Hack and Slash games have their loyal fandom, and arguably over the last 15 years, their presence was overshadowed by the Souls-Borne genre. In the latter half of the 2000s, for the 7th gen gaming scene, there was a lack of strong, compelling hack-and-slash games, with DMC4 and the 2012 DMC not living up to the potential, and others lacking in key areas. But in 2008, came arguably the last great hack-and-slash game since the return of DMC5 in 2019! Ninja Gaiden is a legendary series, spanning over 30 years, but it was the 2000s which gave it’s boost in the fan base, and 2025, we got a surprise shadow-drop, a grand remaster/remake of 2008’s Ninja Gaiden game, with Ninja Gaiden 2 Black.


What is Ninja Gaiden 2 Black?

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a beautiful remaster (and technically remake, but only visually) of the acclaimed 2008 game, bringing us back into the world of ninjas, shadowy organisations, demons, hot ninja guys, and women with massive assets. Ryu Hayabusa is back and is globe-trotting to stop the forces of evil from taking over the world. Expect hacking, slashing, more hacking, sweet ninja moves, and a motley crew of fun characters, fighting over-the-top anime-style villains in wonderful 4K.

Ninja Gaiden has been renowned for its tight combat, great aesthetics, and sense of challenge which will test even the hardest veteran of the genre. Possibly making even the toughest Souls-Borne fan blush.

While remasters/remakes have been a big deal over the last few years, there have been missteps, and concerns when certain representations just get it plain wrong, be it with poor visuals, missing features and a lack of bonuses. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black stands firmly in a very comfortable place for me, stands visually as an outstanding remaster, and remains faithful to the original game’s vision (we’ll get to that) for better, and worse, and for the most part.


A remaster of a sequel’s port to another console … confusing, I know

So, to get this out of the way, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a remaster of the PS3 port, formally known as Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma, with some tweaks from the original. This version of the game (Sigma) featured fewer enemies and removed a lot of the gore, but added in new levels and bosses. For the remaster, We have the gore back,and the levels included, but some of those extra bosses have been removed, and still the same amount of enemies, but a major new bonus is a Hero difficulty, which is easy mode.

There is a lot of great stuff with Ninja Gaiden Black 2, including the easy difficulty which still requires you to perform combos and fight effectively as death can happen still. But you can pull off combos, much more effectively and overcome the constant barrage of attacks in a less stressful manner. The additional levels are great fun, as they move away from Ryu Hayabusa and allow us to play as Ayane, Momiji, and Rachel in brand-new chapters. And the gore is still a whole lot of visual fun.

But yes, there are far fewer enemies, and some areas new enemies don’t spawn in, meaning some areas, particularly large-scale arenas can fill a little empty. But to counter this, enemies are a little more spongey when it comes to taking damage in a bid to balance the whole thing out. Now there is a theory here, and likely the reason why Sigma originally reduced enemy count, and that was down to frame rate.

To make the point, in Ninja Gaiden 2 there is a set piece where Ryu has to traverse upward a massive set of stairs (or parron, if you’re fancy) and numerous enemies are coming down towards him. On the Xbox 360 version, there are dozens of enemies on screen at once and it’s an insane set-piece which is so entertaining. But playing this back on the Xbox 360 in the day, you would see a huge framerate drop, down to 12 frames per second. Now plenty of fans will overlook this and I see why.

In Sigma and Black, the enemy count was massively reduced, and while it’s still fun, it’s nowhere near as crazy as the Xbox 360 version. It is a shame that in Black, the enemy count hasn’t been increased, even for this moment, and to fully experience this set piece in all its glory with a smooth framerate, you have to play the Xbox 360 on an Xbox Series X, or S.

Sigma also removed three throwable weapons, which have not been included back in, and for this remaster, a couple of the Sigma bosses have been removed.

I’m mixed on these bosses, as a couple of them were great fun, including a fight with the Statue of Liberty, but others just ruined the pacing, especially in the early game.

Overall? This remaster has a lot going for it, but will surely be lacking for hardcore fans of the original game. For me, I have an Xbox 360 copy of Ninja Gaiden 2, and it’s a lot of fun. I also played Sigma which had its benefits in comparison and negatives with much less gore and all. The remaster is a mixed blessing and a best-of-both-worlds situation. I feel this is a very good remaster and gives you a solid Ninja Gaiden experience nonetheless, that looks and sounds beautiful… even if things like certain fixed cameras can be a bit of a pain at times.

My only major gripe with this remaster is the size, which comes to nearly 90GB … oh lord! The original game was like 8 GB, and I know it’s 17 years apart. But come on, Unreal Engine assets unreasonable in size, to be honest. But the game is stunning, and objectively a massive upgrade which doesn’t take away from the original and only enhances it. There might be very small changes some people won’t like, but Ninja Gaiden 2 Black’s visuals, and performance are breathtaking. It’s a very good remaster, that will make most people happy, but a few hardcore fans will be disappointed, I’m sure.


Ninaj-business around the world!

Now let’s be honest, we don’t play Ninja Gaiden for its stories am I right? We play it for the hunky dudes, beautiful women, and of course, the weird anime stuff which is kinda cool … not that weird anime stuff!  

The narrative honestly is a decent one, that does start strong but burns out a bit towards the end. The length of the game doesn’t help the pacing in the third act, and the vast number of locations is nice but can feel somewhat disjointed. Regardless, this ninja globetrotting tale is still enjoyable, with lots of fun characters and moments. We begin with CIA agent Sonia (or Irene Lew) asking about the whereabouts of master ninja Ryu Hayabusa. She is then captured by members of the Black Spider Ninja Clan, however, Ryu shows up to ensure a daring chase across multiple Tokyo skyscrapers. It’s both visually and thematically impressive, and this momentum never lets up for most of the story.  Soon enough Ryu rescues Sonia and he is informed the Black Spider Ninja Clan, is looking to steal the Demon Statue protected by his clan.

What follows is a grand adventure across the globe, as Ryu aims to stop the Black Spider Ninja Clan from resurrecting the “Archfiend”, by finding all the pieces of the Demon Statue, and defeating the key members of the enemy clan.

As I said, it’s not the most compelling or innovative bit of narrative about it, but it does the job and does it well. Ryu, while a patient and stoic kind of guy is likeable and has his charms, while the supporting cast including Sonia and Muramasa counter Ryu’s stoic demeanour. Other characters including Momiji, Rachel, and all the villains are entertaining to watch. Even if they at times go a bit too full-on anime for my liking, but still bring a lot of life to the party.

My main gripes are as previously mentioned, the length of the campaign does no favours with the narrative pacing, and the choice of having a dozen or so locations, makes it feel a little cluttered, and no meaningful focus on each location. They look great, and the level design revolves around each environment very well. But When it comes to places like New York, we get iconic moments like seeing the Statue of Liberty, and that’s it. Each location could have utilised its real-world environments better, adding a bit more of a connection.

I hate to say it … But Ninja Gaiden 3 at least made sure that a level in London, felt like it was in London. Seeing iconic landmarks, fighting along the Embankment, and going into the PM’s home near Westminster was very cool. You still get that, and some locations are still impressive for design and pacing. The other thing is the length does make the third act a little tedious, and while there are still some great fights and level design. The campaign might have flowed much better being a little bit trimmed.

Still, the story, characters, and all the locations are massively enjoyable.


GO NINJA, GO NINJA GO!!!!

Oh man, oh lord … This game is quite tough!

Now, to be honest, while I loved playing this back in 2008, I was always and will be more of a DMC guy. But saying that, and Ninja Gaiden 2 being 17 years old the gameplay still holds up brilliantly. Even if some areas of the camera are flat-out annoying.

Ninja Gaiden at its core is a bizarre mixture of combat that relies on patience, quick thinking, and extreme combo-making. Everything and the kitchen sink will fly at you, and most times, you will face off against a dozen enemies, all super-fast, all able to land multiple attacks on you, staggering you and then some other guy comes along to start the process again. The combat is super punishing if you don’t keep moving, and even when trying out the easier difficulty, the thought process is the same.

But while your enemies move fast, so do you. There are plenty of combos, a variety of attacks and counters to engage with, and some awesome weapons which have impact and worth. This is a game, much like DOOM: Eternal, will keep pushing you to move, change up your style, and learn combos. The learning curve is very steep, but once you get into the flow, get a couple of weapons, and learn a few basic manoeuvres, you can certainly crush it. The difference between difficulties is the health, with you losing it quicker and it becoming harder to find on higher difficulties.

But the combat is indeed challenging, yet so rewarding when you finally perform a finisher on an enemy and cut them into bloody chunks. The dismemberment system is still fantastic, as enemies will lose body parts, but if they’re not dead, they’re still a threat. This applies to all enemies, big or small, and the variety of enemies is also quite good. You will see a lot of the low-level henchmen (dudes in grey ninja outfits) and they do feel like cannon fodder after a couple of hours. But more enemies come in, but there is never a mixture of types to spice things up. I recall this is the same for the vanilla version from memory, and the most you’ll see are the grey dudes, with one other type of enemy like an archer or mage who shoots fire at you.

Arenas are often quite gracious, allowing you to move around freely, and always have momentum, making sure you can get your bearings, and plot out your attacks as fast as possible. Some areas are not as forgiving, and the camera can be a massive pain at times, in smaller environments, such as walkways and small areas of action.

Bosses tend to be impressive and a lot of fun, even if a few of them require you to mash and slash them up. They’re all inventive visually and a lot of fun to fight. Especially later in the game when you amass your arsenal and learn more combos and tricks. It’s overall balanced out well, with everything feeling great from enemy design, weapon impact, and bosses. As this is a hack-and-slash game, puzzles and platforming are limited, with wall runs, and swinging from bars being the highlights. There were a couple of moments where platforming felt grander, and more meaningful, which I would have liked seeing more of.

But there are secrets to collect, nice detours for extra loot, and systems allowing you to buy items and upgrade your weapons. All solid stuff if not a little basic by today’s standards. But then again, it all works well with the core gameplay.

It would have been nice to see more set-pieces and platforming/ninja fun, the core gameplay is incredibly enriching and the combat is still masterful if not a little painful. For newcomers, the easy mode works well as you do lose a lot of life, but learning the moves and sticking to a weapon that works for you will ensure you will progress. The additional levels from Sigma are a lot of fun, mixing up combat a little more to provide a slightly different perspective of action from three awesome ladies. It is a shame that some of those bosses from Sigma were cut, but for me, some halted the pacing, especially the giant Buddha.

There are challenge modes, and some bonus stuff when you complete the game, but sadly no online mode. It would’ve been nice if a few more extras were included but there is a good amount of stuff here to keep you invested and replaying again and again.


Overall?

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a tricky remaster to review, with plenty of good, some bad, and some missing here. Overall, for me, it works incredibly well, but going into this you need to be aware of the disappeared bosses, the version this is converted from, and the storage size (dear lord…). But the core gameplay is still a ton of fun, the story and characters silly and enjoyable, and the few extras and greatly improved presentation round this up as a darn great return of a classic. It’s amazing to see Ninja Gaiden back after so long, and this remaster does the original a good service, especially for newcomers to the series, who are keen to check out the fourth instalment later this year.  


++ Presentation is outstanding
++ Solid action/Hack n’ Slash gameplay
+ Some excellent set-pieces, and combat moments
+ Chessy but loveable story and characters

-- This remaster/remake is of the PS3 Sigma version
- Very tough learning curve even on lower difficulties
- More interesting platforming sections were needed


The publisher kindly provided Ninja Gaiden 2 Black for this review.

LATEST REVIEWS