Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 - 360 or PS3

[mekanor]

So, having never played either Ninja Gaiden game, I'm looking to pick them both up soon. Is it worth picking up sigma and sigma 2 on the ps3, or black on the xbox and ng2 on the 360?

Thanks in advance

[QualityChimp]

Hi Mekanor,

if you've not played any of them, you might as well just plump for whichever version you can get your hands on as they're all fairly similar.

I've only played XBox NG Black and 360 NGII and loved them both. NGII is gorgeous! They can be pretty tough, but on easier modes, it's great fun without the thread of your joypad getting hurled against the wall!

You can get them pretty cheap too, I think. You're looking at about ?4 for Black and ?6 for NGII from CEX.

The Sigma games aren't straight-up upgrades anyway, there's some trade-offs according to Wiki:

While Sigma 2 has additional content not in the original Ninja Gaiden II a large amount of content was also removed from the game, or altered.
With Team Mission Mode, the single player version is removed. Players instead are given a computer-controller partner (if without a second player or offline). In Story Mode, Karma Scoring is removed and now only done in Chapter Challenge. Tests of Valor were also removed, scattering the rewards across Ryu's chapters. The total number of enemies in the game was reduced. Thus, fewer characters are on screen; enemy health was raised to compensate.

Three chapters were added, not linked to Ryu, but one of the three additional characters. Five new bosses were added, replacing two old boss encounters. There is one new boss for each alternate character's chapter (including returning bosses from NGS and NG1), a Dragon to replace the double Quetzalcoatl fight (though Quetzalcoatl can still be fought alone as in NGII), and two giant statues; a giant Buddha Statue, and a Statue of Liberty animated by Alexei. The Tunnel Worm was omitted, causing Ryu to fall through a tunnel leading from dark night to bright day. Most flying enemies were removed due to infinite ammo.

Enma's Fang, a greatsword, was added as a new melee weapon. The Weapon Upgrade system was also altered to restrict your upgrades similar to NG:Black. You can only upgrade once per special shop, though you do not require the use of Essence in order to perform those upgrades.

The Incendiary Shuriken were removed for two reasons, opening paths and their power due to the removal of the ammo count, and is instead Ayane's main projectile weapon. The Fiend's Bane Bow, now with unlimited ammo, had its Ultimate Technique removed. It would have been too powerful. The Howling Cannon, a heavy cannon with a slow projectile speed, served as a replacement. Additional removed weapons include the Windmill Shuriken and the Harpoon Gatling Gun.
The Action button changed from RB/R1 to circle, circle is now also the Shuriken button. Other ranged weapons were separated to the R2 button. This allowed both the Bow/Cannon to be equipped at the same time as the Shurikens. The player cannot unequip the bow or cannon. Thus, the two weapons bulk up Ryu's appearance even though they don't appear in cutscenes.

Keys were completely removed. Doors simply pop open now. Now (R1) tells the player where to go.

Projectile spam was greatly reduced from NGII. Healing items were increased and are the only thing you can buy. Most chests now contain yellow, blue, or red essence. Players no longer can hold onto Life of the Gods, Lives of Thousand Gods, or Spirit of the Devil. Instead, they are automatically consumed upon pickup.

Costume recolors (Legendary Black Falcon to Type 20; same shape, different texture) were removed. Biometal and Shadow Walker, Xbox DLC, are not player-selectable, and instead used by the returning enemy Ryu clones in Team Missions. Ashtar from Sigma 1, Sigma 2 Special (Ryu dressed as Joe Hayabusa from NGS2's new Prologue), Choun Shiryu (Ryu dressed as Zhao Yun from Dynasty Warriors), and Classic Ryu were added. Fiend remained in both versions, but without any of its alternate colors.

Hayashi had many textures (not all) replaced to vastly improve the visual appeal of each environment, but left most character textures unchanged.
Finally, almost all the gore has been removed. Purple mist now bursts from enemies, along with reduced blood splashes. Dismembered body parts no longer stay on the ground, but vanish. The game's ending has been added by a few minutes. Additionally, cinematics have been altered to remove dismemberment, dissection, and blood effects. The Japanese version of NGS2, the player can only decapitate monsters and non-humans. This is due to their compliance with CERO's guidelines.

[crocky-chocky]

Finished Sigma 2 recently and found it to be absolutely loads better than the original NG2. Just found the level of challenge to be spot-on, and a lot of the cheap attacks and such were removed.

Ruddy great game!

[112]

Finished Sigma 2 recently and found it to be absolutely loads better than the original NG2. Just found the level of challenge to be spot-on, and a lot of the cheap attacks and such were removed.

Ruddy great game!

Does that mean we get to see an updated avatr with Ninja AGiden Sigma 2 in it now?

Your Avi's are great dude!

112

[SuperBeatBoy]

I preferred the original NGII to Sigma 2, the lack of gore and challenge really hurt it for me.

[Skull Commander]

Ninja Gaiden II is an easier game than the first one but they are both excellent games. I can't comment on the PS3 versions as I haven't tried them but I would go with Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox and II on the 360. Black is backwards compatible as well if you don't have an Xbox.

[neoboy259]

I'd go for Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3 and Sigma 2 on the 360. They removed the blood and gore from the sequel on the PS3.

[Number45]

Both PS3 versions had the blood removed I think, but only some of them had some of the animations, like decapitations, stripped out (JPN only I think?). And Sigma 2 isn't on the 360, so I assume you just mean NG2?

I played a fair amount of Sigma and didn't find the lack of blood to be a problem, but I didn't have the original as a reference.

[DANGEROUS-3]

I beat NG Xbox on normal in 2004

Then beat NGB Xbox on hard in 2006

Then completed NG2 360 a couple of times including Path of the Warrior in 2009

Everyone else?

[DANGEROUS-3]

I'd go for Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3 and Sigma 2 on the 360.

Sigma versions only came out on PS.

[Number45]

I beat NG Xbox on normal in 2004

Then beat NGB Xbox on hard in 2006

Then completed NG2 360 a couple of times including Path of the Warrior in 2009

Everyone else?

Played it and hated it on the Xbox, played quite a bit further but ultimately got bored with it again on the PS3 several years later.

[Shozuki]

I'd say go for Sigma if your not hardcore into action games becuase you'd just find the challenge off putting.

Having said that, Sigma 1 is better then the original NG anyway so at the very least play that version if you can.

[Kubrick]

First game - Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3)

Sequel - Ninja Gaiden II (360)

The USA version of Sigma is the only uncensored one, but it doesn't matter with the sequel, they're all the same.

I wouldn't recommend Sigma 2 at all unless you only have a PS3 and nothing else. Sure it has extra stuff, but if you've previously played NG2, it feels like a Fisher Price edition for small children. Not because of the missing gore, but because the difficulty has been neutered way too much.

[mekanor]

Thanks for the info. I have to ask though, I'm well aware these are hard games, but am I better going for sigma 2 to avoid throwing my controllers through the window? I enjoy a challenge, but if a game is hard due to design flaws or being plain cheap, I get frustrated pretty quickly.

[MisterBubbles]

Both on PS3 as they make the 360 editions look pretty bland in the visual departments , plus you can play co op on Sigma 2 , bloody awesome.