Ninja Gaiden 2 Review: Xbox 360

The near perfect action flick this generation of video games has to offer.


First things first; I haven't played any games of the Ninja Gaiden franchise before this, so there would be no comparisons.


Make no mistake, Ninja Gaiden 2 (NG2) isn't for the faint of heart or the attention deficient. It's a tough game, tough to the point of being punishing, merciless! More likely than not, there will be times when you'll simply want to throw your controller at the screen or scream obsceneties. Persevere, and thy will be rewarded! Now that this, the most probable deterrent for any casual gamer or even NG veterans has been touched upon, let's get on with the review.

Story....hmmm..well...it's as cheesy and downright uninteresting as it could get, but that's not the point of NG2 anyway. FYI though, Ryu Hayabusa (our Ninja hero) has been given the inevitable job of saving the world again. He has been on a revenge mission since the black spider clan Ninjas and fiends (the main villains) destroyed his village. This time around, there's a CIA?? twist in the tale and Ryu gets the help of Sonia (a buxom agent) intermittently in the game. The Archfiend has awakened and he threatens to shatter the peace on earth with the help of his four greater fiends (bosses you got to fight on and off in the game).



What surprised me immediately about NG2 was that it didn't hold my hand and tried to spoonfeed me at all. As soon as the intro cutscene was over, there I was, smack! in the middle of 10 angry ninja foes ready to mince me for dinner. Thereafter, it kept presenting me with scrolls on how to perform a specific evading move or how to counter an attack, so on and so forth. Never did it feel like Iwas being taught, but it still felt like I was learning. If you're one of those who think they are good because they can pull of insane combos and ratings in Devil May Cry then be ready to cry your heart out in as early as the second chapter of NG2. Button mashing will lead you nowhere, the enemies in NG2 are no punching bags. I cannot stress the importance of learning enough for this game. Look for enemy attack patterns, learn what has to be dodged and what has to be blocked (of course, most enemies in NG2 have guard breaking techniques, so don't think nothing will hit you if you just stand there blocking).



The enemy design and AI, specially the bosses is truly marvellous. Master Ninjas, dragons, six legged werevolves, giant armadillos,giant worms, gargantuan mosnter skeletons, flame throwing dark lords, vampirish fiends, spider like warriors, you name it..you've got it. What's more interesting is that, except for a few, there are many ways to tackle a specific boss. I won't spoil the fun for you here, it's best you figure it out for yourself. Level design is mostly good with the exception of a few which seem kind of bland considering what we're used to seeing on current gen systems. The game also experiences a few hitches when the framerate drops during intense battles or sometimes goes to the loading screen abruptly. The in-game camera can also be annoying; it tends to follow Ryu too closely sometimes or it simply gets stuck in a wall while you're fighting. Fortunately you have the option to reset the camera in front of Ryu with the right trigger. Most boss battles also have a free camera mode option with the RB button for different players' needs. The camera aspect is certainly not a game breaking experience but I would have still liked to have it centred a little farther away from Ryu than it currently is.



What would be a Ninja without his cool weapons eh? By default, Ryu is equipped with a Dragon Sword as his melee weapon and Shurikens as secondary (projectile) weapons. As you get further in the game you'll get access to many more like the Lunar Staff, Dual Katanas, Kusuri-Gama, Nunchakus, Scythe and a couple of others. Ryu is also blessed with the ability of casting Ninja Magic spells (Ninpos) on his enemies, which include elements of fire, ice, wind etc. These Ninpo spells come in very handy when you feel you're being overwhelmed by a large group of enemies. Not only do they deliver severe damage to all around you, they also protect you from any attack during those spell casting frames...neat eh?



Which brings us to NG2's combat element. Holy cricket!! is this the mother of them all. It's tough, yes, brutally tough actually, but oh sweet lord is it rewarding. Call me up when you perform and Obliteration technique the first time and do not go 'damn!!!'. If I were to talk about all the combos fo every different weapon here, it would take ages...so I'm not gonna go there. But, as I said earlier...no matter how cool an obliteration looks or how cool a mid air 40 hit combo looks, the better part of your attention should always be focused on the block, dodge and jump moves. This is no Devil May Cry 4 (a game I thoroughly enjoyed by the way), even a measly foot soldier in NG2 is potentially dangerous. Don't get too caught up in ogling at the blood you just spilled or it's time for the Game Over screen. In addition to all the moves and combos, every weapon in NG2 also has an Ultimate Technique, which basically means you have to hold down one button long enough to charge it and deal chaos on the enemies. You won't always have the time to do so, but when you do..it certainly makes things a little easier. Add to this the fact that Ryu can jump from wall to wall, do flying bird flips and can also deliver massive damage delaing hits while doing his acrobatics. Everything in NG2, all of Ryu's abilities are there for a reason. Getting yourself acclimatized with his projectile weapons, ninpo spells, airborne combos, block/dodge is AS important as chopping enemy heads off with your favourite melee weapon.
Slicing off enemy limbs, chopping their heads off in NG2 is cool not only because it looks awesome, but because you know you've done it right and earned it. Now I don't know whether this game will sell bucket loads but I'm sure as hell that it would go down in the annals of gaming as one of the most challenging and rewarding cult hits. Less than stellar graphics aside this is a magnificent game and certainly a must own of anybody who isn't easily put off by punishing difficulty in games.

Overall Rating: 9.4/10

Grand Theft Auto IV: Xbox 360 Review

So, after the *long* wait, I finally got hold of an Xbox 360 copy of Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV); courtesy a colleague who just visited the US. For those of you who have been living under a rock, or those who think gaming is for "children", GTA IV is the latest installment in the blockbuter GTA series from Rockstar Games. The game has amassed a whopping $500 million in sales in the FIRST WEEK of it's release, which is a record for ANY entertainment launch, yes, that includes movies too! FYI, last year's highest grossing movie Pirates of The Caribbean AT World's End made $408 million in it's entire run. Even the previous record holder was a little video game called Halo 3 made by Bungie software for the Xbox 360. Now that we're through the prep, let's get on with the review.

First off, I have never been a fan of the GTA franchise and I've barely played one of these before GTA IV, that being San Andreas. With GTA IV however, I just couldn't resist to see what the hype was all about, and why most gaming publications and websites were giving it perfect 10's. The game stands tall at 98% at Metacritic as I write this review. In GTA IV, you take on the role of Niko Bellic, a Russian ex-soldier, who comes to Liberty City(New York) in the hope of making it big with the help of his cousin Roman Bellic.

The first thing you'll notice in-game is the sheer size! of Liberty City, and the creativity and craft that has gone into developing what is probably one of the greatest in-game worlds ever created. it actually feels alive, people driving, walking, cops chasing hoodlums, people eating hot dogs, shopping, clubs, bars, eating joints..almost every damn thing you can think of in a modern day city. Oh, and you can do all those things too!

So after having spent about 10 hours since I've had the game, here's what I felt. While the gargantuan Liberty City is nothing less than superb, the other aspects like eating, dining, drinking, socializing with friends is not why I play video games...and I assume it's the same for a lot of other people too. I enjoy doing those things in REAL life. The driving experience of the game is quite realistic and is fun to toy around with, for some time atleast, but even that grows old quite fast. Stopping at checkpoints on bridges to pay the toll, when 7 cop cars are chasing mad after you, while being realistic, is quite annoying. You can of course blow the damn hurdle, but that only means more cop cars after your a**.

The plot of the game is quite intriguing, but I shall not spoil it for you here. The game starts on a slow note when you're supposed to carry out some socializing missions. Slowly and steadily it picks up in pace and you're thrown into missions which involve high speed chases/getaways, carjacking, stealing and whacking or killing some people(you're playing a hardened criminal of course!). After the first 9-10 missions, you feel a sense of deja vu every single time you go on a mission. It's always find, chase, shoot, whack blah blah blah. Don't even get me started on the game mechanics; the cover and auto aiming system this game uses has got to be the worst I've seen in a game to date. In fact, you'll be better of using the free aim which is an arduous task in itself and requires you to precisely hold down the LT button on the Xbox 360 till the halfway. And what's with the need of having to hold/tap a button continuously to make the character run? I mean that's why we have analog sticks Rockstar!

Oh, and the game truly deserves it's Mature ESRB rating. Really, you'll hear the F word almost every 3 seconds along with a barrage of other expletives. You can hire a hooker for $20, $50 or $70 services(ahem!) and you can also visit strip clubs and get private lap dances(the strip club is pretty graphic, more than partial nudity I would say). The game should be kept away from children at all cost. While I have no problems with these things, I still get the feeling that Rockstar made a deliberate attempt here to be ultra cool and forgot to add fun gameplay elements in GTA IV. I maybe wrong though, as I've said, I was never heavily into any GTA game. Maybe this is what GTA is all about, maybe this is what people love and adore in the GTA games. But, as I said earlier too; why on earth would I enjoy a strip club in a GAME for pete's sakes!, why would I enjoy a game of bowling or darts or pool in a game? Oh, and before I forget...why the hell would I enjoy sitting in an internet cafe and surf the in-game internet!!!(yeah GTA IV has one of those too). The game does have tremendous voice performances though; all accents are spot on and tonality of every character's voice matches his/her personality. The explosions are also very nicely scripted, the smoke, the shattered glass/metal, every little detail is done perfectly.

To sum up, yes, the amount of detail in this game is tremendous!! The voice acting and cutscenes are brilliant. The graphics, while not at par with many nex gen titles already in the market, do hold out on their own. In fact, the graphics performance can also be called excellent, as the game engine has to render such a huge city so seamlessly in the game. Other than these technical achievements, and a few thrills here and there, I simply found GTA IV to be an average-to-good game. It is certainly nowhere near the 'best game in 10 years' that many critics seem to think. I don't wanna drive around for 5 minutes to get to my destination, If I wanted realism...I wouldn't be playing a damn video game now would I? First major disappointment of 2008 for me, waiting for Ninja Gaiden II, Fable 2 and Gears of War II now.

Rating: 6.0/10.0