This has been the first Ninja Gaiden game I have completed. Sure, I have played the classic NES titles, but I was never a fan of action platformers, so I saw more of those games more than played them myself. And of course I have heard a lot about the reboot of on the original Xbox, later re-released as Ninja Gaiden Black. But didn’t own the consoles you could play it, or its sequels on. I did plan to grab the Master Collection when it was announced, but was dissuaded by the negative reviews on the PC port quality. It was as if playing Ninja Gaiden is just not going to happen, until earlier this year an upcoming sequel to the rebooted series was announced. And, even more surprising, the announcement was accompanied by the same day release of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black – a remake of a remake of the second game, but now running on Unreal Engine 5. I had to finally play this game, and I am extremely glad I did.
I will keep the somewhat complicated talk on the versions of this game for later and will open by trying to explain what Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is. This is a hack and slash game, in a somewhat similar vein to the Devil May Cry or Onimusha series, but with a very distinct mechanical and gameplay flow identity of its own. There is a plot, but it’s hilariously stupid and only serves to get Ryu, our protagonist ninja, to slice more “fiends” into pieces and meet scantly clothed ladies with jiggle physics. Oh and travel around the world that is bizarrely futuristic cyberpunk and not at the same time. You’re not supposed to think about this much, because the amount of “storytelling” here is honestly not just “not modern”, it feels lifted straight out of the 80s games and channels the same energy as being the “bad enough dude to rescue the president”.
So what is it that makes the gameplay so unique? It is almost difficult to put it into words, but this game has the excitement of DMC, with the intensity of the Heaven or Hell mode (where everything, including you, dies in one hit). It is clearly meant to evoke both the deadliness of sword combat and the feel of the classic Ninja Gaiden titles, where most of the enemies died in one or just a couple of hits. But when this “things can die quite fast” idea paired with a crazy selection of weapons, the combos, the number of enemies on screen and how aggressive the enemies can be, it leads to a slightly chaotic but also indescribably fun experience. Cut off limbs fly in all directions, Ryu is performing some insane counter that you’ve managed to time just right and you’re seeing even more enemies running to join the fray in the distance. It’s breathtaking and giddy in ways, I’ve not expected this game to be and it makes you, the player, feel incredibly cool not just because you’re seeing something cool happen on the screen, but because you feel like you deserve it.
In pure mechanical terms, this is a hack and slash with combos and a selection of weapons you gradually unlock as the game progresses. They can be upgraded in special shops with money you get from chests and enemies. You also get a couple of spells to help you gain some space, when things get tough, which also can be upgraded. And you have some exploration abilities along with cool wall running and acrobatics, though you don’t have to do it very often. From my understanding, the 2004 Ninja Gaiden was a more “traditional” action adventure hack and slash where you had to explore, unlock things with key items, solve some puzzles and do more platforming. But that’s not what Ninja Gaiden 2, in the current Black version especially, is about. It’s a very linear game, with a button that can show you where to go next. So all you have to do is learn how to fight.
I cannot stress enough, just how fun the combat can feel. The idea is – enemies, as mentioned, can die quite fast. Main reason for it is that everyone can get dismembered, but enemies who lost a limb don’t necessarily die immediately and can still attack you. Meaning that you need to either combo damage them more, or perform a special finisher, but to do that you need to “calm down”, so to speak, for a bit, because inputting things too fast will lead into a combo. Which is a curious idea and it brings a unique dynamic to how you react to situations and plan the fights. You can try to go for maximum combos, without performing the coup de grâce, but then you’re letting more enemies (who can be aggressive) stay on screen and overwhelm you. Or you can try to finish everyone off as soon as possible, but then you may be missing out on interesting combo flow.
This game also has possibly my favorite approach to health I’ve seen in such titles. You obviously lose health when taking damage, but only part of that damage becomes a sort of lasting damage marked in red on your health bar. As you finish the fight (or are not fighting for a certain amount of time), your health will regenerate any lost health that wasn’t marked red. But to restore red health you need to get blue orbs, use a save point or a healing item. Saves points only heal you the first time you use them, so they discourage you from trying to camp around them in spots where you get a lot of fights near a save spot. And this overall mechanic leads to something that is streamlined in the best possible way.
But let’s talk about the versions of Ninja Gaiden 2, because this new Black release is technically the third major revision of the game. As mentioned – I’ve not played the others, so I had to look up longplays and read on details on the internet to understand the differences and I’m sure super hardcore fans of the original version will have thousands of reasons about why that version was the best.
But the general idea was as follows – the original release of Ninja Gaiden 2 was on Xbox 360 in 2008. That version of the game still had key items, though they were almost always “on the way” and didn’t require a lot of exploration. The ranged weapon ammo was limited, but there were a lot more ranged enemies to deal with, including several ranged only bosses. It also included a special weapon to fight underwater and, to accommodate that, several sections of underwater ranged combat. The game had more relentless approach to enemy spawns with almost every room having some sort of fight, the amount of enemies was in general higher and the configuration of enemy spawns was different from the later releases. It had one section in boring underground labyrinth that no one seemed to like with a worm boss. And a few other rooms that would get cut from the re-releases.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (Σ2) was released a year later on PS3 and had an updated engine with, in general, more impressive and colourful visuals. It had three additional levels where you play as other characters from the franchise. It cut several sections of levels that people disliked (like the worm boss) and switched some of the ranged bosses to ones that were either always in melee range, or more often in melee range. It changed the selection of weapons a bit and made ranged weapons infinite, however the upgrade system was reworked to no longer use currency you get from enemies. Additional bosses were added into sections of pre-existing levels. Underwater combat was cut completely. Key items were almost fully removed so things open for you when the game needs it. But most controversially, the game also removed all blood and dismemberment (well, limbs can be removed, but they disappear in purple flame instead of being cut off), made the general numbers of enemy spawns much lower and boosted the health values of individual enemies. The last aspects were especially heavily criticized when the game was released.
With Black, apart from the engine switch to UE5 (which is, in general, really smartly utilized) the game follows the baseline changes of the Sigma 2 release, but then tries to add back things that people loved about the original. Enemies are once again more numerous and their health is reduced (also blood and dismemberment returns), but the configurations of enemies for spawns are similar to the Sigma 2 release. New bosses in Ryu levels were removed, as they were criticized, but the three additional levels remained. Currency and weapon upgrade systems reverted back to the logic of the original release. But most of the frustrating segments of the original game remained cut (one such segment was returned, but it’s mostly fine). For all intents and purposes, this is supposed to be the definitive version of the game. But given the history of the franchise and diehard fan reactions to it over the years, it probably will still be criticized.
For me personally, I just found the three additional levels bad. They kill the pace and add nothing to the game or the “plot”, being reuses of previously explored levels. But apart from that, the pace of the game is quite good and less enemy spawns then in the original release gives more room for the player to breathe and prepare for the next intense and fun encounter. There are some terrible enemy designs and horrid level sections. And the last levels of the game drag on, being a typical boss rush kind of deal in some hellish meat cavern… Too many of these types of games end with these kinds of levels. Otherwise, the pace of the combat can still be brisk and even one of the final bosses died to me (I was playing on normal) in about 20 seconds. Though, to be fair, on a second attempt, as on the first one I was trying to kill him for about two minutes, could not get his health below the middle and died.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is not a perfect game, but this is the type of a hack and slash that is so incredibly fun that there isn’t anything quite like it. It has many faults, it’s incredibly silly, some parts are less fun than the others and you will hate the ghost fish when you meet them before you realize how to deal with them. But it’s amazing fun. Start at the normal difficulty, learn when to attack, when to block, when to dodge out of the way, which weapons you prefer and which weapons work best for which enemies. And just start slashing. Wish more games were like this.