Your Partner is USEFUL in Tag Missions?!
While Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus adds a lot of cool features, online co-op was removed from the tag mission mode. Since this rarely worked (or at least worked poorly for me) in the original, I can’t say it’s a bad choice, but at least your partner is better to compensate for the loss. Having completed the first 15 tag missions with relative ease, I never found myself baby sitting the AI like I would in other games. Like when we did the missions where you need to fight a boss, the AI was not only aware of how to damage the boss (like shooting arrows at the statue of liberty), I rarely found myself rushing to revive them either. Not only that, the AI scored more points than I did on a few missions, which was quite surprising to find out. Obviously the AI can’t compare to a good friend or a really skilled partner, but at least the missions are manageable without the need of a human partner.
NOT
Poorly Optimized
Despite all the things added to Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus, the game isn’t that stable on the PlayStation Vita. Like the graphics typically look great, but if a “lot” of things are going on, there is a huge drop in quality (see image below). While this was most likely a design choice to keep the gameplay smooth (which remains constant), the drop in quality can become quite jarring. Like one minute everything looks perfect and then the next it looks like a pixelated nightmare. To make matters worse, this will sometimes happen without anything going on, plus the original was able to remain stable even in intense situations. Besides simply dropping in quality, the game will freeze for a second or two if you pick up an item that opens another screen (even if it’s just a static image).
Stories Interesting, but Not Good
Taking place after the events of the first game, Ninja Gaiden 2 continues the story of Ryu Hayabusa and the black spider clan. As you might have guessed, the new story revolves around the archfiends or demons of the Ninja Gaiden universe, but isn’t quite as good as the first title. While the first title had some genuinely shocking twists and made good use of the characters, the same can’t be said of this one. For the most part, Ninja Gaiden 2 features a pretty generic story, where most of the plot is to simply justify the games next fight. That is not to say the story isn’t worth your time, just that it could have been deeper or better accomplish their goal.
VERDICT
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is yet another fantastic title in the robust Vita line up. Sure it could have been optimized a little better and the story could be less generic, but the gameplay is still up to the standards of the Ninja Gaiden series. Between story mode, tag missions and ninja race mode, you can easily get your money’s worth, plus you have the option to play for a long period or simply pick it up for a mission or two. Hopefully we will see some of these issues resolved via patches, but at least it’s more than playable once you get use to it.
[Editor’s Note: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus was reviewed on the PlayStation Vita platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
