On the Fence - Ninja Gaiden II

On the fence will be a new blog entry where one of us will talk about a game release that we're unsure of. For the first one, I decided to go with the upcoming Xbox 360 release Ninja Gaiden II, no that's not the real box art.

I remember I bought the original xbox Ninja Gaiden kind of as a challenge. A girl I was kinda dating had just picked up an xbox and gotten Ninja Gaiden. I was excited about the game back in the fall when it was supposed to be released but after delays pushed it to spring I was perfectly happy passing on the title. She kind of ridiculed me for not being man enough to play the game and sort of challenged me to finish it before her. Of course, being the gentleman that I am, I completely tried to destroy her, thus somewhat ending our "relationship." (We're still friends, btw)

From what I can remember from playing the game, I was completely frustrated with the camera, controls, lame puzzles, and somewhat cheap/hard combat system. I remember complaining the entire game about things I would have done differently and problems the game had.

What I'm worried about this time around, is that it'll be a lot of the same formula from the first. I still have the bad aftertaste from four years ago and am not looking forward to reliving those memories. The story will be throw away. A ninja story about revenge or avenging something, you know the drill, slash up everything until dead. They've focused a lot on blood and limbs which to me means less focus on more important things. And also they've "added" a health regeneration system, which in a way makes totally no sense.

So why am I excited about this title? It's Ninja Gaiden and it'll be bright and shiny. Team Ninja has talent even though sometimes it's pushed to the background by the antics of their "leader" Itagaki and his quest to master breast physics. It's something on the Xbox 360 that's not a FPS. This is a totally new Ninja Gaiden game, not a remake. And lastly, they've added a health regeneration system.

Hoping for plenty of cameos by Ayane,
David