Action
UPS
Extreme
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black reminds me just how much games have changed
I still vividly remember Ninja Gaiden 2’s launch in 2008 even though I never played it. It may be hard to imagine now, but back in the 2000s, Team Ninja’s hack-and-slash series was briefly on the Mount Rushmore of action games (depending on who you talked to). It was praised for its stylish hyperviolence and its extreme challenge, earning Team Ninja the kind of loyal following from action aficionados that FromSoftware would begin to amass as the 2010s rolled around. Its star quickly faded in 2012 after the divisive Ninja Gaiden 3, but I still remember the series as a pillar of the early Xbox age.