Team Ninja has never been shy about releasing updates to their cash cow franchise. Ryu Hayabusa has been improved by Sigmas, Blacks, and Razor Edges, with each version adding new enemies, features, and difficulty modes. Now the floundering PS Vita has received the ridiculously named Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus just in time to boost the reputation of both the troubled hardware and the disgraced action franchise itself.

As a port of Ninja Gaiden 2, Plus inherits the strengths and weaknesses of that 5 year-old title. The plot is silly and predictable, the voice acting is hammy and unconvincing, and the female characters are parodies of human anatomy. No one can claim that Team Ninja doesn’t have a distinct style–it’s just that their style is goofy and childish.

My eyes are up here. Probably.

Luckily, no one plays Ninja Gaiden for its writing or subtlety. Hayabusa is only interested in cutting through swaths of demons and Spider Clan foot-soldiers, which he does with aplomb. The experience translates reasonably well to the portable device in almost every mechanical aspect. Using the Vita’s analog sticks and buttons to control the action is as natural as using a console controller, while the portable system is more than capable of rendering the impressive cutscenes. If you didn’t look too closely, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this release was a pretty simple port job.

However, those with an eye for more technical details will quickly catch on to some of the game’s tricks. First and foremost, Plus utilizes dynamic resolution scaling to keep important objects sharp while maintaining a constant frame-rate. This is successful for the most part, but it can also be distracting if you happen to be looking for it. Any combat situation with more than a few enemies will turn into a battle between visual fidelity and processing speed, as character models blur and sharpen before your eyes.

Don’t look at me like that, buddha.

Whether or not this issue is a deal-breaker for you is remarkably personal and subjective. Personally, I found that I could ignore the problem when it meant the game retained a steady 30 FPS, but any lower than that and it became unpleasant to play. In the interest of full disclosure, Tecmo Koei actually sent out a message to reviewers to apologize for the fault, while suggesting that they change the camera settings in order to ensure a smoother experience. This tweak did help alleviate the issue of an uneven frame-rate, but it did little to keep foreground character models from suddenly becoming unfocused.

Of course, these aren’t the only problems with the PS Vita version of Ninja Gaiden 2. The integration of tilt functionality is essentially worthless, as aiming your bow and ninpo magic are much easier with the tradition dual-stick layout. Furthermore, I witnessed more than one demon getting caught on level geometry, as well as errors in enemy path-finding making them unable to find me from an arm’s reach away. On a more positive note, the option to queue up your bow with a touch on the corner of the screen was simple and helpful.

Hurry! Or not. Either way. No one cares.

It may seem as though this evaluation has been mostly negative, but that may be because most of the differences introduced in this version are for the worse. The actual core gameplay remains fun, challenging, and impressive in scope. Boss battles are particularly intense, whether they are one-on-one fights against a humanoid opponent or epic bouts with monsters that dominate the skyline. Also, it must be emphasized that Plus retains the blood, gore, and dismemberment from the original release of NG2, as opposed to the neutered PS3 version. However, it does incorporate most of the improvements from Sigma 2, including the additional enemies and most of the features.

I say “most,” because Plus is strangely lacking in the cooperative multiplayer that graced Sony’s home console. The game includes Ninja Race, Tag Missions, and Chapter Challenges, but without online support these are all just permutations of Time and Score Attack. Moderately useful A.I. companions will accompany you through Tag Missions, but the real draw of these modes seems to be more play-time with Rachel, Ayane, and Momiji. To be fair, these characters do bring their own unique weapons and animations to the combat, but the gameplay is still functionally identical to the main campaign.

She doesn’t appreciate your unsolicited ‘compliments.’

Finally, there is a “Prologue” option on the main menu that triggers a short movie told in static comic book panels. Said sequence shows a battle between the Hayabusa Ninja Clan and an evil vampire. The main story is a fairly boiler-plate narrative bereft of any real value, but at least it makes sense. The prologue video raises more questions than it answers, while simultaneously being unintentionally hilarious. On second though, perhaps it was meant as comedy. It’s hear to tell where the line is with Team Ninja.

At the end of the day, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus is a medicore port of a good game. It has been far surpassed by better action titles in the intervening years, but there’s nothing quite as polished in the hack ‘n’ slash genre available on the PS Vita at this time. If you’re looking for something in this style to play on the go, Plus will do in a pinch. Likewise, if you missed out on Ninja Gaiden II altogether until this point, this version includes the upgrades from Sigma and the explicit violence from the original release. Everyone else has far better options for slaking their bloodlust.

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes and was played for about 8 hours. The title is a PS Vita exclusive.

Also, follow me on Twitter @austinyorski (please).

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus Review

By Austin Yorski

Technical issues mar the portable update of the last good Team Ninja title.