In a strange sort of masochistic way I’ve always enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden Series. Masochistic in the sense that the game was just so damn unforgiving. Having already played through Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360 I had a pretty descent idea of what was in store for me. Though it seems that Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is a bit different. How does this edition hold up to the already established series.

Let’s begin with the Gameplay.
There is a fine line between Hard and just Unforgiving. Sigma 2 stands in between the two, the game is far from easy it’s just presented differently. Like most action games (i.e God of War..etc) you essentially beat the crap out of the baddie doing various amounts of combos. The larger the combo the larger the Orbs you collect. You then use said Orbs in upgrading you weapons or buying items. The difference with Sigma 2 is the Orbs are no longer used to Upgrade Weapons. I considered it to be an interesting choice, in the 360 version I felt I had largely upgraded the wrong weapons at the wrong time and the game seemed a lot harder because of that. There are limits though to the Upgrades you can only upgrade one Weapon at a Time and you can’t go past level 2 to later in the game. I felt this was a good way of introducing you to other weapons while allowing you to have your favorites. Another area where the game seems to depart from the 360 version was the addition of other characters, which I felt really added to the story. Before you can play the game you have to make a 3.25gb installation. While I’m not a particular fan of watching load screens while waiting to jump in and play, Sigma 2 gives you a prologue to the series in the form of motion comic. It largely focuses on Ryu’s Father and explains why he isn’t more of a bad ass in this game. Other forms of story elements consisted of short missions playing as the various Female Characters. While I’m not the biggest fan of Rachel it was a blast to play as Ayane and Momoji. These missions also added new villains to the series and were used later as replacements for the more frustrating replay boss battles. Just in case you were wondering the Double Armidillo Fight was removed :) The Controls have also been revamped to make Projectile Weapons easier to use. The game does feature a lot of replay value. The game supports Trophies through PSN while adding an online component to the game. The online is through Mission Mode, you essentially play through a mission with 2 players Online or Offline. You can select any of the characters and weapons that you unlocked during the Single Player Campaign and go to town. For every mission you can get a gold medal. Once the game has been beaten you also unlock the Chapter Challenge, allowing you to replay various Chapters. One of the areas that I was disappointed in was not being able to play through the entire game as any of the unlockable characters. I found Ayane to be really fun to play as, especially with her Exploding Kunai :) Also there were various times were the game seemed to lag a bit, not in any actual fighting more or less between reading scrolls and returning to the game. It’s certainly not a deal breaker but it was a tad annoying at times.

As for the graphics they looked great.
There wasn’t to much of an improvement over the 360 version it just seemed clearer. A graphical element I wasn’t to pleased with was the lack of blood in the game. There was still some but it was largely toned down. Instead it was mostly replaced with glowy wounds. I eventually became used to the style but it felt at times a bit T for Teen.

Sound quality was descent, of course the PS3 still shines through with the sound quality that it produces. Tecmo also came through again with it’s inclusion of a Japanese Dub to accompany the English Dub. It includes subtitles and the Fiends voice acting is also a treat to watch.

Overall a pretty descent addition to the already established game series.
It seemed the game was attempting to balance out the gameplay. While the game seemed to do this just fine, I hope that the game continues to push the difficulty. I myself enjoy the difficult nature that is the Ninja Gaiden Series.

Tags: Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, PS3, Tecmo