The completely English demo of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 showed up on the Japanese PlayStation Network sometime this week, and I think I'd prefer to call it a trial version instead of a "demo" -- Like the trial of the first game, you can save, replay, and unlock stuff in the demo enough that it almost makes it its own little game, and as far as I'm aware you'll unlock some stuff in the beginning of the full version if you have a demo save on your console. Now, I've never played Ninja Gaiden 2 on the Xbox 360, so my apologies if I sound excited about stuff in the demo that everyone already knew about from playing the first release of it.

I've been playing through the first Sigma on the PS3 in anticipation for this game, and one of the first things I noticed about the latter is how much more detailed it is. Sigma 2 definitely has better graphics, and there's a lot more going on all around the screen. I took a few seconds to just look around and admire the scenery, which is something I didn't really find myself doing during the first game. It's quite a site to behold. Another nice thing is that now not only are your items assigned to the d-pad, but so are your weapons and Ninpo, so you don't even need to go into any menus to completely change your layout. And speaking of the weapons, they're awesome -- huge sword, scythes on chains, and Wolverine claws make for quite the armament. Just like the first game's demo, all of your weapons start out at level 3, so you can get a really good idea of how they'll act later in the game and which ones you'll want to level-up first.

Difficulty-wise, I initially though Sigma 2 wouldn't be as tough as its predecessor, but then I unlocked the final difficulty level, which promptly proceeded to kick my ass without even letting me kill a single enemy. They pulled out machine guns faster than I could even react, and that was that. The first two difficulty levels were tough but fair, though, and gave you the chance to practice some of the new mechanics -- One of my favorite features was the bow and arrow system. Instead of just pressing a button and having an arrow fly in whatever direction you're facing, you can manually aim the weapon in a third-person viewpoint (a la Resident Evil 4) and move while you fire, which felt absolutely awesome to me. The original method of using the bow is still there, but this addition definitely doesn't hurt the combat system.

The movements and animations of the enemies are pretty much unchanged, except for the fact that you can now dismember a bunch of their body parts and they'll still come after you. In fact, one of the basic enemies (after losing an arm and taking a lot of damage) will jump on you and blow himself up to hurt you more than just a sword slash would. If you damage them, you'd better go all the way since they won't have any reason to live anymore. The blood has indeed been toned down, since it has about as much as the first game -- The pictures of the Xbox 360 version of the game had more blood in them than the demo of the PS3 version. Regardless, I don't think the lack of pools of blood everywhere made the experience any less enjoyable, especially since the last boss of the demo was a giant statue which wouldn't have had blood in the first place. It was cool, however, when Ryu was left alone and he shook the blood off his weapons. It's the little details that I love in games. (Speaking of which, the boob jiggle mechanic is there, but it's minimal. I am sorely disappointed.)



After you play as Ryu and finish the trial on at least the second difficulty level, Ayane is unlocked as a secret character. She plays similarly to Ryu, but I think I had an easier time handling her (*ahem*). She moved really smoothly, and her Ninpo blasts everything around her to pieces, instead of just firing forward. She's more of a defensive character, but that's definitely one of her advantages. Block and counter is the name of Ayane's game. The third playable character was not playable in the demo.

The Team Missions option is also available in the Demo, but again, you have to play enough to unlock it. This is the mode that will eventually become the online co-op mode in the full game, but there's no online support in the demo. If you play this mode offline, it becomes a single-player experience, and the computer takes control of the second character. It's pretty fun -- From what I could tell, it was an endless barrage of ninjas coming out of the woodwork, and you just rip them to pieces. It wasn't that great by myself, but I think getting online with a friend would make it like an extremely fast-paced Mercenaries mode from Resident Evil 5, which I still like playing from time to time. Two ninjas are better than one.

As with all games, there were a few things that kind of bothered me -- mainly the camera. The camera was horrific in the first game, and it doesn't seem like much has changed this time around. I suppose it's slightly more bearable, but it'll still drive you crazy. Another problem that I experienced on a regular basis was the loading times -- Every time you change your weapon using the d-pad shortcuts was a little much, because your game apparently saves every single time you change your weapon. Nice feature, sure, but it can get annoying really quickly.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the demo. I plan on picking up the full game, but not right away more than likely -- Too much other stuff to do for the time being. Also, I'm not a fan of the Collector's Edition of this one -- A mini-guide and an in-game comic? Not really worth the extra ten bucks in my opinion. But if you have a Japanese PSN account, you should definitely check it out (there's a King of Fighters XII demo right next to it in the store, too).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now for the update of mine. A while back (a long while back), I posted a blog about how I was trying to raise money for my friend Travis, who was paralyzed in an accident a few years ago. He's a gamer just like the rest of us, and he introduced me to Destructoid in the first place, for which I am extremely grateful. Some of you guys on here were unbelievably generous and donated quite a bit of money to the cause, and that literally brought a tear to my eye. But recently, I came to a realization that I had not foreseen when I started this project:

I've discovered that I suck at fund raising.

Not a lot has come in -- Don't get me wrong, it's more than pocket change, but nowhere near my initial goal of twenty grand. There's a bright side to the whole thing, though -- One of the first things Obama did when he was sworn into office was he completely overturned all the laws saying stem-cell research isn't allowed in this country. That means if we can find something here, it'll probably be a hell of a lot cheaper than finding a way to get to China and have the surgery done there. (Probably a lot safer, too, now that I think of it...) So until then, the donated money remains safe in the bank, gaining interest. Travis and I are actually thinking that we may be able to get a club to ourselves for a night, thanks to a contact of his at work. That way, we could actually have an honest-to-God fundraiser. Plus, drunk people are always fun.

I just wanted to do a small update for those here who remember that I was doing this, and to assure those who donated that your money hasn't gone to waste, and never will -- I felt like at least the people from here who have donated deserved t o hear something about it, as I don't want you guys thinking I just took your money for personal reasons. I also want to thank all of you again for letting me talk about this here -- I'm sorry if it sounded like I was going all LiveJournal on you for a minute. :P Thanks again, everyone. It means a lot to me.