Since you like Ninja Gaiden what are your thoughts on Bayonetta? I figure you would like it since the two series are so similar. I plan on getting the newest one for the Wii U soon.
Similar??? Note even remotely!!! That's like saying
God of War is similar to
Ninja Gaiden. Sure, they're both third person action slash-em-up games, but that doesn't make them similar. Or to go with a better example to express why they're not, it would be like comparing
Bioshock with
Call of Duty, or even
Borderlands, cause "they're shooters". Clearly, while they may fit into the same genre, they're not alike in just about every other aspect.
I personally couldn't get into
Bayonetta because the controls felt clumsy and unintuitive, to me. I watched friends get really showy sequences, and it was like watching them play
Street Fighter instead of
Tekken; i.e. the controls are convoluted and ridiculous, rather that practical and designed with flow and pacing in mind. The controls in the modern NG series have a flow and a feel to them that elicits a really showy and acrobatic combat ensemble that the player can feel like they're in control of, yet has enough depth to it that despite feeling "simple to grasp", there's so much more to learn and perfect to actually exceed one's own previous attempts. Or, put simply, the good ol' "easy to learn, hard to master" idiom.
Bayonetta just doesn't do that. She doesn't feel like she's easy to pick up and start pulling off some showy moves by just messing around with the controller. The character feels stiff and unresponsive, and that just creates a stuttered and impeded flow that I personally didn't like. Furthermore, the combat and platforming were integrated in the NG series, which had highs and lows, but the combat in DMC and B by extension were really separated from the rest of the gameplay. It's like comparing the Sands of Time PoP games with the 2008 PoP game in terms of combat; the former used the acrobatics of the titular prince to within the combat itself, while the latter segregated the 2 forms of gameplay, with controls violently shifting in utility between exploration and combat segments. Not bad design choices, by any means, but they're noticeably different.
Also I seem to be a bit of an anomaly, cause the sex appeal of all the games that have it just doesn't do anything for me. Okay, there's this absurdly busty chick strutting around in black, studded leather in NG/B/S. Neato. Okay, the main character is a fetishized glasses-wearing babe with revolvers for high heels who's a witch whose magic involves repeatedly disrobing in B. Alright. Quite frankly, those just don't gravitate me toward either. If Kratos was a handsome model or the pale bald bastard we know or if he was some buxom babe, what would matter to me is the gameplay, and it so happens that the combat in the GOW series was solid and well-designed enough that I was able to embrace the games.
I couldn't say the same about the XBox
Spawn game, which was almost identical in structure, approach, and presentation to GOW. I may love the character and the series (and Goddamnit every time they get Keith David to reprise his role, I'm practically sold right there!) but the actual controls are so loose and flimsy and the design is just so haphazard and messed up, I couldn't get into that game. At least when you fuck up in GOW, you fucked up. When you die in NG, it's largely your fault (with no small degree of a excess thrown at you by a game that delights in its sadistically demanding level of challenge), not because something was poorly designed. But
Spawn? Oh those platforms just didn't get much playtesting, you'll get used to how poorly spaced they are. Oh this level looked cool, we didn't really care how the designed functions, you'll put up with the absurdities the AI is capable of in this space, won't you? No game, fuck you. I'm going to go play something with some actual polish...
Thus my love for NGS. NG was a phenomenal game, then they refined it with the Hurrican Pack. Then they refined it some more with NGB. Then they refined it some more with NGS! Then some MORE with NGS Plus! Each version has additions and omissions, so there's no "perfect version" of any one title, but they each have incredible degrees of polish and fine tuning. They really refined these games to a wonderful state, and unless you have a fragile ego that can't recognize that failing to meet a challenge is YOUR fault, it's incredibly fun to play. =)