Finished NMH2. Demi is spot on with this game. There's really no point to even keep playing the game as it doesn't get better as it goes, and there's no story, no ending and the last parts of the game are the worst because all they do with the gameplay is give more tedious levels (30 mins of fighting the same 3 guys over and over) and more tedious bosses. I wouldn't be surprised in the game is more enjoyable on sweet difficulty because all least everything dies quickly, which should cut down on the repetition. There was some good stuff here and there, but it's buried beneath a mountain of glaring game design flaws. I don't know if the game problems are because it's a quickly rushed out sequel with an expectation of a directors cut for the HD systems, or if the design wast just shitty in the first place, but yeah; the level design is uninspired, the boss fights are annoying, and there's nothing else to do in the game.
You can tell a game has good combat/bosses when you can beat them on the highest difficulty without getting hit once. This is because there are strategies and patterns and if you learn them and pull them off, things work as they should. So when I check the boss faq for NMH2 and the strategies listed are "I got lucky and the boss drove off the edge of a cliff on their own" or "there is no actual way to dodge his teleport attack 100%; just keep retrying until you get lucky and win" you know that something has gone wrong.
At its best, NMH2 is Suda's take on his buddy Kojima's MGS boss fights. Wacky, varied, ridiculous, and fun. If NMH2 was simply 15 or so MGS level bosses it would be an amazing game. But Grasshopper does not have the technical skill to pull the concept off and so you're left with 15 or so C- action game bosses and a non-amazing game.
While the original NMH may have had the same or similar gameplay flaws (it's been long enough that I can't remember and I have no interest in revisting that title), the rest of the product made up for its weaknesses and gave a reason to keep on playing. NMH2 has nothing to do that for the weak gameplay.
I think everything to be said has been said by this point. To me, the original NMH was in the 8-9/10 range and NMH is more like the 6-7/10 range. My least favorite post-Killer 7 era Suda game for sure.
