When was released on the back in 2004, it received nearly universal praise. With its varied level design, huge bosses, enemies which required a constant change of tactics, and a multitude of weaponry and magic, it was viewed by many as the premiere game available. It wasn't however without its problems. The camera had the annoying habit of being in the wrong place in tight spaces, which meant you had to adjust it manually while trying not to be cut into bloody giblets. The game had a few annoying platform sections which required great accuracy while under pressure from enemies, who would respawn if you got knocked off and you had to start again. And then there's the difficulty of the game. It was so hard, even on the standard difficulty that many people couldn't even get past the first level without major problems (assuming they got past it at all). The lack of an "easy" mode didn't sit well with a lot of people.

I personally stand with a different viewpoint however. For me, the difficulty was pitched perfectly. With a control scheme that was near perfect, it was one of those rare games where death could really only be put down to the player. There were no cheap sections that would kill you with no real warning, nor were there bosses that required unspeakable levels of skill to defeat. If you died, you could put it down to one of two things - either you made a mistake, or you simply weren't good enough - and if you put the time in, you could overcome either reason for dying, and take another step on the long road to becoming a master ninja.

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So, given my obvious love for the game, you can imagine how excited I was when the sequel went from to a confirmed future release. The official game page on the Xbox website gives us a hint at some of the new features we'll see in the sequel. It promises new weapons as well as updated old ones. There will be a new auto-regenerating health system, with semi-permanant damage which will get restored at save points. We'll get brand new enemies, as well as a new version of the Master Ninja Tournament for everyone to upload their Karma scores to see just how good they really are. The main buzz about the game though has largely come from the various gameplay videos that have been released, and it's there where this preview will focus its attention.

The first and biggest video shown so far was at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2007, where announced the game would be an exclusive. The video demonstrated some of the new weapons we'll see in the game, along with the new health system, upgraded enemies and new magic. We'll start with the action in general.

At first glance the game doesn't appear that different from the first game on the Xbox. That really is a huge compliment to for pulling every ounce of power out of the original Xbox to create a game as beautiful as Ninja Gaiden. The sequel will no doubt enjoy better textures, lighting, details and other fancy graphical effects, but when a game moves as fast as NG2 does, it's hard to instantly pick up on any improvements. But boy does it move fast! The first game was a non-stop action game that required great reactions in places, but if anything the sequel seems to be just that little bit faster still. The enemies seem quicker and more aggressive (more on them later), Ryu seems to move and attack with just that bit more speed, and everything just appears to have gone up a notch.

The video also demonstrated just how much more gruesome and bloody the sequel will be. No longer will Ryu simply decapitate an opponent and leave it there. Oh no, expect arms, legs, and heads to come off, as well as bodies ripped completely in half. Enemies don't appear to die instantly either if they lose a limb, they simply carry on fighting with less efficiency. Enemies no longer explode into blood when they're dead either. Bodies, limbs and heads will remain littered around the fighting area until you've dispatched everyone around you. Get yourself a good number of enemies against you at once, and in only a few short moments the surrounding area will look like a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The new health system was also evident in the video. As Ryu takes damage, not only does he lose health, but his health bar starts to get filled with a red section near the end of his health bar. This represents the semi-permanant damage done to Ryu. When a battle is over, Ryu will now auto-regenerate health, but only as far as this red section. The bonus to this system is that you don't have to rely on health elixirs to fill you back up between battles. The downside is that until you find a save point to remove the semi-permanant damage and return you to full health, you'll have to be more careful as it won't take as many hits to kill you as previously. For Ninja Gaiden experts this change won't make a huge difference as they probably won't get hit too often, but for new players it could easily prove to be very annoying. It will likely force players to fight more defensively and use counter attacks instead of being more aggressive and possibly leaving themselves open to easy hits.

The demo also showed us some of the new weapons we can expect in the sequel. The first weapon shown is a huge scythe, which upon first glance should handle as slowly as the War Hammer from the first game. However, that idea is instantly dispelled when we see Ryu rip apart enemies in double quick fashion. Spinning and slicing, through the ground as well as the air, Ryu wields the blade like it's as light as a feather. When it's charged up it also appears to offer a very nice shockwave style attack which sends enemies flying out of the way.

The next weapons we see are the dual katanas, new to the Xbox system (though they did appear in Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3). As you'd expect, they allow for quick attacks on your opponents where double hits are the order of the day. Unfortunately they were only shown for a short section of the demo, so we'll have to wait for a while before we can get more information about them.

Then the final new weapons were shown, a double set of claws that Ryu wears on his hands and feet, turning him into a ninja-Wolverine. While these don't have the range of some of the other weapons, they allow for very fast attacks and are extremely brutal. One of the main Dragon Sword techniques from the first game, the Izuna Drop, can be done wearing these claws so they're sure to be extremely useful when it comes to clearing groups out of the way. They're also just plain cool, and for that reason alone I can't wait to use them!

While the new weapons were demonstrated, we could also see the new way in which weapons are changed in NG2. Instead of having to go into the menus to change your weapons, by clicking on the D-Pad, a menu pops up in the bottom left of the screen that quickly allows you to select what main weapon, distance weapon, and ninpo you currently wish to use. Given the incredible speed of the game I highly doubt you could change weapons quickly enough to hit them up in the air with one weapon then slice them in half with another before they hit the ground, but it's still a nice way of changing weapons without completely interuppting the action.

Now that I've mentioned the ninpo, this seeme like a good place to describe the two ninpo attacks that were demonstrated in the footage. The first one appears to be a new, a whirlwind style ninpo which fires out cutting attacks to anyone unfortunate enough to be close by. Limbs and bodies are also shot around the screen in what can be a very gruesome but very cool attack as bloody chunks fly across the area.

The second ninpo we see is a fireball attack, which was in the first game. It now seems to be slightly different in two ways. The first is that the attack is fired out slightly slower, which may give some enemies the chance to dodge out of the way. The second difference is that Ryu can now fire multiple fireballs in different directions. At one point he fired off three fireballs and toasted three fools in three seperate directions. A handy improvement over the fireball attack from the previous game.

Now onto the final part of the preview - the enemies. So far in the demonstrations we've mainly seen upgraded versions of bad guys from the original game; mainly the ninjas and the military opponents. I'm glad they're still in the game as it's nice to chop up human enemies from time to time. The ninjas in this game now seem more aggressive than before, and no longer do they all attack with the same weapon. In the original game, all the ninjas carried swords, but now some will have a single katana, some will wield dual katanas, and others will be wearing the claws on their hands. It's nice to see the enemies using different weapons as I'm sure each will now have different attacks and each requiring slightly different tactics to overcome. The military guys have also been given an aggressive boost, and they will now seemingly try to get close in on you wherever possible, so they can knock you to the ground before unloading a clip to your chest. The bazooka carrying guys look like they'll be just as annoying as before, constantly trying to put a rocket up your backside while you've got your hands full trying to decapitate a gun-toting soldier. These guys will definitely need to be taken out first or they'll easily take off large chunks of your health before you know what's going on. One new enemy that was on show in the video was a giant green winged beast, easily twice the size of Ryu. With very big claws and firey breath, they definitely look like they'll be a handful, especially when you have to take on several at a time.

It's hard to say too much about the game when we have limited information and mainly gameplay video to go on. What's been shown so far has been enough to make me desperate for the game. For me, Ninja Gaiden is almost the ultimate action title, so if the developers make a sequel that is as good as the original, I'll be a very happy camper. Given that the footage hints at the fact the sequel could be even better than the first game, 2008 could easily turn out to be the year of the ninja.

By David Pitchforth