When the PlayStation Vita first released in the US, we got a number of fantastic titles to play around with. One of best titles was Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, which was yet another port of the now infamous Xbox title. After seeing its popularity on the Vita, Tecmo Koei decided to be a little more ambitious by bringing over the second title in the series. However, unlike the first Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus features new modes and addition content, which is unique for the Vita. While this sounds good on paper, is Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus worth your time or is it a quick port with some token extras?
Lets look at what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus.
HOT
More Accessible than Ninja Gaiden Sigma
By now you’ve probably played the original Ninja Gaiden and were probably shocked by how inaccessible it actually was. Thankfully this is not the case for Ninja Gaiden 2, since it has a few welcomed changes. The first is the ability to “overkill” enemies, which can be performed by using a heavy attack after they lose a limb. This is not only a flashy way to kill off your enemies, it also a new tactic you can use to get through harder battles. Combine this with the ability to block, parry and counter and Ninja Gaiden 2 should be a lot easier to get into than the original.
In addition to having gameplay changes, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus makes better use of the Vita’s features. For starters, Nippon no longer requires touch screen inputs, which makes them far less annoying to do. Another change is the ability to switch from fighting to shooting mode by pushing a button on screen. In turn it makes arrows more useable than the original, plus makes some of the trickier parts easier to accomplish.
Ninja Race Mode is No Joke
One of the new features added to Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus, was a mode called Ninja Race. As the name would suggest, the mode requires you to run from point A to B within a set amount of time and deal with whatever obstacles come across along the way. At first this might sound like a simple task, but like everything else in Ninja Gaiden, it’s far from it.
You start every race with a decent amount of time, which acts as a small buffer to kill the enemies you encounter. Some fights are optional, where as other fights you need to kill off a wave or two of enemies and sometimes going the wrong way will result in more fighting. While the fights will slowly eat away at your time, every kill will give you some sort of reward, which typically comes in the form of additional time. Checkpoints will also give you a large boost in time, although these are few and far between.
What makes this mode interesting is the fact you probably won’t beat it on your first, second or even third attempt on completing it. This is largely due to the path not being explicitly clear and accidentally running into a trap. While this might sound annoying to deal with, it gives you various ways to complete the race. This could be simply figuring out the quickest path to the end or trying to get as many points as possible. With enough skill it should be possible to kill every enemy in a stage, just like you can probably ignore most of them and complete it. The only downside is that there are only five races, but for the average gamer this will be more than enough.