With Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, developers Team Ninja have attempted to create, as with Ninja Gaiden Black before it, the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden II. Combining elements from the original Ninja Gaiden II on Xbox 360, and the later the Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma edition, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black straddles a line between both games. Which version is more definitive, however, might come down to the player as the Ninja Gaiden games have a history of being significantly reworked by Team Ninja, leaving fans questioning and debating which is the better edition. Ninja Gaiden II is no different, with no less than three editions – or four, if you count the PS Vita Sigma Plus edition – to choose from before now.
From censoring violence to entirely new levels, Ninja Gaiden II saw some significant changes when it made the jump to PS3 in the Sigma edition. Blood was changed to a different colour, new bosses and levels were coupled with with new playable characters, and you had online functionality for Tag/Team missions that let you play with someone in bite sized stages chasing high scores. The game also reduced the number of enemies that the vanilla edition threw, with so many enemies on screen at some points that the Xbox 360 frame rate would tank into single digits. To counter this, the Sigma edition had fewer but more aggressive enemies that had higher health pools to deal with. Some aspect of the screen-splattering mayhem may have been lost, but certainly none of the games rage-inducing difficulty.
The most definitive version?
And now, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black comes grappling in at a time when many have forgotten just how tough and fast action games used to be, aiming to take the crown as the “definitive” version of the game. However, before we get into the games content, let’s get the most obvious elephant out of the room – the updated visuals. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is an Unreal Engine 5 powered remaster, making it a perfect fit for modern consoles and PC’s, as it manages to dish out some incredible visuals while maintaining a breakneck speed.
Team Ninjas games have a history of looking good, but Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a cut above them all. It straddles that line that, when you see it for the first time, that tricks your memory into thinking that this is how you remember the game looking, while actually being far more impressive. And believe me, the visual difference is significant if you fire up the backwards-compatible version of Ninja Gaiden II on an Xbox console for comparison. From the gorgeous looking levels, to the fine details on the characters. From rain slicked streets, to the atmospheric fog that shrouds everything around you, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is Team Ninja firing on all (visual) cylinders.
Best of all, it pulls this off at “don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it” speed, without missing a step, and there was little sign of common Unreal Engine issues like model and texture pop-in. From a performance and visual perspective, this is undoubtedly the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden II.
When it comes to gameplay and what’s under the hood, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is mostly based on the Sigma version. Aspects of both games are here though, most notably for gore hounds, as we see the return of brutal delimbing and glorious fountains of the red stuff. The rest of the experience feels more Sigma-ish. Fewer enemies populate the stages, but they’re amped up to make up for the lack of numbers. The three playable characters and their respective story chapters are here as well, along with five difficulty levels including the new (I think) “hero” difficulty that works as an easier mode.
Some content has been removed, such as the online modes, so Tag/Team missions are now only playable with an AI NPC partner. Similarly, Ninja Race and Ninja Cinema modes have also been nixed, and two of the games somewhat “notorious” bosses have been removed. That’s right, goodbye to the Statue of Liberty and Giant Buddha statue fights. A fair number of the costumes from Ninja Gaiden II have seemingly received the axe, and some level items appear to have been rearranged, but there’s possibly a ton of other changes – especially beneath the hood – that I’m not aware of as it’s been a good many years since I’ve played either the original or its Sigma variant.
The next big question is, of course, how does it play in 2025? The simple answer is still as brutally fast as ever. Make no mistake, this game will kick your ass and then some. Ninja Gaiden has always been about getting good, and not in that jokey way we’ve come to use the phrase since the ‘Souls-genre took off.
If you do not get to grips with the combat system and improve your reaction times, you’re not going to be having a fun time. This is about fast paced tactical combat and there’s no grinding stats or using summons to ease the experience. It’s a classic 3D hack-and-slash title that requires both lightning fast reflexes and thoughtful consideration around threat prioritisation. Sure, you can button-mash and still pull of some cool moves, but if you don’t learn Ryu’s combos in addition to the aformentioned requirements, you’re just going to just look cool while flailing to your death.
Enemies don’t have the good manners to wait for their turn to attack you. They pile in like a particularly enthusiastic car crash and, if you aren’t up to the task, you will die. A lot. One of the best things about these games is the joy of watching the difference between a novice player and an expert one. And believe me, that is a sight to behold!
The Ninja Gaiden games straddle a fine line between pure, exhilarating, limb-hewing catharsis; bone-crushing, controller-throwing difficulty; and, yes, even some classic cheapness. If you don’t like hard games, this is not for you.
If I have one technical criticism – and it’s one that stretches across the series – that would be the camera. To cut to the chase, it’s awful. It was awful in Ninja Gaiden II, it was awful in the Sigma version, and it’s not much better now. It’s a slow, cumbersome camera that struggles to keep up with the action, often displaying the worst possible view far too often. Even its default placement is frustrating for outdoor arenas and only worse indoors or in confined areas. If there was anything that should have been overhauled during this remaster, it should have been the camera placement and behaviour.
Conclusions
So, wrapping up, does Ninja Gaiden 2 Black stack up as the most definitive version in light of the changes and a few lingering issues? Well that, as I stated at the beginning, is still going to come down to how you first experienced it.
One element that’s hard to fault is how good Ninja Gaiden 2 Black looks and it runs better than I expected. It’s a gorgeous current gen upgrade to an already gorgeous game, and it keeps the visual style intact. Gameplay-wise, some people will be fine with the changes and some won’t. Is actually removing content a good idea? I’d say that depends on how good the content was to begin with, and whether or not its addition compromised the final product. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is far from compromised – but perhaps retaining that content as optional extras and adding a toggle to switch between the original and Sigma enemy compositions would have been ideal in a remaster.
As such, I’m honestly not sure if this is the definitive version – but I do know it’s the version I now prefer to play. Now if only Team Ninja can give the other two games in the series the Unreal treatment…
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (Xbox Series) Review
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (Xbox Series) ReviewThe Good
- Hacking, slashing, and blood-spewing decapitations are back baby
- A gorgeous visual upgrade
- It runs like a dream on current-gen consoles
- The brutal difficulty...
The Bad
- ...the brutal difficulty
- The camera is still your biggest nemesis at times
- A strange mix of cut content