Part 23: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - Chapter 12

Back to the jungle in a slightly less shitty form. But in the end, it matters little in regards to improving Sigma 2 as a whole.


So, where to start?

Obviously this was evident during the previous chapter, but Sigma 2's made adjustments to enemies that use projectile attacks, by reducing their frequency considerably. For the first major battle amid the spot lights and water running all over the place, this section gets a major improvement. Some of the other minor but still bullshit moments in the chapter also got nixed, but there's of course two very big changes that I consider positives here.

Firstly, this game has one example I can think of where simply removing a bad element and replacing it with nothing was worth it, and that is the removal of the Giga Death Worm. The horrid boss you fight in the long, cramped, luminescent green tunnel. Going through that area, with or without the worm was like a trip through Itagaki's colon, and I'm glad this version spares everyone from that.

Secondly, the inclusion of another good boss to replace the two Quetzacoatls. The Black Dragon (not official name as far as I can tell, can't find anything else on what it's called) is a very solid if still somewhat basic boss fight. Compared to what the Greater Fiends and Murai are capable of, Black Dragon's a few steps behind that in originality of attacks and variety. But it's a solid way to end the chapter, as it is the only boss in the game to have a mid battle Obliteration Technique the player can trigger, changing its behavior to be more aggressive and add more fire to its moves. It's very cool. Good job, Sigma 2.