FULL completed online and downloadable walkthrough strategy game guide for: Ninja Gaiden 2. This precise WALKTHROUGH GAME STRATEGY GUIDE is/will be available for you right in your members area and compatable for the XBOX 360 platform.
My living room is full of twenty-something gamers, and they're watching a friend play through the first level of Ninja Gaiden 2. The air is filled with laughter - hooting, cackling, whooping laughter, punctuated with sharp intakes of breath and observations that, well, everything looks like it hurts. Really quite a lot.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is a spectacle. Its predecessor has come to be remembered for a steep but perfectly pitched difficulty curve - but firing up NG2 for the first time is a reminder of just how cinematic and exciting the whole thing is, too. With Ninja Gaiden, we came for the eye-catching, beautiful combat, and stayed for the challenge. Ninja Gaiden 2 ramps up the first part of that formula to a whole new level.
Graphically, of course, it's a stunner, but it's the battle animation and choreography that really pulls in your attention. Ryu's adventure this time around is a far more brutal and violent than his last outing, which featured the occasional decapitation (excised from the European release, you may recall) as a finishing move. Here, the bloodlust goes into overdrive - and with it, Team Ninja's brilliant, over-the-top battle animations.
In NG2, limbs and heads are severed and tossed around like confetti at a wedding. A fairly wide selection of your basic attacks have the ability to sever arms, legs and even heads, assuming you hit them unguarded and at the right time. Every other attack simply sends huge spouts of blood-splatter across the playing area - and even your non-bladed weapons have the ability to cripple, except that instead of cleanly lopping off an arm, they smash the offending limb (or head) into chunky giblets, leaving thick lumps of ichor on the surrounding walls and floor.
We take back what we said about Ryu being a fetishist. That costume is clearly for practical, wipe-clean purposes. Adding to the ludicrous level of comic-book violence is the fact that your relentless foes aren't that bothered by losing limbs. Enemies without arms are restricted in the attacks they can make, but they'll still have a bloody good go; those without legs crawl across the floor and try to grab you for a suicidal bomb attack. To despatch them, you simply press Y in their vicinity. That'll perform a brutal finishing move (usually involving plenty more smashed or sliced limbs) on the nearest crippled enemy, and it's these moves which are likely to generate the loudest cackles and sharpest intakes of breath.
That, then, is the immediate hook of the game - and it's brilliant. No other action game comes close to Ninja Gaiden 2 for looks, for animation or for ferocity. NG2 doesn't even need a map to guide you around, because the section you're looking for is clearly signposted by the absence of blood, gore and limbless torsos, which are strewn and caked all over everywhere you've been. Even the solid and enjoyable Devil May Cry 4 doesn't have the mesmerising quality that watching someone play NG2 exerts. The problem, sadly, arises when you actually pick up the controller yourself.
Ninja Gaiden has always been a harsh mistress, and we've loved her for it. Ninja Gaiden Black, which is probably the high point of the series so far (the PS3's Sigma being essentially the same game), is hard as nails, demanding that you develop superb reaction times, a stunning mastery of Ryu's moves and a perfect understanding of your enemies' animations and abilities as you progress. For many players, it's simply too hard. The popular view around these parts, however, is that NGB isn't too hard, it's just right - as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort.
These claw-like weapons are a nicely balanced between offence and defence - but you'll need to go toe-to-toe with the bad guys to use them effectively. But Ninja Gaiden 2 strays from the path. Perhaps mindful of the series' reputation for difficulty, Team Ninja ramped up the difficulty level once again - and torn by the conflicting need to provide accessibility for less dedicated players, it's seriously messed up the balance. NG2 regularly stops being challenging and becomes impossible.
Where Ninja Gaiden balanced frustration with satisfaction, giving you a glow of accomplishment when you finally mastered a tricky section, NG2 breaks the equation on a regular basis. It spawns enemies on top of you - occasionally blinking them into existence right in front of your astonished face. It bombards you with unblockable, long-range attacks - and then restricts your movements, limiting your ability to dodge. It throws exploding kunai at you the second you walk through a door, from enemies you can't even see yet. It tantalises with the possibility of clever solutions or stealth (you are a bloody ninja, after all), allowing you to shoot out searchlights, and then instantly respawns the searchlights and bombards you with long-range rockets again.
These situations aren't something that you pass through by getting better at Ninja Gaiden 2. The game isn't challenging you to improve your skills or work out a cunning solution. It's just kicking your arse until you get lucky. Perhaps the AI will slip up and decide it can't see you, or it can't be bothered attacking you for a few seconds, or you'll score a somewhat random limb-removal against a tough foe and get to finish him off with the Y button.
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90VideoGamer This is action gaming at its very best.
90GameDaily If you're a hardcore player, you owe it to yourself to pick it up and dominate it. If you're a rookie, this is a fine place to start earning your stripes.
90GameTap While Ninja Gaiden II is a difficult game, it's also far more forgiving than the original (particularly on the acolyte setting) and it gives you ample opportunities to beef up your skills and become a master ninja.
90GameSpy If you're a fan of action games, then Ninja Gaiden II is an absolute must-have. The gameplay mechanics are phenomenally satisfying, and mastering Ryu's diverse weapon sets can easily entertain you through multiple play-throughs, giving this strictly single-player experience an extended life.
90Team Xbox Don't let the blood and internal organs fool you: Ninja Gaiden II takes even greater skill to play efficiently than its predecessors.
88Game Informer If there ever was a game developed for the attention deficient, this is it. Ninja Gaiden's action is so fast bullets would have trouble keeping up. But since it's is action game and not a round of golf, this intensity is pretty flippin' awesome.
87IGN Ninja Gaiden II is easily one of the best action games on Xbox 360.
84Cheat Code Central A very good action title that has a repetitive yet satisfying combat mechanic. It doesn't look or feel quite like the masterpiece Itagaki stated it was, but it will provide you with several hours of a bloody good time.
84GameTrailers Ninja Gaiden 2 adheres to the Team Ninja aesthetic, which will please fans but won't endear the series to a new audience.
80Computer and Video Games The sequel packs the same punch as the original but it's just not different enough.
80Official Xbox Magazine UK Still, there's no denying that Ninja Gaiden II has tons going for it, and when the combat works, which it does for most of the game, it can be a beautiful ballet of blood and steel with you at the centre, devising and scrapping split-second plans as you rip your way from alamo to alamo. If you've got the stomach for it, Ninja Gaiden will reward you. They just could have been a little less mean.
80Destructoid Fans of high-speed action titles can't go wrong; in fact, they'd be foolish to look anywhere else for anything better this generation. It's just disappointing that Ninja Gaiden II -- which is said to be the last in the series -- isn't quite the flawless masterpiece I'd hoped for
80Total Video Games With faults and flaws, Ryu Hayabusa's return is still one of the most enjoyable high-speed action titles available.
75GameShark The real problem with the camera lies in how it behaves during obliteration techniques. When you're finishing off a foe, you have absolutely no control over the camera as it zooms in and out of the scene. More often than not, the camera positions itself awkwardly behind some object, obscuring view and putting you at risk of damage upon finishing the kill. This isn't just annoying, it's utterly unacceptable.
70Level7.nu Ninja Gaiden is back, bloodier and more brutal than ever before. With flawless controls and a superb fighting system this is truly a fantastic action game, just like its predecessors. Unfortunately some awkward camera angles punishes the player far too often and the overall design fails to impress. The lack of innovation and some annoying flaws makes this title a lesser game than its predecessors.
70Games Radar So those of us who aren't down with the difficulty level are going to want to play a game that utilizes the Xbox 360's potential with a balanced difficulty level that compliments the solid gameplay - and thereby restore self esteem - leaving Itagaki's insatiable bloodlust to the hardcore crowd that loves it so.
70EuroGamer There's a difference between kicking your arse until you learn from it, and kicking your arse until you get lucky, and Ninja Gaiden 2 fails that crucial test all too often.
671UP This is a game for Ninja Gaiden fans, who will play it on the toughest difficulties and upload their best playthrough videos online. For those purposes, it excels; for less devoted action-adventure fans, it's more of a violent curiosity than something to get invested in.
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