Ninja Gaiden II Black Review

Ninja Gaiden II Black is a freshly-released remaster of the 2008 ninja action game Ninja Gaiden II, which was both widely popular and well-received at its release. You enter a dark and hostile world as Ryu, a ninja set on defeating the evil entities that arise as your quest takes you around the world. Many reviews for Black focus on how it compares to the original version, but having never played the 2008 classic, I hope to offer a unique and unbiased perspective on how the new game stands on its own. Here are my thoughts! 

As a game that is pretty much entirely action, a lot of the pros and cons lie in combat. The action is satisfying and helps move the game along as you unlock weapons and learn abilities, but the enemies you come up against are pretty repetitive and the boss fights–while chock-full of interesting characters– are mechanics-wise about as predictable as any other game. The story is fun and a good foundation for why we’re battling all these rivals, but doesn’t play a large part in the actual gameplay, which is mostly just defeating groups of enemies in different locations. On that topic, the graphics are fantastic and add a lot to the game’s experience seeing as one of the largest varying factors is the areas you’re traversing through as you take out your foes. In my opinion, the following camera is a large part of what makes the game stand out. It can also be one of the largest hindrances as it sometimes gets kind of weird and doesn’t understand that being able to see yourself and your enemies is pretty essential for combat. Thankfully, there is a decent amount of leeway when it comes to your average battle and in my experience that awkwardness is far more annoying than fatal. So, in the big picture, Ninja Gaiden II Black is a solid remaster that mostly relies on the player’s love for an invigorating fast pace and traditional hack-n-slash fun.