Ninja Gaiden 2

There is blood on the dance floor and dismembered limbs aplenty. As master ninja Ryu Hayabusa that's what you do all day in Ninja Gaiden 2 - execute your dances of death as you cut rival ninjas and demons down to size (quite literally) and hack off their hands, legs and heads. There's so much of violence and blood that it could easily pass off as Kill Bill 3 with extra gore. Despite a huge array of weapons and slick combo moves at your disposal, the going is extremely tough. The bosses are hard to beat and it takes a lot of thinking and trial and error to figure out a way to beat the end-of-chapter bosses. For the record, I am still stuck with the Chapter 3 boss, a giant flying machine which looks like an armoured Medusa with a snake-like body. She throws lightning bolts and sends tons of exploding snakes at you, which you cannot dodge or block. And if she gets close enough, she grabs you with her mouth and smashes you against the rocks. The game starts off in the skyscrapers of Tokyo where a buxom CIA agent called Sonia warns you about the Archfiend. The next thing you know, evil black spider ninjas are upon you. They abduct Sonia. You chase and end Chapter One killing an enemy ninja that looks like a monstrous black spider. You manage to save Sonia only to realise that this was all a distraction. The baddies are really after a sacred artifact called the Demon Statue that can unleash demons. This takes you to the next chapter. You rush home to defend your village and your honour. It ends with the baddies successfully unleashing a horde of demons from the top of Mount Fuji, which is destroyed in a huge explosion. By the end of the second chapter, you will have three weapons - your trusty Dragon Sword, a twirling pole called the Lunar Rod which works great for crowd control and the Phoenix Claws, a pair of claws which let you slash through enemies in quick succession. You also have ranged weapons, including normal and explosive shurikens (literally, sword hidden in the hand) and a bow and arrows.

As you kill enemies, they drop yellow orbs which you can use to buy herbs or upgrade your weapons. Combat is pretty much a case of executing combos at the right time as well as blocking and counter-attacking. Some cool moves with the Sword include the Otoshi drop where you slash the enemy in the air three times before grabbing his head and pile-driving him into the ground - the trademark move of Ryu in other games as well. Button mashing X and Y combos look cool but they won't work in a major fight where there are a dozen ninjas after you. That's because as you cut one enemy down, three more are slashing at you. You need to fight smart and the first rule is to block. Blocking and waiting for an opening to counter-attack is a good strategy. I played this game without a manual and I am happy to say it was easy to learn the moves. Scrolls found in treasure boxes and among your dead enemies will highlight the moves that you need to learn. One example: Pull the left trigger to block and push the left thumbstick at the same time to dodge. You also need to learn how to get to inaccessible places. For example, if you are between two walls that are close together, you can flip your way from wall to wall all the way to the top. You also have access to "ninpo" magic which unleashes fireballs and blades of wind at the enemy. The graphics in this game are simply stunning and detailed. I found it hard to put the controller down once I got started. The level of gore, however, is certainly unsuitable for the young and I had to lock myself in the study, away from the neighbour's kids, to play this game on the PC. Overall, this is an excellent game which will undoubtedly make it to the list of Top 10 games for 2008.