Ninja Gaiden II preview Xbox 360

Ninja Gaiden II preview Xbox 360

2004's Ninja Gaiden may have been a surprise hit, but great things are expected of its sequel Ninja Gaiden II, out next month on the 360. We've gone hands-on with the sequel this month and we've got the answers to some of the burning questions. Will it live up to the series' reputation for being extremely challenging, if not downright impossible for some less able players, and how does that tally with the claims that Ninja Gaiden II will be more accessible to a wider audience? And is it as imaginatively gruesome and bloody as we've come to expect? Find out the answers to these and more as we preview Ninja Gaiden II in this issue of 360Zine!
Click here to read our Ninja Gaiden II preview for Xbox 360 now! Ninja Gaiden II preview for Xbox 360 It's fair to say that 2004's Ninja Gaiden surprised a few people. Arriving without a great deal of fanfare - despite being a remake of a hugely popular late Eighties arcade game, it blindsided critics and audiences with a near-perfect blend of fast-paced scrapping action, superb platforming sequences, and an intense challenge. Too intense for some, it's fair to say - the series' extreme difficulty hadn't been lowered over the intervening years. On the contrary - Tomonobu Itagaki's hardcore reimagining of the franchise in 3D sorted out the men from the boys, with some players unable to make it past the game's first boss. While it was hard, though, it was almost always fair, apart from the save points being spaced way too far apart, and the game's dynamic camera not always providing the optimum view of the action. Though NGII's camera is an undoubted improvement, it's still far from perfect - the option to centre it behind Ryu with the right trigger is certainly a welcome one. But its other slight niggles have been tightened up. Those save points are more frequent, and placed more sensibly, also allowing you to heal your wounds after particularly tough battles. If anything, the action seems even quicker than before, with Ryu becoming a whirling dervish - dealing death to all comers with his array of deadly weaponry. Click here to continue reading our Ninja Gaiden II preview for Xbox 360 now!