Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Review [PS3]

It must be said: I am a total badass. Nothing can stop me. Rooms full of hostile ninjas? Pah. I spit on them. Werewolves? I dine on their bone marrow. Demon lords from Hell? My fireplace bellows are made from their lungs. I killed the Statue of Liberty.

I killed the Statue of Liberty.

No game series (barring, perhaps, God Hand) has ever come close to matching the amazing feeling you get when you start really learning how to play Ninja Gaiden, and lately I've been thinking a lot about why. I've come to three conclusions: first, it's the over-the-top gore, decapitations, and dismemberments. Second, it's the punishing difficulty. Third, it's the fact that when you die it's your own silly fault. All of this adds up to something that, at its best, is hard but fair. Your successes are your own, and your reward is your opponent's corpse strewn across the battleground in a series of bloody heaps. You are badass.

For all the talk that Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is the ultimate version of Ninja Gaiden 2, you'd be amazed how much of this it's managed to bollocks up.

The core of the game remains the same: as master ninja Ryu Hayabusa, you travel the globe in an attempt to stop a variety of evil forces from resurrecting the Archfiend, which will probably plunge the world into a new age of chaos and depravity. What this boils down to is travelling around a load of gorgeous locations in order to murder people, demons, and copper landmarks. Occasionally, you will encounter one of several women who appear to shop exclusively at S&M Superstores and are gifted with large breasts.

The first thing you will notice (besides the bouncing, latex-clad tits) is that there doesn't appear to be much in the way of gore. There's still plenty of stylish dismemberment, but what previously resulted in a stage-painting spray of arterial red now gives you some glowing purple energy coming out of glowing purple stumps. Demons still splatter blood of various hues, Ryu's weapons are still caked in red blood at the end of almost any given fight, and there are red slashes and flashes as you wreck your foes, but it's all very, very toned down. It's not important, though, right? It's just gore, and has no tangible impact on gameplay.

Right and wrong. Much as you get used to it, it's hard not to miss it, particularly after a pitched battle against a huge group of foes. Maybe I'm a gore-hound but if I'm going to make over-the-top attacks, like cutting someone's arm off with a giant scythe and then ripping their body in two, I'd like to see some over-the-top after-effects, like the arm not disappearing shortly after the battle. No, it's not a huge problem, but it provides a bit of a nagging feeling throughout if you've played the original game.

The game is also noticeably easier, and has been simplified significantly. All of your ranged weapons have infinite ammo, though are changed up significantly to stop them being overpowered. All-healing save points seem to be more commonplace. Weapon upgrades, which add new combos, can now only be received from certain shops and are free but are limited to one per store – which means you have pretty much unlimited yellow essence with which to max out your healing items regularly.

Other changes to the base gameplay will likely have players arguing on the forums for awhile: That Stairway Bit, which deserves capitalisation, now features waves of enemies rather than six million at once, which removes the slowdown but feels far less epic. In fact, there are less enemies in general. The rock-hard (and optional) Tests of Valor, which tasked players with taking on a load of of foes for a big reward, are gone. Bosses are changed up, with the Water Dragon encounter now being fought entirely on land, and a few others replaced. The difficulty has been significantly reduced, too, with enemy AI seemingly less aggressive, healing items more plentiful, and I swear there are more life-restoring blue essence drops.

For a reworked, better version of a game, there's certainly been a lot cut out.