Do you like Huey Lewis & The News?

I only ask because, like Huey with Sports, Team Ninja has really come into its own with Ninja Gaiden II. The whole game has a crisp, catchy clarity that makes it hard to put down.

Many will still look at the sequel as a foreign instrument, too intimidated to pick it up and practice. This is a mistake. Every fan of over-the-top combat and ridiculous video game violence owes it to themselves to play a part in this hilarious symphony of carnage.

In fact, Ninja Gaiden II is probably the most violent rhythm game you'll ever play. For those new to the series, the idea here is all-out ninja action, with an emphasis on careful timing and pure speed. Each blocking pause and staccato strike must be precisely executed, a continuous refrain of action and reaction, with the eventual reward of gory victory.

And oh, the gore has never been this plentiful. Every swing of the sword spills another bucket of blood across the stage, to the point that lead character Ryu becomes more of a Pollock-style painter, desperately wanting for a rain coat.

If Gaiden is a work of brutal art, Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki is its devious composer. Hiding the truth behind his trademark sunglasses, this leather-donning maestro wants you to believe that his newest movement is easier to play.

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At first, things did seem like a walk in the park on the lower difficulty level. Unlike the previous game, which tamed me by the third level, not once did I become unduly frustrated after blasting through five chapters of Gaiden II. This was mainly due to the numerous save points littered throughout the sequel's stages, shrines that now instantly boost your health to full. If that's not enough to welcome you with open arms, your health will now rejuvenate automatically inbetween battles, only a fraction of the bar permanently staying red and unhealed. These perks are present in either difficulty mode.

But like one of their giant bosses, this is all part of Team Ninja's program. It wants you to enter the fray, if only to prove how silly you were for thinking it's gone soft. Because while the overall progression may have been smoothed by a better sense of save-point pacing, even playing in the easier of two modes, each fight is a potential game-over situation. Monsters can get the best of you in seconds if you let your guard down, and only the rare health potion will save you in the middle of a pitched melee.

So while the health regeneration makes the game less frustrating, newcomers will still be sufficiently challenged by the enemy encounters. It goes without saying that the hardest difficulty mode will have even the most experienced players scrambling.

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