LANCOZA Blog

I played all the Ninja Gaidens that have been released. Starting with the Arcade version. I played it on the Xbox 1 and I have now played the latest installment on the Xbox 360. All the versions have one thing in common, they are damned hard .

The arcade version consumed my pocket money at an alarming rate and I soon learned to steer well clear of it. When I played the Xbox 1 version, I was less concerned about reaching the end of level bosses than I was with surviving the ordinary ninjas. This was no run of the mill hack and slash. If you did not plan your defense and attacks carefully you would soon be in Ninja heaven.

The end of level bosses were more punishment than enjoyment and I did not make it much past the first one, and not from lack of trying. My wife eventually banned me from playing because of the number of times I almost threw my controller at the screen.

Ninja Gaiden Black was released after Ninja Gaiden and was intended to relieve some of the punishment, with an easier difficulty level but I could never really get myself to select the Dog Ninja difficulty.

Being a Ninja fan, I was ever hopeful that Ninja Gaiden 2 would be different, and it is. You can save more frequently and receive a health top up at the same time. The health and weapon upgrades are available earlier in the game and the shuriken are more effective. Your charged weapon attacks are more devastating but one thing has not changed - the end of level bosses are insane.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is incrementally better than the previous versions, it is essentially the game that the earlier versions should have been. The changes are effective and the game play between bosses is great but they should have made the boss battles more sensible. Regardless of how well you play at some point you will have to revert to a wak through or risk breaking your console out of frustration.

Making it 2 player co-op a la the Arcade version would have helped. Ninja Gaiden 2 is better than it's predecessors but does not break any new ground.The end of level bosses are more migraine inducing frustration and this should have been changed.