The developers at Team Ninja know their old-school mentality shouldn't be an excuse for poor design decisions these days, and they have done much to alleviate common Gaiden complaints. Health now regenerates to a degree after each battle, taking away much of the need for strict potion management. Auto-save points are plentiful and well-paced through each chapter. And now when you bite the dust during a boss fight, you can simply start the battle over again--a recent change from an earlier build of the game, which annoyingly sent you back to your last save.

Like all good action sequels, Gaiden II improves on the original while adding new features. The best of the latter is Ninja Cinema, which allows you to record your bloody exploits in full color or stylized black-and-white. It's a great feature, with my only complaint being that you must enter the pause menu to turn recording on or off. That, and I'll have to actually get good at the game before I can show off my videos: only ranked scores are worthy of uploads.

So it's bloody, and you kill things, and you can record yourself killing things. What else is there?

A cringe-worthy assortment of silly cutscenes, over a dozen lengthy levels, some magic spells, and, um, more things to kill.

What you see is what you get; the good, and the bad. Registered users can use the HD Stream

For instance, do you see how the camera angle often totally obstructs the action? While you fight back thick waves of enemies, you'll also be fighting with the camera. The view is constantly positioning itself behind monsters or up against walls, especially in the game's later stages, where Ryu battles in caves and the narrow corridors of castles. There are camera speed controls, but you'll still find yourself using the right stick too often. It's not a deal breaker, but it is often annoying.

While the level design is largely improved over the original game due to its mostly-linear nature, some stages are undeniably sloppy in places. There is never a giant arrow pointing the way, and often I ended up running in circles within a semi-open area, wasting minutes before finding the door I needed. Real ninjas shouldn't be peeking at GPS units, but a "Four Tails of the Golden Compass" move might have been handy at times to keep up the pace.

I would argue that real ninjas shouldn't have to deal with annoying platform puzzles either, but there are a couple of those anyway. Luckily they are made easier by the fact that Ryu can't fall from a ledge until you hit the jump button. Oddly enough, this platform-to-platform jumping reminded me a bit of Star Tropics.

And yes, even though this sequel is markedly less frustrating on easy difficulty when compared to past games, it will still throw you for a loop at times. The between-battle health regeneration isn't much help in the midst of a fight, and bosses can literally tear you apart in seconds. You can also end up stuck in a difficult boss fight without a single healing item, doomed to face utter domination ad nauseam. It's never impossible to overcome a boss with a single health meter, but it can feel like it sometimes.

And I still don't mind. You can criticize the best action movies for their bad camera work and tepid storylines, but those elements ultimately take little away from the experience. The same is true with Ninja Gaiden II. In the end, the pure fun of the carnage far outweighs any fleeting camera issues, level design shortcomings, or boss frustrations.

What you see is what you get. And just look at this ridiculous game: Registered users can use the HD Stream

You can get the Xbox 360-exclusive Ninja Gaiden II on June 3 in North America.