Looks like it’s time to buy some industrial strength floor cleaner - because it’s the only way you’re going to get the nasty entrails and gallons of blood splatter removed. Yes, Ninja Gaiden is on its way back and this time it’s going to be even more spleen-slicingly spectacular. However, severing limbs and lopping off heads in true ninja style won’t be the only point of attraction to this sequel. Team Ninja has been mindful of all the things that bugged us about the first game (as good as it was) and has set about making number two in the series a better all-round experience. In fact, they’re confident that they’re bringing the Xbox 360 the “world’s best action game”. If you thought Ninja Gaiden was painfully difficult at times, then you’ll be pleased to discover that this sequel will have a number of difficulty levels - with an easy (Path of the Acolyte) and normal (Path of the Warrior) option available from the start of the game and two more levels of toughness to unlock down the track. The game uses an all-new engine that has been built from the ground up for the Xbox 360, and even though it doesn’t look that much different to the last game, it’s certainly no slouch. Everything rolls along at a smooth 60 frames per second with that Dead or Alive level of character detail and environment sheen. It’s an impressive feat, especially when you see a dozen enemies on screen and returning hero Ryu Hayabusa carving through them at lightning speed. Naturally, camera perspective issues remain to be a bit of a bugbear, but that always seems to be the case with fast-moving, 360 degree combat games such as this. It rears its ugly head whenever Ryu strays into a corner, tight corridor, or is travelling up a staircase and gets into a fight. Walls - who needs ‘em? You can control the camera with the right stick - and reset the perspective behind Ryu when necessary - but the camera still tends to stray into frustrating positions of its own accord. Zooming into a first-person view is possible, along with the option to focus in on a distant target, but this seems to only be for assessing the environment, as it’s not really practical during combat. The game now pauses when using the d-pad to cycle through your melee weapons, ranged weapons or health herbs, which didn’t happen in the original - another feature that reduces frustration in the heat of combat. Utilising all those cool weapons to hack your enemies up into bite sized chunks is still incredibly fun. However, enemies that have lost an arm or leg don’t just lie down and die. In true Monty Python fashion, enemy ninjas now proceed to come at you, even through you’ve removed a third of their body parts and blood is gushing from the wounds. Especially nasty are the kamikaze ones that get in close just so they can blow the both of you sky high. You can’t trust that enemies are fully dispatched until you decapitate them, or cleave them entirely in half. If they’re on their knees or stunned, you can go in for a well-timed finishing move that makes for some pretty satisfying pre-animated slayings. And if you like the look of a battle so much that you want to show off what you did to your friends, you can keep a replay recorded in the Ninja Cinema and upload it to Xbox Live. Nice. Healing stations that save your progress are placed throughout each level, so hitting a checkpoint can also fully heal you up and remove any permanent damage (indicated on your blue health bar by a red colour). These help to soften the difficulty somewhat, although they will only heal you once, so you can’t trek back to them for a boost or two. You can, however, return to re-save your game. Overall, Ninja Gaiden II is looking like a seriously good follow-up to the original. It’s fast, bloody, tricky and brutal - just the way we like it.
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