Ninja Gaiden II is basically Devil May Cry without that special flare or spark that made Devil May Cry such an awesome series. NG2 is fun, it’s just feels a bit generic and recycled. It feels tremendously like DMC. Like all 3D hack and slash games, you run around slashing at enemies. When you kill enemies, glowing orbs called Essence appear. Picking them up plays a small audio clip that sounds almost identical to picking up orbs in DMC. Finding various objects, such as a key card that is used to unlock a door no more than ten seconds away from the card itself, causes a screen to pop up just like in DMC showing the object and giving a brief description. The sound effect even sounds like DMC! There are things that look like altars that act as save points, and statues that act as shops, selling regen items, powerups for weapons, and Life of the Gods pieces. You can also Life of the God pieces in the levels. Collecting nine of them will permanently increase your health – just like blue orbs in Devil May Cry! You’re also forced to use items immediately after finding them. Yes, this is done quite often in games, but that’s really not an excuse; this game makes you use it within ten seconds of finding them! I’m not just talking about the key card I mentioned earlier either. The game is fun, and I’m sure fans of Devil May Cry would enjoy it (besides possibly being angry if they’re not just fans but are fanboys). However, if someone is interested in playing Ninja Gaiden II and hasn’t played the Devil May Cry, I would recommend playing DMC instead.