that "uh oh" feeling after reading the review.

    I thought the original Ninja Gaiden was good yet nothing special beyond the combat mechanics. I confess I found it waaaaay too hard and gave up on it when I couldn't advance past that boss on horseback on the bridge. I bought NG Black specifically because it was easier - or rather had an easier mode which unlocked - and sure enough I managed to get further into the game and complete it. I admit I even enjoyed it... enough to buy NG Sigma for the PS3 but that game was massively underwhelming and ultimately a disappointment given the hardware it was running on. This proper sequel looks pretty much the same as the first game to me from the four First Ten Minutes videos I've watched on Gamersyde. It looks... well OK... but doesn't look like anything amazing to me in terms of gameplay. Unlike, say, Devil May Cry 4, this game looks as if it takes itself far too seriously. With Team Ninja's previous two 360 games being massive disappointments (IMHO) I can't help but feel they're living off past glories and wish they'd try something completely new instead of remaking the same three games over and over!

    Do I buy or not... that is the question I'm asking myself... :?

  • Darren #175 4 years ago

    P.S. The visuals look perfectly fine but the background textures suffer from the usual shimmery/flickery look, thanks to TN not using texture filtering. I found it very distracting in the videos I watched. :(

  • koji_m #176 4 years ago

    BURN ITAGAKI, BUUUUUURN!

    ;-)

  • Scimarad #177 4 years ago

    This is precisely the sort of review I'm use to seeing for a high profile PS3 exclusive - Welcome to our pain, 360 owners.

    "...and while a little slowdown can actually look quite cool in places.." What?? I can only assume that by that you mean intentional slow-motion rather than a technical issue, which is what it sounded like.

  • muscleblade #178 4 years ago

    "everyone knows about eg's bias, they have been biased for a while"

    The only reason for a multi platform gaming site to be biased towards one platform is because they actually prefer that platform. If PS3 was a better platform things would have been different. Most gaming sites and mags tend to be biased towards the 360 i wonder why? Perhaps its beacause its simply the superior platform. I think thats the only reason.

  • Xerx3s #179 4 years ago

    Funny, in most threads the ps3 fanboys moan about 'xbots' yet here we are. Clinging onto one 7/10 to claim how this sucks, how fucking sad you are.

  • Les #180 4 years ago

    "I thought the original Ninja Gaiden was good yet nothing special beyond the combat mechanics."

    I guess it profited from a lack of competition on it's home platform. With DMC now on xbox as well it's clear that NG is just average as a game and utter shit when it comes to presentation.

  • muscleblade #181 4 years ago

    @Les

    You are a moron. DMC4 also got a 7 on this site. And none of the DMC games comes even close to Ninja Gaiden Black. Everybody that has actually played both frachises know this. I loved DMC4 but it cant compare to Ninja gaiden. Ninja gaiden 2 got the same score as DMC4 on ign too btw so their probably pretty much even. Ryu haybusa is much cooler than Nero though.

    I never thouth that NG2 would be as good as Ninja gaiden Black. I hoped it would be but i was pretty certain that it wouldnt.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 11:07

  • DjFlex52 #182 4 years ago

    I'm glad you called out Les, muscleblade, but don't let him get to you :)
    I used do the same to Les but I think he put me on ignore...how sad!

    I think he thinks he's an intellectual but he's usually just a cynical and condescending PS3 fanboy except when he puts on his Wii "is the leader" mask.

  • JonFE #183 4 years ago

    "Do I buy or not... that is the question I'm asking myself... :?"

    Darren, no offense mate, but you've purchased Haze... Do you really have to question this purchase?!?

    :)

  • hokuto_no_rob #184 4 years ago

    Thanks for remaining honest EG.

  • kincaide #185 4 years ago

    /winces

    I had high hopes for this .... still, it's better than Haze

  • ps3owner #186 4 years ago

    takes deep breath and prepares to run

    This is especially noticeable if you're running in 1080p - we had to drop our 360's display back to 1080i to get the game to run at an acceptable frame-rate, and this on a brand new 360 running a boxed copy of the PAL release.

    did the old one blow up then? :)

    and I don't care about the game, not my cup of tea. + yeah haze sucks ;)

  • septimus #187 4 years ago

    It's not the 7/10 that is putting people off, it is the text of the review stating how cheap the AI is. It pisses people off when they can't get past a section because of random shitty AI. DOA4 is case in point.

    DMC4's enemies may have been targets rather than threats, but at least the AI was consistent and fair... and it also made the character appear as powerful as he was meant to be. The annoying thing I find about these games usually is that in cut scenes the character is fucking immortal and the best thing ever, yet as soon as you come across an average enemy in the actual game, he can barely do any moves from the cut scene and turns into a complete fag. DMC4 didn't do that and it was refreshing.

  • Scimarad #188 4 years ago

    In reply to:-

    "Funny, in most threads the ps3 fanboys moan about 'xbots' yet here we are. Clinging onto one 7/10 to claim how this sucks, how fucking sad you are."

    "Boy, no wonder the UK's pass rate for maths has gone down the shitter if 7/10 means ''bad'' to some people."

    The trouble is, it's one of those reviews where the score says "It's worth a purchase" but the actual text of the review says "Stay away unless you enjoy being punched repeatedly in the testicles"...or something like that. That review really doesn't say 7/10 to me.

  • miiiguel #189 4 years ago

    Where some ppl called it bias, I call it not beeing a moron, because to praise a platform just because the brand or the good times we had and we were kids, is a tad moronic.

    And if my fellow PS-oldtimers fellows allow me to tip thee...: you can moan about MS beeing evil, the loudness, the RRoD that you never experienced (7 or 8 times!), but... not about the games. oh man, the games are freakin awesome!
    yeah, that's right... bad ass and shit!
    Edited by 2 at 27/05/08 @ 10:12

  • captainrentboy #190 4 years ago

    Another thing, I was under the impression that this game had a quite a few difficulty settings, so surely if I play it on Medium instead of Hard, (That's assuming the reviewer didn't have it on medium anyway) a few of these niggling problems wont occur so frequently when I'm playing it.
    Sure the sucky camera's still there, but I honestly didn't find NG1's that bad, once I realised you're pretty much always needing to move it to an ideal position yourself.

  • Shinji #191 4 years ago

    That's assuming the reviewer didn't have it on medium anyway

    Ha! You assume too much, good sir ;) The game has two difficulty modes available to you at the outset, Acolyte and Warrior - I played through on Acolyte to have some chance to see the whole game before writing the review, then started again on Warrior to give that a brief shot as well.

    I'm back doing Acolyte again now - I think it'll be a while before I've skilled up to the point where I can take on the later levels on Warrior. The problem is, I'm not sure I want to. I've got the niggling knowledge in my mind that even when I get good enough to take on higher difficulty levels, it won't make any difference because I'll randomly die and have to restart anyway. That's not a good way to feel about the challenge in a game.

  • sergeantdisco #192 4 years ago

    Randomly hard and unfair in places? Badly thought out save points?

    That's a sale lost then as I would have bought this had the difficulty been at least sane, this sounds like a frustrate-a-thon.

  • Ace_McCloud #193 4 years ago

    "The trouble is, it's one of those reviews where the score says "It's worth a purchase" but the actual text of the review says "Stay away unless you enjoy being punched repeatedly in the testicles"...or something like that. That review really doesn't say 7/10 to me"

    Erm, I don't think you read it properly. Didn't he describe it as the most balletic and exciting action game around? And then said it was marred by some questionable unfair difficulty spikes. If I remember rightly he said, it's awesome in parts but you'll have to put up with some frustrating stuff as well. I thought it was reading like an eight... I imagine the technical faults brought it down again to a 7...

    /goes and checks article...

    Yep that's pretty much exactly what he said:

    "All of which is mainly depressing because Ninja Gaiden 2 is still a good game. It's beautiful, cinematic and full of fantastically detailed enemies, gorgeous animations and incredibly fast, exciting combat... It's marred by technical problems... There's too much trial-and-error gameplay, too many cheap shots, and not enough real challenge.

    None of which is to say that you shouldn't go out and buy the most balletic, explosive combat game we've seen in years - especially if you were a fan of the last one."

    He actually almost says exactly "It's worth a purchase" .
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 10:45

  • OllyJ #194 4 years ago

    "The annoying thing I find about these games usually is that in cut scenes the character is fucking immortal and the best thing ever, yet as soon as you come across an average enemy in the actual game, he can barely do any moves from the cut scene and turns into a complete fag. DMC4 didn't do that and it was refreshing"

    you are joking right? Nero was shooting bullets out the air doing loads of amazing moves you could never do in the game!

    didn't bother me though as both game and cutscenes were great.

    It's always a bit disapointing to see any negative comments about a game you are looking forward to, but then GTAIV is a 10/10 and suffers from severe checkpointing annoyance, unhelpful camera +random AI and severe difficulty spikes! Lets not get ahead of ourselves, it's still gonna be awesome.

  • GingerNathan #195 4 years ago

    "I guess it profited from a lack of competition on it's home platform. With DMC now on xbox as well it's clear that NG is just average as a game and utter shit when it comes to presentation.
    "
    The only DMC game to come close to the original Ninja Gaiden Black was the awesome DMC3, all other 3D fighters in the genre pale in comparison including the fantastic yet really only button mashing God of War games. I think someone above mentioned Heavenly Sword also, don't make me laugh despite the excellent production values the game was very weak in terms of length and combat mechanics.
    I'm dissapointed to hear that Team Ninja have replaced the genuine difficulty that requires skill to pass of the original, and replaced it with cheap tactics. I'll still be getting it however, just not looking forward to it as much as I was.

  • muscleblade #196 4 years ago

    @GingerNathan

    Exactly.

    Good thing eurogamer has lowered my expectations so my dissapointment of it not being as good as the first wont be too bad.

  • slivir #197 4 years ago

    Good review Rob, but it would have been nice to see a few comments on the sound and story. I guess the story must be so shit it doesn't warrant a mention.

    I think I'll be giving this one a miss for a while. Still have my hands full with DMC4 (which deserves a 9 btw EG!).

  • Shinji #198 4 years ago

    Good review Rob, but it would have been nice to see a few comments on the sound and story. I guess the story must be so shit it doesn't warrant a mention.

    They're both pretty much exactly what you'd expect. The music is Team Ninja's usual fare of totally inoffensive soft rock stuff that you really don't even notice, since you're too busy focusing on the screams and squishy noises. As for the story, well.. Yeah, you're on the money there. It's absolutely abysmal, far worse even than NG1's storyline. It's used entirely as an excuse to drag you through a handful of major global locations, with wafer-thin plot to explain the transitions.

    Thankfully it's the kind of game you don't really play for the story or dialogue. For the love of god, though, switch to Japanese audio before you start. I played the first chunk with the English voiceovers, and they cut my brain like knives.

  • sneetch #199 4 years ago

    @OllyJ
    "you are joking right? Nero was shooting bullets out the air doing loads of amazing moves you could never do in the game!"

    Yep, that was his point exactly.

    "didn't bother me though as both game and cutscenes were great.

    It's always a bit disapointing to see any negative comments about a game you are looking forward to, but then GTAIV is a 10/10 and suffers from severe checkpointing annoyance, unhelpful camera +random AI and severe difficulty spikes! Lets not get ahead of ourselves, it's still gonna be awesome."

    That's true. If you think you'll like it; go for it! 7 isn't bad, just not fantastic.

    Technically GTA didn't exactly wow me, great fun thought; in GTA IV the fact that other drivers try to drive around you if you ever get caught at the lights hacks me off more than it should; Hello? I'm in the outside lane here! I'm not parked! If one more person rams me or tries to overtake me at the lights I swear I'l*Crunch*

    And that point, your honour, is when I put on the handbrake, got out and shot them all.

    (That was when I thought the cops might give a crap about me running a red light, the cops were the ones who rammed me).

    Anyway, enough rambling.

  • Calgon #200 4 years ago

    Les doesnt half talk some bollocks eh? He really is full of it, MS-hater(perhaps a bitter Sony fanboy) who feigns objectivity.

    PS3 fanboys coming out of the woodwork to do a happy dance, to add insult to injury, fair enough if it was a game that hadnt earned its reputation and was being hyped(like Killzone2 or something) but not this one there were gamers genuinely looking forward to this being the definitive version.... should have gone out in style, what a waste.

  • hybridial #201 4 years ago

    "Edge slated the game in their preview and Eurogamer support some of their concerns. That's enough for me to know not to bother with it."

    Rash, in my experience Edge and Eurogamer have slated some games that I absolutely love. Hell, Edge only gave Metroid Prime 3, one of the best games I've played this generation, 7/10. And educated and experienced opinion are one and the same, you cannot possibly know ultimately what your reaction to a game will be based on what others say. Now if your not that interested in the game really in the first place, fair enough, this game is only meant for it's audience anyway, but for those part of it, they shouldn't be put off by these reviews because lets face it, they practically lie. Ninja Gaiden Black's difficulty, perfect? Heck no, it was cheap as hell at times, but it just happened to nonetheless be the best you'll find, and I'm betting it'll be the same with NG2, especially as these reviewers are A. not playing the retail build, something that they could have mentioned, and B. they haven't got good enough at the game to beat normal yet. So no, I don't see what makes these reviews educated or trustworthy.

  • OllyJ #202 4 years ago

    @sneetch

    oh ok, I thought your point was the opposite, heh oh well eh!

  • muscleblade #203 4 years ago

    Im really trying not to be too excited for this now that i know it doesnt live up to the original. Im still very excited and i dont know why. Maybe im just tired of GTAIV.

  • drumbaby #204 4 years ago

    "And none of the DMC games comes even close to Ninja Gaiden Black"

    Except DMC 3, whic is not only much better than any NG game mechanics-wise, but also has atmosphere, pacing and charm -- qualities no NG game to date has even come close to having.

  • Shinji #205 4 years ago

    especially as these reviewers are A. not playing the retail build, something that they could have mentioned

    It's been pointed out repeated in this thread, as well as in the text of the review itself, that we've played a RETAIL, BOXED copy of the game, on a RETAIL Xbox. I don't know why TeamXbox only got a gold-disc copy and didn't subsequently get sent a retail version, but that's their problem, not ours.

  • OllyJ #206 4 years ago

    I'm suprised to hear you say the music is not noteworthy from what I've heard it's a big step up from the Original.

    Sound always gets overlooked anyway!
    booo!!

  • Trigga_Tybalt #207 4 years ago

    another exclusive turns out bad. yay for multi platform games.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 14:27

  • muscleblade #208 4 years ago

    @drumbaby

    "Except DMC 3, whic is not only much better than any NG game mechanics-wise, but also has atmosphere, pacing and charm -- qualities no NG game to date has even come close to having"

    Your definently in the minority if you reallty think that.
    Ninja gaiden Black
    TeamXbox 9/20/2005 9.6 out of 10 96.0%
    IGN 9/19/2005 9.4 out of 10 94.0%
    GameSpot 9/20/2005 9.4 out of 10 94.0%
    Official Xbox Magazine 11/1/2005 9 out of 10 90.0%
    Game Informer 10/1/2005 9.5 out of 10 95.0%
    Play Magazine 10/1/2005 9.5 out of 10 95.0%
    GameZone 9/23/2005 9.6 out of 10 96.0%
    GameSpy 9/26/2005 5 out of 5 100.0%
    Worth Playing 10/14/2005 9.6 out of 10 96.0%
    1UP 9/16/2005 10 out of 10 100.0%

    DMC3 has an average of 84% enough said.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 14:41

  • muscleblade #209 4 years ago

    @Trigga_Tybalt

    If 7/10 is bad, there arent many good games out there especially not for the PS3.

  • Krelle #210 4 years ago

    Yay for morons wasting each others time on the internets!
    (Ive just wasted 30sec of my own!)

  • NickD7 #211 4 years ago

    9/10 review here

    [link url=http://www.gamerankings.com/itemranking s/launchreview.asp?reviewid=941069
    ]http://ww w.gamerankings.com/itemrankings...[/link]

    It's almost never unfair, but unless you're 100 per cent focussed don't expect to make it very far.

    Playing Ninja Gaiden 2 is a very different experience to playing the majority of games. No other game I've ever played is as rewarding so often. Whether it's for simply beating a wave of blood-thirsty bats or for finally slaying a boss you've been tearing your hair out over for more than an hour, the sense of reward and gratification is practically unrivalled. For every level you beat you feel like you're becoming a better gamer and that's a feeling that very few games can claim to give. This is action gaming at its very best.
    ------------------------------------------

    The Eurogamer review is just another bad review from them imo, like their RE4 Wii review. Some people just don't get Ninja Gaiden or throw a fit when things don't go their way in a game, politics also play a big role in this sites review scores I think. This review is one for the trash me thinks, this game is more fun than the original in every way, yet they can only manage a 7 for it...ok whatever, go back to your 10/10 GTA IV that most people have stopped playing already as it's boring as hell after a few days.

  • drumbaby #212 4 years ago

    "DMC3 has an average of 84% enough said. "

    What has that got to do with NG being soulless, lacking atmosphere, charm, and pacing, and not having as good combat mechanics as DMC 3?

    Just because many reviewers imagined DMC 3 as having unfair difficulty (erm...easy mode anyone?) and forgave NG's shortcoming because of its shiny Xbox powered graphics...well, doesn't make it right you know :)

    DMC 3 > NG...end of.

  • miiiguel #213 4 years ago

    Halo as an average of 94%, nuff said...

    oh but in that case, it's this and that, and the bias, and the shit...

  • Scimarad #214 4 years ago

    I'm sorry Ace_McCloud but those issues do rather seem to outweigh it's good points no matter how 'balletic' it is. If the reviewer was trying to give the impression it was worth a purchase then maybe he shouldn't have made the difficulty issues and bad camera such huge down points.

    On the other hand it has got me curious - It can't be that unfair!

  • TRUTH #215 4 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden 2

    Game Informer = 9.5 out of 10
    IGN = 8.7 out of 10
    VideoGamer = 9 out of 10
    Eurogamer = 7 out of 10
    Computer & Video Games UK = 8 out of 10
    GameTap = 9 out of 10
    GameDaily = 9 out of 10
    Gameradar = 9 out of 10

    Fast, bloody, violent, cool, hard (level adjustable), best action beat em up released!...that's what ALL reviews are saying!!!
    Edited by 2 at 27/05/08 @ 19:55

  • DAN.E.B #216 4 years ago

    its good to hear the TRUTH

    thats the best news ive read all day!

  • OllyJ #217 4 years ago

    It's 9/10.

    I can tell you that without having played it ;D

    I seriously can't wait, just to be playing a new NG game is exciting, I'm pretty sure if you had a month to review something rather than a few days it would be different, there's loads of games like Guitar hero that if I only had a few days to play it I may have criticised it unfairly when it actually becomes clear what it's all about after a long play time.

    not saying the reviewr is wrong but I'll spend a month finishing it in a relaxed pace and not having a deadline hanging over my head.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 20:50

  • smelly #218 4 years ago

    STOP IT!! IT'S A ****ING NUMBER FFS!

    Numbers are nonsense, you cant say with any accuracy one game is worth a higher number than the other. And scores are often bought anyhows.

    The WORDS tell you if the game is any good.. ignore the fucking score would you please!!! Sheesh

    "my dicks better than yours because it's got a higher score"

  • Seth. #219 4 years ago

    "DMC 3 > NG...end of."

    In defence of NG... Despite the fact that both of these games are labeled as hack and slash, there is a certain difference in the way their combat systems work. DMC is in part about "long combos" and in part about "mass-combat" (the kind of combat in games like diablo gauntlet dynasty warriors etc.) In NG on the other hand, as Itagaki mentioned in some of his interviews, there aren't that many enemies attacking you at once, and they don't just wait for you to "use" them in chaining combos.

    NG is much faster than DMC I mean compare the average amount of time taken between enemy X attacks you twice in DMC vs ninja gaiden. In DMC sometimes enemies won't attack even if it is completely obvious that they have the opportunity to do it. They'll just sort of dance around using some animation that is supposed to look threatening, and it will take ages before they actually attack. That's because they sit there for you to do some kind of combo. Compare that to NG's AI.

    God of war is similar to DMC, either the enemies will attack slowly or if they're fast the amount of damage they do upon landing a hit will be small, and the game ends up kind of like playing diablo. It doesn't really matter if you get hit or not, since your moves are stronger, and eventually you will overpower your enemies by brute force. So DMC is like 75% about who's got the stronger moves that cover more area, and 25% skil and timing, while NG is the opposite. DMC is about pressing square rythmically and watching the attack animations, while NG plays like a fighting game, the fights have a much more complex flow.

    I'm curious if NG2 has gone down the DMC route (sadly it looks like that by watching the videos) and also about the cheap sections
    that most reviewers complained about. Personally I found that NG was an easy game once you've learned how to play it, I mean
    got the feel of the right flow of attacks against each enemy. I got to the point where I can easily finish it on very hard (and I generally suck at games) *aside from that fight with alma*, which was cheap and badly programmed imo, and I'm worried if those negative comments about the difficulty mean that parts of the game are like that.

    I have to agree though, that DMC does indeed have much more charm, NG sometimes feels like a world of retarded DOA wrestlers, with unimaginative architecture and directx-y graphics

  • Emth #220 4 years ago

    @TRUTH

    You conveniently left out of the 1up 75% review.

    When it comes to reliable reviews I usually go for the holy trinity of EDGE, EG and 1up. I haven't read the EDGE review yet but I recall someone commenting that 'EDGE were right' earlier in the comment list so I'm going to assume it got a 7 there too.

  • miiiguel #221 4 years ago

    Edge did give 10 to Halo 3. But it was the money, and the bias, and the phase of the moon. NG2 is the one to go (eventually).

  • Les #222 4 years ago

    "STOP IT!! IT'S A FUCKING NUMBER FFS!"

    /fixed

  • Load_2.0 #223 4 years ago

    Bumsticks! Loved the original felt it was hard but never cheap. Such a shame. Looks really full on all the time, in the original there was time to breathe between battles and generally only 3-5 enemies to contend with. This looks like a full on continual hack n slash.

    Well only one way to know for sure.

  • bitesize #224 4 years ago

    smelly: STOP IT!! IT'S A ****ING NUMBER FFS!

    Numbers are nonsense, you cant say with any accuracy one game is worth a higher number than the other.

    haha, yeah no-one should ever get hung up on a simple review score right smelly? i mean, imagine still going on about a review score months after, still unable to get over it - would be a bit sad right?

  • crazymonkey66 #225 4 years ago

    sounds to me like rob sucks at ninja gaiden. i'm partly saying this because if ninja gaiden has become cheap (something it never was) then action games have begun their descent into hell. oh well, god of war 3 better be awesome.

  • Vic #226 4 years ago

    Didnt Gamesradar give this 7/10 too?

  • TRUTH #227 4 years ago

    Looking at the average score it got 8/9 out of 10 with a couple of 7/10 inc EG!... If you want a bloody, gory, fast action violent game that needs skill - the get it. Some complain about the camera - This can be corrected by pressing the L button, which centers the camera behind Ryu - problem solved. Also some complain about the difficulty - Just put the level down, if your not a experienced NG player. It's probably right now the best action game that requires skill on t any platform.

    Game Informer = 9.5 out of 10
    IGN = 8.7 out of 10
    VideoGamer = 9 out of 10
    Eurogamer = 7 out of 10
    Computer & Video Games UK = 8 out of 10
    GameTap = 9 out of 10
    GameDaily = 9 out of 10
    Gameradar = 7 out of 10
    Console Domain = 8 out of 10
    PlanetGames = 9 out of 10
    Edited by 2 at 02/06/08 @ 13:04

  • L42yB #228 4 years ago

    Ouch, harsh review :(

    i was looking forward to this one. May have to check out a rental first...

  • WinterSnowblind #229 4 years ago

    I wasn't a huge fan of the original game, but after playing the demo, I'm definitely going to go out and buy this as soon as possible. Although it only gives you one level, it makes a lot of little improvements, that I felt the original sorely needed, and most of the complaints being thrown at NG2, are all issues the first game had as well, but were for some reason ignored.

    I'd also like to point out, that unlike Ninja dog mode, the new lower difficulty setting is very easy, the spider ninja's can be beating on your for minutes at a time, before you'll even come close to dying. It should be a great help for beginers that can't get used to the difficulty.

    Also, the claws are a lot of fun for tearing through the enemies :)

  • DAN.E.B #230 4 years ago

    demo? where? i want to play it now!

  • Falbala #231 4 years ago

    I thought it was out on the PS3 too?

    I will have to buy it because I loved the first one. A shame about the camera... It was completely unbearable in the first one.
    What are they thinking??

  • muscleblade #232 4 years ago

    I played it a couple of hours last night (retail version), and its very similar to the first (thank god). If you loved the first you will love this without question. 9/10 so far imo. The first was a solid 10/10 but its graphics was the best ever in the last generation. The same cant be said about NG2 but its more of the same and thats more than enough for me.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/08 @ 10:27

  • captainrentboy #233 4 years ago

    I'm just finishing up the Third Chapter, I'd agree with the guy above, if you loved the first one you'll feel the same about this one. It's a shame the dire camera remains, as when it does work, it's all running silky smooth, and you're fooking obliterating 10 guys in as many seconds, it's just pure sex on screen, but then you'll have the odd section where you quickly get your ass kicked just because you can't see what the EFF is going on.
    Thankfully it doesn't happen enough to infuriate me too much, so it's a definte 8.5/10 experience so far, the only real downer is that it's all sooo similar to the first (so far anyway).

  • oupe #234 4 years ago

    Got the retail game. Currently playing in acolyte mode (easy). I think it's different from the original game. The entire game seems a bit faster than the original, making things more hectic. The camera is pretty bad although the trigger helps. Also the graphics are a bit dissapointing when compared to DMC4 for example. The archers are a royal pain in the butt as stated in the review.

    Butbutbut, the game has moments of pure battle bliss. 7 out of 10 is spot on.

  • GooseUK #235 4 years ago

    Its good, when it's good... no frame rate issues for me yet.

    I just wish your health refilled before boss battles, it a little cheap on the first play through getting to a boss with like no health and then have the game restart u before the fight, with the same health... that really doesnt reflect sensible skill tbh... complete this boss without taking ANY damage! Yay, fun.... 7/10 is right

  • bumgut #236 4 years ago

    As a fanatic of the first game, this is a fair score.

  • anomagnus #237 4 years ago

    bought it

    its shit

    harsh, butthe game just feels hollow, ryu feels too light, the camera and viewpoint are tragically flawed, i felt i was playing it for the sake of playing it. No enjoyment whatsoever



  • muscleblade #238 4 years ago

    "I just wish your health refilled before boss battles, it a little cheap on the first play through getting to a boss with like no health and then have the game restart u before the fight, with the same health."

    WIMP!!!!

  • robg #239 4 years ago

    Yeah I've played the first 3 chapters, all seems pretty balanced; camera only a problem when you're in a tight space and surrounded by giant enemies, which is probably quite hard to get around. Apart from the end of level 2 boss, that camera is irritating when you're far away from him.

    The fighting is fantastic though, I love the new longer combos and the staff and claws - brilliant stuff!

    (completed the original on Normal and Hard)

    edit: also, the health bar mostly refilling after fights, up to the redline, Lives of a Thousand Gods now /restore your healthbar/ and the save points giving you health...I've not struggled at all for health so far. The only time I've died is at the end of level 2 boss, and that was before I looked at the sword combos...->XX->YY->Y = quick boss death.
    Edited by 1 at 19/06/08 @ 10:15

  • Wildsleven #240 4 years ago

    great game really enjoyed playing it, could be VERY CHEAP at times but still a good game what so ever!

  • robg #241 4 years ago

    In fact I've just done the 2-bosses-in-a-row bit and you just hold block when he's got no health (and looks as though he's about to explode) and you seem to take no damage from it. TBH the bosses in NG2 are _loads_ easier than in NG; I'd (as any sensible person would) saved up a Lives of a Thousand Gods and a 9th Life of the Gods, so I just used those when my health was low and finished these guys first time.

    Not showing off, just saying it's damn easy compared to NG. They give you *loads* of health!

  • cam_guin #242 4 years ago

    NG (or rather Ninja Gaiden Black) for me was a pinnacle of gaming (post SF2) and this was a huge disappointment. Pretty? Check. Violent? Check. But the finesse and style, and feeling a accomplishment and achievement of the first game, has all been lost. I am heartbroken. Stop wasting time making nonsense like DOA Extreme. Eyes on the prize!!

  • BillyBrush #243 3 years ago

    love it myself...counter, slash slash slash in 1, counter, limb flying, obliterate in 2

    i think a lot of people put on the rose specs for nr1, each to their own though, i like 2 more