Ninja Gaiden II

Dear Amazon Shopper, Let me start out with the pros: 1 - Graphics: While NGII doesn't boast the most visually stunning graphics you'll encounter in an Xbox game, the game's graphics are nonetheless quite good. The real achievement is the technical proficiency with which the on-screen content is rendered. Despite frequently being swarmed by zounds of enemies I encountered no hiccups in framerate. NGII delivers a smooth and visually appealing experience. 2 - Visceral Satisfaction: If you like to hack your enemies apart limb-from-limb in a dazzling display of gore, this game will give you just what you want. Both UT (Ultimate Technique) and OT (Obliteration Technique) take you into nonstop sequences of hacking, slashing, and delimbing where you can pause and admire the devastation you're wreaking upon your enemies. Sound effects and rumble are well-timed and well suited for what's happening onscreen. 3 - Replayability/Value: This is a game that is both significantly long and dares you to replay it on a harder difficulty. The arcade-style fun remains intact, even if your sanity will not. You also have the option to play through the same difficulty over again with all of the weapons you acquired in the previous run-through, adding a sense of balance to this otherwise punishing game. 4 - Scalability: This game can be adapted to people seeking all manner of challenges. If you want an easy game, just flip the difficulty onto Acolyte and you'll cut a merry swath of devastation all the way through the game. If you want a challenge, this game can provide one like few others. This brings me to the cons: 1 - Cheapness: On higher difficulty settings (Mentor and above) this game slathers on more cheese than you'll find in the State of Wisconsin. Monsters are extremely difficult to kill and are radically more lethal than on previous difficulty settings. The cost of weapons and items also increases dramatically, making your life that much more miserable. Enemies will magically appear from out of nowhere lobbing explosives at you, firing rocket launchers, and swarming you with their overwhelming numbers. Particularly early in the game your weapons are tragically inadequate to deal with the onslaught (the opening battle gives you a good taste of what to expect from Mentor). You will die hundreds (if not thousands) of times and curse the day you were born; but you will continue to play the game (for reasons I cannot comprehend). 2 - The Camera: For a game you spend primarily on the cusp of death, the camera needs to perfect; NGII's is far from it. While you will often be treated to mini-sequences where you're zoomed in on the gory evisceration of an ememy, this leaves you blind to most of your other foes, who will hurl fireballs at you that you had no chance to see coming or snatch you up and murder you as soon as the sequence is done. While running, the camera is often aimed at the ground in front of you, as if Ryu were a clinically depressed ninja who split his time between fighting and moping. The unpredictable and often fatal fluctuations of the camera will often cause you as much frustration as the enemies do. When a game is this difficult, the execution should be perfect. 3 - Fun vs Challenge: This may or may not be a con depending on what type of person you are. If you want to frolic through your games on easy mode or even just sit down on the couch every now and then for a casual half-hour, this is NOT the game for you. This game will offer no joy and provide only tears. This game is for the mountain climbers who want something that's fun enough to be addicting and challenging in a way that demands that you surmount it. This game is horrifically cheap and you need to be ready to suffer senseless, mind-boggling misery and stupidly stacked odds to get through it. HOWEVER, the sense of accomplishment you get from beating the game on higher difficulties is significant. Bottom line: If you don't mind being repeatedly brutalized by swarms of obscenely broken enemies, this game is for you. If you're a casual gamer who isn't seriously motivated, I recommend you look elsewhere for a game that won't make you hate your life.

This was the first Ninja Gaiden game I had and since then I have played Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 3. Now while a lot of people are fans of the original Nintendo game and Black, I'd have to say, starting on this was the best. I thought it had the most fluid controls and most satisfying move-sets. NG 3 was really missing some of the fluidity and good parts of 2, and the controls really detracted from the fun of the game. Black is really good, but doesn't have the same polish this game does, so this one wins out by a hair. The easiest difficulty for this game is challenging enough and took me a long while to beat, but man is it satisfying when you do. I have played through this game multiple times and the kind of power you feel once you've fully mastered the move-set and how Ryu plays, it's really gratifying. The audio and visuals are really satisfying when you pull of kills. I would recommend this game to a lot of people, but would steer more towards those who like action adventure, because the steep learning curve and the amount of patience it takes to get through this game is not for the faint of heart. I think the variety of enemies is good, there is a lot of different challenging segments that break up combat and even though you fight a lot of the bosses again, they are very different, especially when you have all new weapons. The weapons are one of the shining parts of this game. Every weapon is just really cool and his moves for them look even cooler. Many of the enemies are much easier to kill with certain weapons which makes it fun to cycle through them. Also it is fun when leveling them up and seeing how they change. I had multiple favorites throughout the playthrough. Overall, I loved this game. It is not for the casual gamer, you have to put some time into this to master the controls, but when you do, you can be unstoppable. The flair and weapons alone make this game, given the story is pretty secondary. It was cheesy in some parts, but if you are fighting the kinds of foes you do, it's easy to look past.

I don't mean patience as in you'll be waiting for the good parts. I meant you'll be getting hit in the face the entire game, even in the easiest difficulty. I don't prefer to think of the difficulty settings as being Easy(Acolyte) and Hard(Warrior). Acolyte difficulty is more like Hard difficulty and Warrior is more like Very Hard. In Acolyte setting you'll find yourself learning to play the game and quickly using what you learned to play it. You better have learned well because if you haven't this game will kill you. If you didn't learn from the first Acolyte and jumped straight into Warrior, you would have a very frustrating time learning the mechanics. I have been a fan of the Devil May Cry/Onimusha/God Of War style games for a long time. Some can be proven to be difficult, some are moderately challenging, and some are a great experience but seriously held your hand the entire game... Ninja Gaiden 2 decided to throw that concept out the window and show you that sometimes learning to play a game means dying a whole lot. Luckily getting back to where you met defeat isn't so tedious but you still can't expect to respawn where you died or anything. I guess I can try to better describe some deeper things to better my point. If you have played any of the 'like' games, you'd notice that they all have very involving combat styles and are addicting. You'll also notice that it can get kind of hard later on in the game on the harder difficulties but for the most part, you just watch a few minor things and you're ok. Pretty much this level of gaming is like autopilot for the brain. You are paying attention and enjoying yourself, but you are also paying attention to other things; the scenery, other thoughts in your mind, etc. For the most part your battle can be conducted without having all of your attention in these battles. NOT THIS GAME. I'd say by the second/third level of acolyte, and the FIRST level of warrior you are already experiencing this: you have to pay so much attention to your surrounding opponents and environment that if you just so happen as to direct some attention to other thoughts, you will get owned. I started thinking about some things last night playing this game and died in like 15 seconds. Didn't see it coming. You have some opportunities to gain healing items, but typically they are foolish to use in skirmishes with minions instead of bosses.(The bosses are terribly powerful and do not hesitate to own your face.) You have to practice combat and remember to keep every opponent busy and manipulate them and your surroundings to take as little damage as possible before you get to the boss so you can keep your much needed healing items for the boss battles. One thing that is awesome about this 'difficult combat' aspect, is once you know exactly how to manipulate the enemies and stay on the horde, the battle sequences look SO good. You actually have full interaction inside all of the insanity and death. It's very difficult but very rewarding because of it. I much prefer games that take practice over games that are accessible to anyone. (Street Fighter 4 for example). If you wanted a good, violent 3rd person slasher game, and you prefer a challenge that you can always get better at and always find challenging? Look no further

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox, so I figured I would give this one a shot. Graphically, it is pretty amazing! It's probably one of the prettiest 360 games so far. The gameplay and controls are pretty similar to the first one, with some minor improvements and some noticeable increases in violence. Now you can remove limbs and the Obliteration Technique is pretty brutal (which I like). Where the wheels come off the bus for me is in the little annoyances, some of which were present in the original, some of which are new: First, this game is buggy! It has locked my Xbox up on more than one occasion. It will also "pause" at random times for about 10-15 seconds. Once, when I died, instead of going to the game over screen, it just kept the enemies moving, albeit in slow motion, with the brown screen...it's like everyone knew I was dead except the game! I let it sit for about two minutes but the "do you wish to continue" dialog never came up, so I had to go to the dashboard to unfreeze the problem. Second, some of the annoying time delays from the first Ninja Gaiden are still present. For instance, when you die, it takes a full 20 seconds before you can get back to the action, because you have to tell the game you want to continue, then it has to show you the chapter title and summary again (why?!?!) and there is a little bit of loading there. I could understand this if it had to load a save point from a few minutes ago, but when it's just resetting you so you can fight a boss again? Should it really take that long? Speaking of bosses, the boss battles so far are kind of lame. Expect to die at least three or four times until you figure out what works against each one. Truth be told, after chapter 1, each boss probably took me at least 20 times to beat. That kind of repetition gets frustrating. Having said all that, the game is fun. The lock-ups and long load times really frustrate me though. I guess I don't feel like a game that runs on a system with a hard drive should have long load times. Lots of other 360 titles don't have those issues. Maybe I'm just spoiled?

This game is bloody, the major selling point of the game and I absolutely love it. The bone-crunching, flesh-slicing action is intense and fast, and unlike anything in previous games. Both graphics and audio are tip top, and the controls are smooth and responsive. The hand-to-hand combat is very fierce, enemies attack in waves and by the time you're done with half of them, not much of your health may be left. One thing I love about this game is that as you choose a harder difficulty level, you will encounter more enemies and they will drain your health much faster if you are a button masher. The Difficulty "Way of the Acolyte" is easy to get through (for Masters of Ninja Gaiden), it gets you through the game with a great first time experience and just enough of a challenge for you to want more blood spilled and limbs to go flying. "Way of the Warrior" is where the challenge starts, more enemies come after you and you really need more than buttun mashing to get though this difficuly. "Way of the Mentor" Many have quit because they complain this difficulty is too hard. Skill is required at this difficulty setting, button mashing will only get you killed in mere seconds. Path of the Master Ninja. Better dedicate yourself to at least 100 hours of Gameplay to get you though this insane difficulty level. Like the previous Ninja Gaiden's (Black and Sigma), a very few in the WORLD has been able to complete. "MISSION MODE" Unfortunatley you have to pay 800points on X-box live to get this. But it is well worth it. Challenges are very fierce and I spend most of my time here. Plus more achievment points are available to unlock in mission mode. Some of the missions are Boss challenges Survive through 100 enemies without dying "the only way to heal is thorugh your enemies blue essence" Survival mode for each weapon, you will face an unlimited amount of enemies with the weapon you select. The longer you last in survival, the more difficult your enemies become, allowing yourself a higher achievment. I love the Old/New Weapons and Moves for each weapon. 10 out of 10. The problems are minor and I can deal with. PS: THIS IS NO BUTTON MASHING GAME!!!, DOING THAT WILL ONLY SET YOU UP FOR FAILURE. PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE PRO GAMERS AND ADMIT THEY BUTTON-MASH ARE PRO WANNABE'S

Halo notwithstanding, this has to be my favorite game for the Xbox 360. This game so freakin' awesome! It's certainly the most violent game on the 360 - definitely not for kids! But that's a bonus in my book. This game is built from the ground up for the hardcore gamer, for sure! That said, I have to agree with most of the other reviewers here. I loved Ninja Gaiden Black, so I had high hopes for Ninja Gaiden 2. And while it is still a spectacular game, there are a few glaring flaws where it just comes up short. So lets get those out of the way first, shall we? THE BAD THINGS: 1. A nonsensical story. I'm sorry, but none of the story really makes any darn sense. Especially when compared to the first game. All the story boils down to is just a flimsy excuse to string a bunch of unrelated levels together. So don't pay much attention to it. Also, I thought Ryu's whole family was dead. Was that not established in the first game? Again, you just gotta ignore this stuff and enjoy the game for what it is. The game is about ACTION. Forget everything else! 2. Too many bland environments. While enemies are lavishly detailed, the environments are often hit and miss. Some are quite beautiful. But then in the very next one you are walking down some drab hallway or cave that looks like something straight out of a PS1. Seems like the environments in NGB were a lot more detailed. They at least had a lot more thought put into them. There was a lot of climbing and 3D thinking involved. Not in this game. 3. Bad instructions. The manual is bare bones, which is fine. But I wish I had had some explanation of how to use Ninja Cinema at least. I finally figured out how to download some of the videos from the people on the leaderboard, but I still can't figure out how to upload videos. It always says, "You are not ranked on this leaderboard". What the heck does that mean? I AM ranked! I may be ranked 6,999 out of 7,000 but by God, I'm still ranked! 4. Slowdown. Yes, there is some slowdown, which I found surprising. This game pushes the Xbox to the limits it seems. That's all well and good until the action mounts up. In reality this rarely happens though. Just enough for you to notice it on occasion. After a while, you don't notice it at all. 5. Limited wall jumping. This is big for me. In NGB, one of the most important fighting techniques was wall jump attacks and spamming Flying Swallows. Not in this game. It seems they have tried to penalize players like me by taking almost all climbable surfaces away. It especially becomes noticeable in the Trial challenges and the boss battles. Like it or not, you're pretty much ground-bound. 6. No story in mission mode. Mission mode is great, but it is Xbox Live DLC, so you'll have to buy it separately. I didn't mind that at all, and it is definitely worth the money. But while Mission Mode from NGB contained a complete mini-story toward the end, you won't find anything like that here. It's fairly bare-bones. 7. Glitches. My game froze two or three times. No big deal, but still annoying. Especially once when it was right at the end of finishing a level, and I had to do it over again. What a bummer. 8. Way too linear. Unlike NGB, NG2 has virtually no exploration. That game had more open levels and lots of places where you had to think in three dimensions. Here, you're just level grinding from one hallway to the next. And while taking all the thought out of it does let you just concentrate on the fighting, it's still kind of annoying. You would think game developers would be better at this by now. 9. No unlockables. This is a big one for me. The Xbox Ninja Gaiden included all 3 NES games as unlockables. NGB included the Arcade game. This game has got NOTHING. That is totally inexcuseable! Expecially considering how cheap and easy it is to incorporate that old source code. Maybe this is because the game was produced through Microsoft, not Techmo. I don't know why, but whatever the reason, it leaves me feeling irritated. This game should have had SOMETHING, dang it! IMO, it should have had all four! 10. DLC Skins. What the heck? In NGB, skins were an unlockable reward for being an awesome player. But now you have to pay for them through Xbox Live! How annoying is that? It just further underscores the "no unlockables" problem. 11. Too much boobage. Yeah, yeah... I know a lot of guys will disagree with me here. But I've gotta say, I honestly do NOT like seeing every female in these games depicted with double-D size breasts! There. I said it. The giant cleavage is distracting. It's annoying. And frankly, it's demeaning to women. A real woman - one who was capable of the gymnastics that the female heroines do in these games - would likely have so little body fat that she would have hardly any breasts at all. I know, I know... this is only a game. We're not trying to be realistic here. But is it really necessary for game developers to treat all women like nothing more than sex objects? I just can't stand how Team Ninja does this, and they do it in all their games. (Get real, guys! Stop treating your game audience like we're all super-horny teenage boys.) THE GOOD THINGS: 1. Cool villains. I liked the enemies in this game. They were varied, and all pretty fun to play against. Yeah, some were cheap. But what would a NG game be without enemies taking cheap shots? 2. More blood and increased carnage. It ain't rated "M" for nothing, baby! This game is VIOLENT. A LOT more violent than the first one. Blood spews and sprays, body parts fly, and heads roll. Definitely not a game you want to buy for your 8 year old nephew. It's tons of fun, though :) 3. Obliteration techniques. You've still got Ultimate techniques, which look cool as ever. But now you also have the finishing moves, called Obliteration techniques. These are easy and fun to pull off, and sweet to watch. 5. Interesting new weapons. I liked most of the new weapons. It has some really neat ones, like the Kusuri-gama, which is chain-and-sickle affair. And the Eclipse Sycthe, which is somewhat similar in execution to the Dark Dragon Blade, or the Unlabored Flawlessness. (That weapon rules. Once you find it, you pretty much have no need to use any other weapon ever again.) Some weapons from NGB are missing and some make a return, like the Lunar Staff. I did miss the Nunchucks, but the Tonfa make up for that somewhat. 6. Awesome new Ninpo. I disagree with others here who say that the new Ninpo is worthless. I think they are all pretty neat, and awesome to use. I found each one suited to specific situations, and used them all. Art of the Inferno is still a fave, of course. But Art of the Piercing Void has its uses too. Also, the new screen effects for Ninpo use are beautiful - they are a VERY nice addition! The ninpo has to aimed now, but so what? If anything, that at least adds a LITTLE skill to it :) 7. A long game. It is not short, so you do get your money's worth. 8. A good camera. Unlike others, I have no complaints about the camera. It usually put me where I wanted to be. Only tricky part was on the rope climbs, but no biggie. 9. Mission Mode. This is super-fun and well-worth its price as Xbox Live Downloadable Content. It includes 24 missions. Of those, 16 are "Karma Attack" missions and 8 are "Survival" missions. All are super-hard and challenging. In Survival, you are given a unique weapon with which to face unending waves of enemies, with your goal to rack up enough karma before dying to get the medals. There is 500,000 for Steel, 1,000,000 for Bronze, 1,500,000 for Gold, and finally, the Ultra-HARD-to-get 2,000,000 karma for Gold! It is a TON of fun, if you enjoy that kind of thing. 10. Leaderboards. It's fun to see where you rank with your friends on the leaderboards. It is quite astonishing to see how much karma some of the top players have. Those guys must play the game 16 hours a day, every day. 11. Ninja cinema. This too was a nice addition, once you figure it out. It allows you to record clips of yourself. It is best used during boss fights or during Mission Mode, where you can replay your victory afterwards to feel that rush again (only a little more relaxed this time!). It is fun to watch yourself play, and enjoy seeing how awesome a player you are :) The classic cinema filter was nice, too. 12. Xbox Live Achievements. These are always fun, no matter what game. And NG2's do not disappoint. 13. Bone-crushingly difficult. This could be good or bad, depending on your point of view. I thought the first half of the game was super-easy. But then the difficultly level suddenly ratcheted up to unbelievable proportions. Toward the end of the game, I honestly felt like throwing in the towel. I mean, all the never-ending multiple boss fights with no save stations start wearing on your nerves after a while. And when you are dying OVER and OVER, it gets a little disheartening sometimes. But I hung in there. And with the help of youtube, I made it through. Now I've walked the Way of the Warrior, and beaten all the Missions too! "Yeah, that's nothing," some of you may say. Well, you are better than I then, my friend! This game is HARD. I mean, punch you in the stomach and knock you out HARD! THE CONCLUSION: The game does have a few flaws. Some parts feel a little rushed, like they could have worked on some stuff more but they just ran out of time. But the fighting is polished. And really, I just can't talk about this game without comparing it to Ninja Gaiden Black. Ninja Gaiden Black was perfection. This game is not. Great, yes. But just a little shy of perfection. Of course, If you've never played Ninja Gaiden Black, then maybe you won't even notice. Or care. In any case, I give it 4.75 stars out of 5. It is worth buying, definitely worth playing. Nothing can quite match the awesomeness you feel when you charge up Ryu and watch him go apes--- on everyone. Will there be a Ninja Gaiden 3? I sure hope so! Remember, Honor the Way of the Ninja! And Peace out, Ninja dogs! Word. -TCG

This game is stunning to its core. Yes there are glitches and its not for the faint of heart, but the gameplay, action and graphics are really good. Some of these features stand out in themselves, but its the combination that makes it so special. I found some frame rate issues but not worth spoiling the game. I remember playing the original Ninja Gaiden and getting frustrated with the diffculty. But the game attrected me into not giving up and getting better to finish the game and coming back to play it over and over again. This game is no different. I am almost to the end of my first playthrough and am already planning on playing again on a harder difficulty level. It has been easier than the original due to the presence of Acolyte difficulty. So for a first time player of Ninja gaiden, my advise would be to rent it, play it, and then buy it. Original NG players, do I need to say anything?? But remember to make full use of online walkthroughs/guides to get a feel and be comfortable with the game, since strategy is your best friend in this game. Every enemy has a different attack and you have 8-9 weapons towards the end, 1 to begin with), 3-4 projectile weapons and 4 magic tricks; each to be used more effectively in a certain situation. People get really frustrated because they try to button mash through the game and do not plan. Do not enter boss battles without enough health, there are save points and refill shops (Muramasa's) before all major boss battles. But to like it, learn it; and for that guides are really helpful. This is an intelligent and hard game, understand that before hating it. I now call myself a Ninja Gaiden fan. This game will not set any sales records, but to the kind of gamers that like this genre and good graphics/gameplay, this is a must buy.

I have and played every single Ninja Gaiden game on the original Xbox and the recent PS3 version and beat them multiple times on varies difficulties. I consider the Ninja Gaiden series the best 3D action hack and slash games in the world (no, it's not God of War. Devil May what?). The latest is no exception and brings the action few steps above previous games. Like most of the other reviewers have said, all the Ninja Gaiden games are hard, but very enjoyable once you learn the system and moves. You can button mash but it won't get you very far before you see the "game over" sign repeatedly in your face. Ninja Gaiden series is really a deep fighting game mashed into an action game. People who plays fighting games know you can't just button mash to be successful. For fans and NG lovers, don't hesitate to get this game. It's awesome! For new comers to the series who will invest some time to learn the fighting system, Ninja Gaiden 2 will be your ultimate action game. Lastly, for people who button mashed your way to the first boss and died 10x and gave up in the original Xbox games, this game is not for you.

If you're a fan of the first Ninja Gaiden, this game will give you more of what you love in the series.

SUPER BON PRODUIT, ARRIVER A TEMP , SANS GRAFIGNE SUPER , JE N'EST RIEN A DIRE DE PLUS , JE SUIS HEUREUX

Product arrived early some scratches on disc and no label on case. Disc works

Disc has smudges. No case or Manual