E3: Ninja Gaiden Sigma II (PS3) Preview

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 06.04.2009

Hands-on: The latest installment of the Ninja Gaiden series was up for demo at E3 and ninja action was never more fun!



Watch out Ryu Hayabusa! A giant Statue of Liberty is attacking! EEK!

Over at the SCEA booth at E3, Sony had the demo for the new game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma II, which will be released exclusively for the PS3 this year. The playable demo let you play as Ryu Hayabusa or Ayane. In addition, Rachel and Momiji will also be playable characters for the full game when it hits. The game will boast huge boss battles and also an online co-op mode with trophy support.



As your character you traverse through areas battling ninja enemies while getting some tutorial support on your special moves and skills. Controls are very smooth for this action-adventure/hack and slash game. Fighting and slashing with the quick or strong attacks is very easy to get the hang of. The trick is timing your slashes right along with blocking your attacks. The enemy AI for the ninjas in this game are surprisingly very strong. The bad guys in this game are also relentless. Ryu can cut off an arm, a leg, or even both legs and the ninjas will still come after you. Coolness! Figuring out Ryu's special maneuvers to get some nice quicktime/cutscene deaths of his enemies are also awesome. The demo lets you go through a few areas where you battle some ninja enemies, witness the awakening of the giant Statue of Liberty (a boss battle later on perhaps?) and also unlocking some of your magic ninja technique attacks. The fireball attack is a ton of fun to burn your enemies, but the targeting system with the fire technique is a little wonky.



Following by Mark Salmela

This year Techmo was focused on showing off three games for PlayStation consoles. The first and big title at the Techmo booth was Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for the PlayStation 3. For those who didn't play the Xbox 360 version which came out last year the PlayStation 3 version will contain several new characters, weapons, and story missions not featured in the 360 version.

The new characters for Ninja Gaiden Sigma include 3 females. One of them is the woman from the DS Ninja Gaiden which launched early last year. The other 2 females are straight from the Dead or Alive franchise and are Rachel and Ayane. All 3 characters will be woven into the original Ninja Gaiden 2 sequel to complete the story arch of the main character Ryu Hayabusa. All 3 characters will have unique weapons that will be brand new and exclusive to those characters.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma will also feature touched up graphics. The Tecmo representatives made sure to point out that while the game will still feature a lot of blood and gore, that it will be toned down a little bit to show off the sleaker and more sexy side of the Ninja Gaiden franchise. Decapitations and blood are still in the game, but it's no longer all over the screen and provides for a much more realistic and clean experience.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma controls just like Ninja Gaiden 1 and Ninja Gaiden 2. You can block, use weak attacks, and strong attacks while attacking enemies. Combos are easy to pull off and become an absolute necessity as enemies fill up the screen. Enemies will also make use of long range weapons such as bows and arrows as well as grenades. The game will apparently include different levels of difficulty for new players who aren't used to the normal difficulty level that past Ninja Gaiden's have provided.

The demo at Tecmo's booth was only about 10 minutes long but was already very polished. Everything ran smooth and played great on the PlayStation 3. Ayane was the playable character in the demo and she had combos that were very different than Ryu. Look for Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma exclusively for the PlayStation 3 later this fall.