PS Now for something completely different
We’ve spent the last few years losing our sanity over soulsbornes of varying quality, but before Hidetaka Miyazaki introduced us to ‘the grind’ we had melee hack-and-slash aplenty on PS3 and PS2. It demanded no more than a strong stomach and resulted in merely a sore thumb…
With Nioh 2 shuffling onto PS4 in March it seems only fitting to dip back into one of Team Ninja’s best, ninja gaiden sigma 2.
Originally on Xbox 360, this remastered port adds three chapters to the story as well as upgrades to the textures.
While it can look a little bare-bones in comparison to PS4 games, there’s a solidity and expressiveness to Ryu’s moves that makes Sigma 2 feel like no other game. Swords slash, severing limbs and arteries, ensuring enemies can actually bleed out over time – so they go all-in in their attempts to kill you. It means every battle generates almost Dark Souls levels of anxiety before descending into blood-gushing chaos as near-dead enemies lose their composure and indulge in armless self-destruction.
Enemies have more control in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This God-Of-War-inspired take on Konami’s vampire series has more in common with Guillermo del Toro than the Belmonts. It’s a classy adventure that manages to ape some of Castlevania’s ideas while upping the cinematic spectacle – climb a flying, dead dragon to smash its skull and set up a battle with the Devil? Not a problem at all.
From one deity to the next: there’s just time to experience the weirdness of Asura’s Wrath. Want to fight an army of mechanical golden Buddhas while tapping q to save the world and Naruto-run across a massive space fleet? PS Now you can, without feeling guilty.