Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 | Eurogamer.net

Once upon a time, there was a six-limbed giant demonic werewolf named Volf, who lived in a lovely upscale mansion in the heart of Venice. One day, a Mr Ryu Hayabusa came to visit. Volf was pleased, as - truth to tell - he'd grown rather bored of late. Not surprising, really, seeing as the city beyond his manly stained-glass windows was entirely devoid of inhabitants besides Volf's own marauding monsters, and he rarely got out much these days, anyway, on account of the bizarre layout of his home, which saw rooms slotted together haphazardly, with some chambers only accessible by backflipping up through the chimney below and out of the fireplace.

Anyway, Volf suggested that Mr Hayabusa join him across the street, in his own private coliseum. Long story short, once they got there Mr Hayabusa chopped Volf's head off before escaping on the skids of a passing attack helicopter, piloted by a sexy CIA agent dressed only in some leather underwear.

There are two things you need to know up front about Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. One: it's still ridiculous. Two: it's still hard. Three: it's no longer ridiculously hard, however. Four: that makes three. Team Ninja has used the PS3 remix of last year's Xbox 360 splatterfest to make a number of tweaks to its original design, adding a handful of new elements like bosses, playable characters and modes, while seeking to refine the whole experience. The result is a game that's certainly a little more forgiving than it previously was, and perhaps a little more enjoyable too.

We should start with the controversial stuff, however: Ninja Gaiden's no longer quite the bloodbath you knew and loved. While Hayabusa, a deadly ninja who likes to head out on his adventures dressed in the manner of an S&M pro ice-skater, still wastes little time separating arms from torsos and heads from necks, the lopped-off appendages have a habit of disappearing before they hit the ground on this outing, and the resulting spew of particles from mangled stumps tends to be a festive purple rather than a thick viscous red.

It sounds like heresy but, to tell the truth, once you're deep inside the game upgrading weapons, lamping strangers and busting up gigantic skeletal dinosaurs, you may find that you don't have time to miss the gristle and brain matter. I barely noticed the difference after the first few minutes. If the worst comes to the worst, as your enemies expire in a cloud of jaunty violet spray, you can always pretend that you're wading through Teletubbies.

There's even a plus side: Sigma's frame-rate is a significant improvement over the original, possibly because the engine no longer needs to keep track of all those rolling heads (I know nothing about engines, so this is conjecture). Elsewhere, the series' notorious camera has also been tweaked somewhat. It still struggles with interiors and narrow alleyways - and, okay, sometimes it struggles with exteriors too - but it feels more decisive as it chooses its targets, and rarely opts to frame your best moments from the wrong side of a gloriously high-def wall.

Checkpoints seem a little kinder in their placement, too - although this may just be the onset of Stockholm Syndrome - and beginners playing on the Acolyte setting now stand a decent chance of getting to the end of the game, albeit with a few major roadblocks along the way. And then, of course, there's new stuff to hack to pieces, although the headline act turns out to be a bit of a bore. With her glowing eyes and blank stare, The Statue of Liberty looks deeply spooky, but limp attack patterns mean that beating up a famous landmark turns out to be a bit less exciting than you may have expected.

A much better inclusion is the new playable characters sprinkled into the main campaign: Momiji from Dragon Sword on the DS, Ayane from Dead or Alive, and Rachel making a return visit from Ninja Gaiden. All of them give you fresh options - Momiji has height and reach, Ayane's super speedy, and Rachel's slow but has a really big hammer, which seems like a fair trade - and at one level apiece none of them outstays their welcome, providing a series of vivid interludes before you're back to the grind with Hayabusa.

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