Not Yet Abandoned: Ninja Gaiden Black, Crimson Sea 2

I started Ninja Gaiden Black on normal difficulty around a week ago. I was satisfied that it was probably as good as people say and haven't touched it since. It's a game that rewards observation, practice, and decisiveness. I kind of don't want to touch it, lest I ruin it.

Crimson Sea 2, however is a diamond in the rough that's not too perfect to actually play. Every time I go into a game store, I see used games I've never heard of. I generally leave them alone. But I finally went into my local game store and made a complete inventory. That's part of why I've been playing so many not quite good enough games. Crimson Sea 2 finally bucked that trend.

Crimson Sea 2 is, 9% into it on easy, really nice. It's got crazy Japanese controls kind of like Gunvalkyrie and Panzer Dragoon Orta. I'm not sure if the Crimson Sea 2 controls are better, or if I'm developing a taste for loopy Japanese control schemes. Regardless, the game is actually fun to farm. I go back into previous levels and mow down hundreds of bad guys in style so I can power up and mow down hundreds more bad guys. There was one room in the game where I backed into a corner and unleashed on the respawning hordes. I got a combo of well over 400, possibly even 500. It wasn't hard at all. It was just fun.

And it was the right level of fun. With the game's crazy controls, it wouldn't be hard to make the game super difficult and force you to zip around like a meth moth. The game could try to be Devil May Cry, essentially. But the camera mostly sucks, and enemies don't mind attacking from offscreen, so that would pretty much kill all the fun in the game. Nope, it's just the right combination of pretty bangs and quick movement without too much stress. Plus if I clear a level with the highest ranks in all categories (time, damage taken, highest combo, and enemies killed) I get a special bonus. With a difficulty level that makes attaining these special bonuses reasonable, I'm actually having fun replaying the levels in the quest for the perfect clear. I wish all games had difficulty options like this.