There's one question everyone wants to ask at Team Ninja's recent visit to London, but it's nixed before the Q&A session has even begun. A Tecmo Koei representative takes to the stage to affirm that any queries regarding Metroid: Another M will be met with a no comment - and with that announcement we wouldn't be surprised if half the audience upped and left.
Thankfully no-one spoils the freshly merged Tecmo Koei's party and for this occasion they've got some high profile guests. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's newly appointed head Andrew House, in true rockstar style, sends a pre-recorded message of goodwill, while its CEO Kenji Matsubara asserts that the partnership will introduce new IPs (Dynasty Warriors Extreme Volleyball, anyone?) and place the company at the forefront of the Western videogame industry.
Itagaki has gone, but the mammary fixation remains.
Which is all well and good, but we're here to see Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, one of the first fruits of the partnership and Team Ninja's first game since the high-profile departure of Tomonobu Itagaki. Indeed, there's another question that goes unanswered - how the loss of one of the most colourful characters in games development has affected the studio? From the confident swagger of the game at hand today, the answer is not very much at all. Team Ninja hasn't forgotten how to forge the most intoxicating action games around, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is just as dynamic a mix as anything that's come out of the studio.
Like the original PlayStation 3 outing, Ninja Gaiden Sigma II tinkers with the genes of its Xbox fathers to create an experience that feels remarkably fresh, even for stalwarts of the originals. While at its heart this is effectively the same mix of masochistic gameplay, pin-sharp visuals and a taste for the absurd that helped win last year's Ninja Gaiden II so many plaudits, it's been significantly remixed and retooled.
Lessons have been learned from some of Ninja Gaiden II's failings. The camera, one of the biggest bugbears in the Xbox 360 original, has now been fully tamed and no longer takes an errant interest in the scenery when the action heats up. Likewise, the difficulty's been honed, with the spikes that broke a thousand controllers and inspired countless foul-mouthed tirades being smoothed and with variable A.I adapting to the player.
One of the biggest additions upon the game's transfer is that of co-operative play, which supports two people over some thirty arenas. Given the highly choreographed nature of Ninja Gaiden's combat, implementing multiplayer seems a bold choice and it's going to take some work to make the concept stick. Unfortunately, it's yet to break cover, so for now our curiosity remains.
One aspect that is present and correct at this stage is the new characters. The playable roster has been stretched to four, with three femme fatales joining the venerable Ryu. Momiji's an all new addition to the homebound versions of the game, having made an appearance in the splendid Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (which, coincidentally, was also headed up by Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2's producer Yosuke Hayashi). Team Ninja stalwart Ayane makes a more substantial appearance after her fleeting moments in previous Ninja Gaiden games, and lastly the ludicrously pendulous Rachel is again available after her playable debut in the previous Sigma.
The character models are, as you'd expect from Team Ninja, solid, sublime and a little over-endowed in certain areas. However, the difference between each in actual play terms is, from our initial impressions, negligible. They're certainly proficient with their own respective weapons, with Ayane using short-range stabs, Momiji preferring to fight from a distance and Rachel throwing all subtlety out of the window by bringing an oversized gun into the mix. But we'd assume these tools are interchangeable, and as such the characters feel like little more than re-skins. Extended time with the code beyond the one level demo we're witness to may well prove us wrong, and regardless of the characters' own introductions the exquisite toys they bring with them are still a worthy addition.
For all the new features, there's been one major omission, and it's one that's no doubt indicative of Itagaki's absence. The streams of blood that wet so many of Ninja Gaiden II's backdrops are somewhat muted here, with disembowelled enemies now giving a cursory spurt as opposed to the full on gush that marked out Itagaki's vision of the franchise. It's a decision that's been made to differentiate the game from the ever-growing amount of violent fare on the market, or at least that's what Sigma II's producer Yosuke Hayashi tells us. Given Itagaki's vocal support for blood and gore, perhaps the decision has also been made to move the series away from its previous excesses.
But what remains is still impressive; a refinement of what's still one of the best action games around, and one that's taking heed of the criticisms aimed at the original game. The original Sigma managed to take a superb action game and push it even further towards greatness, and it's a trick that the sequel is looking likely to repeat.
I can't wait for this one, It's looking awesome!!!
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