Ninja Gaiden 2 Black review

There aren't enough stylish action games like Ninja Gaiden in the world. Nothing draws me in as instantly as a great one: I relish struggling through punishing combat in games that give me the tools to move and battle in a way that’s typically reserved for flashy cutscenes, and demand I use them or die. Intense enemy encounters and rhythmic timing mixed with Tony Hawk-style experimentation just hits that sweet spot—and I don’t think any game mixes both of these in their most extreme forms more than Ninja Gaiden 2.

Team Ninja’s trilogy of Ninja Gaiden games is a frustrating endeavour. Not because of the overwhelming difficulty, but because each game has multiple versions available, and all are not created equal. For 16 years a singular, "perfect" version of the Xbox 360's Ninja Gaiden 2 has remained elusive. Its first remaster, Sigma 2, changed things up by reducing the overwhelming enemy count, cutting back on the gore, and adding new playable characters, bosses and missions. Some of its essence was lost.

Generally the community prefers the relentlessly vicious original version despite some dire flaws, so when the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection version was based on Sigma, it was a letdown (I never bought it for that very reason). Which is why the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black was so exciting: 2005's Ninja Gaiden Black is a "director's cut" and the undisputed best version of an all-timer. The implication was, clearly, this is the one you've been waiting for.

In reality, the Black subtitle is somewhat misleading; this remake lands somewhere in the middle of the original Ninja Gaiden 2 and Sigma. But I forgot about all that when I started playing Black. I was entranced again, just like I was back on the Xbox 360, making this new version, while not quite definitive, now the ideal way to experience an incredible action game.

Rules of nature

2004's Ninja Gaiden demanded a more defensive approach to combat than contemporaries like Devil May Cry. Pulling off carefully timed strikes and flashy wall-runs in between precision blocking was excruciatingly punishing but an exhilarating exercise in discipling my fingers. Then Ninja Gaiden 2 threw that out the window and stuck a brick on the gas pedal. Excess is the name of the game: Enemies shoot out fountains of blood like they’re trying to outdo the climax of Sanjuro, relentless offence is key to survival, and everything is faster. If Ninja Gaiden 1 is a long-form symphony, then Ninja Gaiden 2 is the Dead Kennedys one-minute punk classic Nazi Punks Fuck Off.

Front and centre in Ninja Gaiden 2 Black after being toned down in Sigma 2 are dismemberment and obliteration techniques; as you attack enemies, their arms, legs, and heads come flying off, spurting red. But this is Ninja Gaiden, where hemorrhaging enemies are somehow scarier than healthy ones.

A one-armed ninja can still lunge at me and detonate himself with a grenade the second I stop moving. To combat this you’re armed with obliteration techniques, which live up to their name. Triggering a heavy attack near a wounded foe sends Ryu into a flashy animation of lightspeed swings, the camera greedily crowding in for a better look as he transforms his enemy into piles of viscera (think Doom’s glory kills). And then you're seamlessly back in command, potentially capitalizing on the collateral damage from one obliteration flurry to immediately trigger another one on a freshly armless baddie.

Ryu himself feels incredible to control thanks to a nimble and deadly moveset: You’ll be able to get by with just attacking and dodging, but the game becomes something more when you push past blind combo mashing and begin deliberately weaving his ninja abilities into the mix. If you’re cornered by a group of enemies, run up the wall behind you to escape, or use the Flying Swallow (a slicing dash attack with the screaming velocity of a divebombing hawk) to launch yourself across the arena.

These moves give the combat an incredible sense of momentum. With enough confidence, you often don’t even have to slow down to assess the situation. Ryu's moves, many available right from the first stage, allow me to pull off stuff like running across a wall parallel to an enemy and slashing them in two in mid air, which had me hollering because it was so rad. Ryu’s Izuna Drop grapple (which has him grab an enemy in midair before spinning to the ground and pulping their skull) remains one of the most satisfying attacks to pull off in all of videogames, irrefutably sick even if it's not his most efficient damage-dealer.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black has nine weapons, and somehow all of them are great. Even Devil May Cry has a weapon or two I'm not so keen on, though unlike in DMC swapping from Ryu's blade to a pair of bruising tonfas or a giant scythe requires a pause, interrupting the flow of a fight and discouraging on-the-fly experimentation. Each weapon can be upgraded to unlock new techniques, and I'm happy that Black brings back the option to boost them in shops versus Sigma’s constrained timed unlocks.

Returning from Sigma are three extra playable characters: Rachel, Ayane, and Momoji. Each one gets a unique mission; while these do mess with the pace of the story, it's not an obnoxiously long distraction, and each character brings a refreshing spin to combat. I’m especially fond of Rachel, whose massive club and machine gun are as far away from the tools of a nimble ninja as possible. You can also take them into the Tag Mission mode, which offers some nice bite-sized chunks of that moreish action without the need to commit to a whole mission.

The Xbox 360 version of Ninja Gaiden 2 was notable for its overwhelming number of enemies on screen at once, and while those full swarms haven't returned for Black, the enemy count and overall difficulty have been bumped up from Sigma. I played on Acolyte difficulty—which is presented as Normal—so when I found the game surprisingly breezy, with only a few deaths across the run, I was a bit disheartened. Then I discovered that Warrior (billed as Hard in this release) was what the original game called Normal. Confusing! It's a shame there's no option to swap difficulties mid-story. I have gone back and played some on the harder Warrior, Mentor, and Master Ninja difficulties and can thankfully say my ass is getting kicked, so I’m looking forward to a replay.

Demon sweat

Aside from the usual Unreal Engine 5 issues like texture loading and occasional stuttering (although thankfully I didn’t experience much), Ninja Gaiden 2 Black's fully revamped graphics are a winner. The game looks absolutely gorgeous; the lighting, ray tracing and character models shine with a premium gloss, and I wasn’t even playing on the highest settings. Characters are especially detailed; you can see individual freckles, scars and burst blood vessels on skin. Meanwhile, the buttcheek definition on Ryu’s suit is genuinely impressive in motion. While somewhat less stylized than the original game, to my eye none of the charm has been lost in the way that other realism-heavy remakes have gone awry.

This is also complemented by smooth performance; for the most part, the game ran perfectly at 60 fps for me at 1440p on Steam. The game isn’t quite as pretty on Steam Deck as it is on my PC. It’s definitely playable—averaging around 50 fps on low settings from my testing—but it's far from an ideal way to play such a frantic game.

Even if it’s not the remaster I thought it would be from the title, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black was an absolutely joyful way to experience the game again. The graphical fidelity is nice and all, but just having a version of the game that takes the good from Sigma 2 and tuning it into a far better experience, cutting its weaker additions and inching the ferocity of combat closer to its original form. At the end of the day, if your head isn't swimming with the details of each version like I am, all you’ll experience is a banger of an action game with few equals.