The story of Legend of Kage 2 is nothing particularly compelling. You play the role of a ninja who needs to rescue a princess from a demonic warlord hell bent on destroying the world. You basically mow through enemies and bosses till you reach the end. The story is as well written as Ninja Gaiden, if not a tad better, though that's not really saying much.
The game features two main playable ninjas: a male ninja named Kage and a female ninja named Chihiro. Since they are ninjas, they are quite fast and agile. They can jump really high, run up walls, scale ceilings, dash attack and also have a useful ninja running ability. That aside, they each also have their own unique abilities that help in making their respective campaigns somewhat fresh. Kage uses a flaming katana as a close range weapon and shrurikens as his ranged weapon, so he's pretty much your classic ninja hero. Chihiro uses a kusarigama, which is used for close range. She also uses a chain whip as a ranged weapon, which handles like a whip from the classic Castlevania games.
I am the legendary KAGE!!!...What? You’ve never heard of me!?
As you progress through the game, you learn new skills and can also upgrade existing ones. This is accomplished by playing levels through again and again. The game also features Ninjutsu spells and these are created by using elemental orbs that are scattered throughout the game. You place these orbs into empty slots and experiment with different patterns to create new spells. Ninjutsu spells range from ice shields, fire balls and temporary attack/defence boosts.
As a 2D action game, The Legend of Kage 2 is all about blisteringly fast and precise 2D mechanics. So it comes as no surprise that the game is played solely using the digital controls of the DS. The dual screens are put to good use though, as the action is displayed across both screens, which allows you to see what enemies are above. The game generally handles well but the jumping and dashing mechanic can feel a bit twitchy and awkward at times.
So while the game has decent variety and handles well enough, the main problem with it is that the ideas and features have not been implemented well. This is primarily evident through the terrible design of the game. While the mechanics and features are all fine and dandy, the most fatal flaws of The Legend of Kage 2 have to do with the actual game itself.
The art of Ninjutsu actually involves playing with orbs.
The game is criminally short for a full fledge retail release, clocking in at under 5 hours for a single play through. Of course, then you would argue that these type of games are immensely action packed and feature excellent level design, variety and clever boss battles that make the game addictive and vastly re-playable. These elements have always made up for the short length of these traditional 2D action games, but unfortunately, The Legend of Kage 2 lacks all of these essential elements.
Starting with the level design, The Legend of Kage 2 features 13 stages that showcase the most bland and uninspiring design imaginable. It’s nice to have a range of abilities and skills but the level design hardly encourages clever use of them. No clever platforming sections, no risk of falling to your death, no packed corridors, no traps, nothing. Occasionally, there will be some unique gimmicks and scenarios but these are short lived thrills. All you literally do is, run through these bland and boring levels from start to finish.
There are enemies to fight and you will face them in large numbers, but the variety isn’t there at all and they hardly put up a decent fight. Most of them go down with a single hit and this feels quite unbalanced considering you have so much health. Then you have the bosses, who are neither memorable or challenging. Thankfully, the final two boss fights are fairly decent, though they are still easy to cheese and exploit. The bosses are not the kind that will get your heart pumping or put your razor sharp reflexes to the test, instead they feel as uninspiring and boring as everything else in the game.
Dual screen ninja action!... Meh...
Now a game like this obviously will have a ranking system, grading your performance at the end of each stage. Ironically, a game that plays with no effort pretty much awards no effort as the ranking system is very lenient and forgiving. Getting S rankings will take little to no effort. Graphically, the game isn’t really nice as it looks like a really weak 16-bit game. The character models and animations look bland and the backdrops and levels look even worse. There is a serious lack of detail and artistic flair here. Musically the game sort of redeems itself, as the soundtrack features nice oriental music and has a very modern feel to it.
When it comes to content, there really isn’t much on offer here. You can unlock artwork for the gallery, higher difficulties and continue to learn and upgrade skills and Ninjutsu spells. Unfortunately, with the core game being so bland, uninspiring and poorly designed, you will not be enticed to play the game several times.
The Legend of Kage 2 isn’t the type of niche game that has limited appeal or has become redundant, it just isn’t a good game at all. You can find some real gems in the genre but The Legend of Kage 2 unfortunately, is not one of them.
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