Ninja Gaiden 2 is a Future Classic

Gamers over the age of 25 might remember the original 2D Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. Those days are long gone. Tomonobu Itagaki, the lead designer of the modern Ninja Gaiden games on the Xbox had a vision of unrelenting, pulverizing, insane action that was sure to be a challenge for even the most seasoned action game veterans. The game was not easy. In fact, it was downright masochistic. The camera was horrid, the enemies took cheapshots, the game had infrequent checkpoints (understatement of the year!), it was brutal and unfair…but we loved every second of it. No other game had a combat repertoire that was as rewarding, deep and enjoyable. Dare I say it, not even Devil May Cry. Once you got the hang of it, Ninja Gaiden was a blast to play. The main character, Ryu Hayabusa was just a bad ass of epic proportions. I bet Chuck Norris cowers at the might of Ryu.

The sequel, Ninja Gaiden 2, was released recently on the Xbox 360 and the reviews, according to Gamerankings.com, have been great. So far, when not having my hindquarters handed to me by unforgiving boss fights, the game has been awesome. Gametrailers, as usual, has awesome gameplay footage of Ninja Gaiden 2. Sadly, Tomonobu Itagaki resigned from Tecmo, so this is no doubt the last Ninja Gaiden game he will work on. That by itself has already cemented it as a future classic.