Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Review: A Slice Of Heaven

“Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2″ brings extra modes,  strong replay value, improved visual pinache, and everything you love to hate about the series to the PlayStation 3.  Even though the game takes a few steps forward, it takes a few steps back keeping it shy from the epitome of greatness that Tecmo and Team Ninja would like it rest upon.  It’s these things, like the bad camera, unforgiving difficulty, and long hours of frustrating gameplay, that makes this title far less than the crown jewel it could be. There is nothing like it and that is also the same reason why gamers lemming their way towards it time and time again.  Though the series only catered to the purest, Team Ninja added a few features like Co-Op, the ability to gain a health boost after clearing a room/area, and additional modes to sweeten the deal even further for new comers.  I can’t find a reason for XBOX owners to buy this game but it’s an easy purchase for PS3 owners.  The fact is it’s a much better version of the game and it some ways it should have been the game released on the XBOX360.

Dishing out the violin to complain about the camera any further is a waste of time, but the camera still sucks.  It sucks a lot.  There are times when the camera behaves like a well groomed, well mannered child, but there are times I want to send it to it’s room with no TV for six months.  While the open ended ending leaves less to be desired, I would be hard pressed to expect Team Ninja to change this one technical detail.  Come to think of it, you should probably start viewing the camera as an element of the difficulty.  This becomes more evident the longer you play any Ninja Gaiden game.  Nevertheless, the controls are on point, and only suffer due to your own in-ability to keep up with the speed. Then there’s the blocking; something that doesn’t really work that well especially if you are not fast enough. 

One thing I have learned about this series is that you’re punished harshly when you don’t follow the rules that are laid out before you.  Blocking has to be thought out in advance throughout each skirmish.  It’s not like “Devil May Cry” or “God of War” where you can perform your blocks on the fly.  If you are not expecting your enemies to take advantage of you, so you can take advantage of them, then you will fail when you try to counter or reflect their attacks.  This adds an extra layer of frustration to anyone trying to advance through Mentor or Master modes in the regular game.  The satisfaction of completing these difficulties can be rewarding if you have the patience to master these subtle things.  Itagaki had long believed that rewarding players for accomplishing difficult tasks was a key element of gameplay.  With that, you are now rewarded with a small health boost (kind of like an ego boost) after clearing a room/area.  This is a God send in a game like this because this time around you actually have something to look forward to.  Unlike the first game where you had to really itemize health elixirs.  This concept does not apply to your Ninpo though, so you will still be collecting items related to keeping your Ninpo guage up either by speaking with Muramasa or syphonNinpo essence from fallen enemies.   This one change made the game more fun to play especially when things get hectic.

You spend so much time trying to keep up with your enemies that you will have little time to marvel at the polished visuals.  The lack of the fountains of blood spewing from diced limbs may have been removed but the experience of viewing and performing body cavity research is still quite fun.   Ornaments on weapons shingle with sutle sounds and the smooth movements of all the characters are done quite well.  Contrary to popular believe in the PS3 camp, ”Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2″ slows down, but only in those moments where you play online, or take on multi-boss battles with several enemies. Still, it can be very satisfying when the mixture of madness, mayhem, brutality and speed coalesce into a symphonic ballad.  That’s where it stops though because there tends to be moments in the game where you’re just running around … well … not doing much.  The long empty corridors reminded me of the second 3D outing in “Castlevania.”  Given that the game is so linear, the empty corridors and halls do nothing to excite these moments.  If puzzles are your thing, then you’re looking in the wrong place.  Oddly, though games like “Onimusha” were able to accomplish this mix well but involved a lot of heavy back tracking.  When I think about the old NES “Ninja Gaiden” games the concept of back tracking was not implemented in those games.  With that, you could say this linear approach was inherited from the Grandfather of the series.  Still, the long corridors of nothing-ness are uncalled for.  There are those gamers out there, that include myself, who want to be constantly assaulted by an oveerwhelming number of enemies.

Including the DS character Momiji was also a great move, which increases the total number of playable characers and the most for any “Ninja Gaiden” game.  However, you do not feel the need to actually master these characters especially when you could just Swallow Attack your way through most parts of the games.  You will spend some time searching for the lost skulls that you use at Muramasa’s shop to lower the cost of your purchases.  The shop serves as the only RPG element of the game and even though it’s minor, you will be happy to get to the shop way-points time and time again with as many skulls as possible.  Fortunately, you carry the skulls across the different difficulties. 

One thing is for sure, is that there isn’t enough content around charcters themselves.  Muramasa comes the closest to being a full character since everyone finds their way to this shop somehow.  The game hints of the old man’s prowess but doesn’t explore it.  The heroes seem rich but they are presented in a lackluster way and they are easily up-staged by the villains. 

Additional gameplay modes like Chapter Challenge, and Team Missions modes have been added to the PS3 version.  Challenge Mode gives you the chance to play any level with your fully maxed out wepons.  Team Missions gives you the chance to play co-op or with the computer.  The core gameplay elements are maintained in each of these modes and you can perform one extra Ninpo attack with your partner, computer or human, for full scale damage.  Playing with a partner in Team Mission mode on the higher difficulties becomes a requirement especially when you consider the double boss battles in the later stages.  To say the least, you will spend a lot of time in challenge mode and team mission mode attempting to complete al the tasks prepared for you. 

While ”Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2″ is strictly about action it can do with an upgrade in some areas.  Team Ninja has perfected the “Ninja” action genre but they should start exploring the inclusion of other elements into this type of gameplay without forfeiting on the fast pace gamplay.  It would be nice to really learn a little more about the other characters in this series.  The inclusion of online play is a plus and a step forward in the direction. This game comes easily recommended to anyone who loves the series and has a love of difficult games.  Giving gamers a fighting chance also made this experience much less frustrating than before so new comers can give it a try and perhaps walk away feeling satisfied.  Fortunately for “Ninja Gaiden,” there isn’t any title that can come close to it right now, so it has this market cornered well.  It’s probably time for Shinobi throw some exploding kunai daggers at Ryu Hayubasa.

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