I didn't mind how he came back in 02. I thought that that was a pretty cool and surprising twist. Keep in mind that this is the same person who didn't think that the ending to 02 was that bad either. While I also agree that Vamdemon's actions in 01 were more intense, I still think that his comeback at the end of 02 was pretty good too and he was still as evil as ever.
I heard once that the reason he came back was because the writers didn't want a human to be the final villain. That's kind of funny now since they made Kurata in Data Sqaud/Savers the ultimate villain of that series.
I agree. While Romi Paku does a pretty good job with Ken in the original version, I think Derek Prince has an edge in terms of the evil villain laugh. I personally find his voice more memorable, but it helps that I've seen the whole dub of 02 before, as well as hearing it in English. Of course, I've yet to see how Romi Paku handles Ken after the Digimon Kaiser arc as well.
As for the episode, I thought that it was pretty enjoyable. A bit better than I originally thought that it would be. I think seeing all of the Digimon armor evolve with the evolution music in the background helped though. I was kind of surprised that they all were wondering if they were in Japan still when they first arrived in the Digital World. You would think that the change in clothes and their Digimon in the Child/Rookie forms would have been a bigger hint than just the Dark Tower.
I did like seeing everyone's Child/Rookie level Digimon actually doing some fighting. That definitely doesn't happen too often. I don't think Tailmon used Cat's Eye in 01. I think this was the only time she used it. Even thought that was pretty interesting, I kept on wondering why the heck they just didn't stand and fight right then and there instead of running away like that. Sure, there were a lot of Digimon under Kaiser's control, but they have the power to bring up five Armor evolutions at once so they wouldn't be overpowered by the nuraber of controlled Digimon. Oh well.
I do agree that this one didn't add anything to the plot of the arc, but wasn't nearly as dull as the Starmon episode. At least this episode had a couple of more interesting qualities to it. Shuimon's battle was pretty cool, but I couldn't get into it as much. It helps that I'm not that into ninjas to begin with though. I felt bad for Daisuke at the end when he was sad for getting Hikari upset. I just find his crush on her so cute.
Overall, it was a decent episode at best. Some nice bits of action and humor here and there. The next episode looks pretty interesting since it is the last Digimetal before the end of the Kaiser arc happens. I'll be looking foreword to that episode.