3.5/5 ★ – DarkSlayerSilver's review of NINJA GAIDEN 2 Black.

I have never bought a game on release day quite as quickly as this! Please join me in welcoming back Ninja Gaiden! More specifically, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Black. Now that’s a title! Given my hack-and-slash pedigree, I am intimately familiar with this series, and I’m delighted it’s making a nice, gory comeback! Our story begins with the game's protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa—master ninja and descendant of the Dragon Ninja lineage—rushing to the aid of Sonia, a CIA agent who was asking around about Ryu's whereabouts. She is attacked by members of the Black Spider Ninja Clan and kidnapped. Enter Ryu, who fails to stop Sonia’s kidnapping and rushes to the Tokyo skyscrapers to rescue her. She informs him of an attack on Hayabusa Village by the Black Spider Ninjas, who wish to steal the Demon Statue for what we can only assume are nefarious reasons. Even if you don’t care for the story, which, admittedly, is quite confusing at times, the gameplay is the bread and butter of this experience. The combat system allows you to dismember enemies, severing their limbs and tearing their bodies apart, spraying blood everywhere! Which, to no one’s surprise, is incredibly cathartic. Ryu wields his signature Dragon Sword in combat, along with a host of other weapons to rip enemies apart. To accompany your melee weapons, there are ranged ones, as well as spells called Ninpo, which can either burn or slice your way through hordes of ninjas! As fun as this game is, I do have a few gripes with it. The enemy count has been drastically reduced (by approximately 66%) and replaced with far fewer but much tankier enemies in this release, making fights far more annoying than they were in the original Ninja Gaiden 2. This sentiment is shared by many fans of the series, who hope some changes can be made via patches—but I won’t hold my breath! So that’s Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Black! I am all for the return of older games that do one thing, and do it best! In this case—ninjas! I cannot wait to see what they do with the newly announced fourth game. I’m going back to kill some more ninjas in the meantime. What a game!