Ninja Gaiden 2 is here!

Today I got Ninja Gaiden 2 for the 360! I've been waiting for it a long time and I've been excited to play it. As I wrote before already, I was hoping that they don't change too much since the first one already was quite perfect... and I didn't get disappointed!

It's still as hard and fast and smooth, the chicks still have the Tecmo-typical sexy outfits showing big, bouncing breasts, the boss mobs are huge and the atmosphere is great!

I'm not sure about the graphics. To me, it still looks like the first one, no real improvement. Then again, the first one was quite amazing already. It's probably the same as with Dead or Alive (the fighting game and the volleyball one), which didn't seem to be that much better-looking on the new Xbox either.

A definite improvement is on the gore-factor! Blood, blood everywhere! Chopped off body-parts and corpses that stay where you left them. I'm not sure if I simply had a censored version of the first one or if it really was that less bloody. I like the more intense display of violence, though it's not a must - the game would've been great with alittle less too. (some might say that the same goes for the bust-sizes of the females in their games, but that's a big NO from my side!)

The one thing that didn't get improved is the camera! I hear all Ninja Gaiden fans cheer "Yay!"... it's still as crappy, too slow, never focused on the thing you wanna see and so you end up controlling it yourself with your right thumb-stick while you are playing. Well, I guess most fans are used to playing it that way anyway.

They added an easier difficulty setting. I have to admit I started on that one and it wasn't that challenging. I might still finish the game quickly on that one but just like with the first game, I'll replay this game on higher difficulties too. It's a challenging game, but thanks to the higher amount of save-points and the now included max-health at those spots and the self-heals after fights, this game will probably frustrate a lot less than the first one did.

So, the game has been worth the wait. Some things could be a little more impressive - especially for a 360 game, but it's got all the things I loved about the series so far and I'm looking forward to beating the game and seeing more of the plot - which I can't say too much about yet.