I managed to finish Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360) on Normal. What a beautiful fucking mess of a game. If only they would have taken their time polishing it instead of pushing it out the door hoping for a bonus payout it really could have ended up the best action game of all time. Even though I spent more time screaming at it than any other game I’ve played so far I really can’t wait for a Ninja Gaiden 2 Black sale to try it with FiendBusa’s “White” mod.
Having come this far, and with NG4 on the horizon, I thought I might as well give Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge a try as well. Just to complete the trilogy. Man, I really don’t like this game. I don’t know whether I’ll actually manage to make myself finish it. And it’s weird because the combat had all the ingredients to be the very best of the entire series. Ryu is more fluid than ever, his moveset is larger than ever and the dynamic flexibility of combat is higher than ever. All the fundamentals are there. It just… doesn’t feel that good to play. The game wants you to play for Steel On Bone counters, but that type of reactive gameplay is not that fun. It doesn’t feel as measured and precise as NGB combat, and not as frantic and viscerally satisfying as NG2 combat.
Also, let’s talk about the setting and the story. NGB did not have a good story, but it had a cool setting with the eclectic mix of ancient, steampunk and futuristic. Also the story was kind of comic book-y and didn’t get in the way. NG2 dialled everything up to 11, and the story devolved into the absolutely insane campy nonsense that is so bad it’s almost good. It’s trash, but entertaining in a B-movie type way. Also NG2 had some incredible variation in locales, and while the globetrotting didn’t make any sense you constantly saw new and exciting locations and the levels themselves were pretty cool.
NG3RE has an absolutely woeful story, so actively bad it’s actually getting in the way of my enjoyment. It manages to be boring, derivative, cliche-ridden and lame without ever crossing over into so-bad-it’s-good. It also completely ruins the vibe by reframing the game into some sort of Call of Duty or Ghost Recon-esque military special agent story, and the levels are poorly designed and extremely boring. NG2 had varied and interesting combat arenas, these are just mind numbing open squares with again a CoD type of military theme.
And on top of all this it’s hard. Like, really fucking hard. And often not in a fun way, but in a “fuck you and your enjoyment”-way that makes the Itagaki games look strictly pleasant. Some of these boss fights make me wish I was fighting Gigadeath again, and that’s a feat I thought was impossible.
I managed to finish Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360) on Normal. What a beautiful fucking mess of a game. If only they would have taken their time polishing it instead of pushing it out the door hoping for a bonus payout it really could have ended up the best action game of all time. Even though I spent more time screaming at it than any other game I’ve played so far I really can’t wait for a Ninja Gaiden 2 Black sale to try it with FiendBusa’s “White” mod.
Having come this far, and with NG4 on the horizon, I thought I might as well give Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge a try as well. Just to complete the trilogy. Man, I really don’t like this game. I don’t know whether I’ll actually manage to make myself finish it. And it’s weird because the combat had all the ingredients to be the very best of the entire series. Ryu is more fluid than ever, his moveset is larger than ever and the dynamic flexibility of combat is higher than ever. All the fundamentals are there. It just… doesn’t feel that good to play. The game wants you to play for Steel On Bone counters, but that type of reactive gameplay is not that fun. It doesn’t feel as measured and precise as NGB combat, and not as frantic and viscerally satisfying as NG2 combat.
Also, let’s talk about the setting and the story. NGB did not have a good story, but it had a cool setting with the eclectic mix of ancient, steampunk and futuristic. Also the story was kind of comic book-y and didn’t get in the way. NG2 dialled everything up to 11, and the story devolved into the absolutely insane campy nonsense that is so bad it’s almost good. It’s trash, but entertaining in a B-movie type way. Also NG2 had some incredible variation in locales, and while the globetrotting didn’t make any sense you constantly saw new and exciting locations and the levels themselves were pretty cool.
NG3RE has an absolutely woeful story, so actively bad it’s actually getting in the way of my enjoyment. It manages to be boring, derivative, cliche-ridden and lame without ever crossing over into so-bad-it’s-good. It also completely ruins the vibe by reframing the game into some sort of Call of Duty or Ghost Recon-esque military special agent story, and the levels are poorly designed and extremely boring. NG2 had varied and interesting combat arenas, these are just mind numbing open squares with again a CoD type of military theme.
And on top of all this it’s hard. Like, really fucking hard. And often not in a fun way, but in a “fuck you and your enjoyment”-way that makes the Itagaki games look strictly pleasant. Some of these boss fights make me wish I was fighting Gigadeath again, and that’s a feat I thought was impossible.