Ninja Gaiden 2 for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Story-wise this game was rather mediocre, but definitely something you might be interested in if you were upset that there was no 8th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After chapter 2 it makes a quick turn from a battle with a rival ninja clan (what I expected from a ninja game, to be honest) to a fight with monsters and demons, and monster and demon bosses. The story seems kind of dragged out as well seeing as how some of the fights get insanely repetitive (if you play all the way through you'll understand) and some nonsensical bosses (like an electric train floating thing with a head that shoots lasers) seem thrown in to extend the time between major bosses. Your character is also followed around time to time by a sort of sidekick, a CIA female agent wearing an outfit that's one step away from lingerie and an exaggeratedly large chest area. Standard uniform for female CIA agents, you know...

Anyways, gameplay: slashing, dismembering, and beheading ninjas and blowing through 5 or more at a time with a nice variety of weapons is fun, but is all you do the entire game. You sometimes use ranged weapons, when melee isn't an option. The gameplay got old for me well before finishing the 14 long chapters. A boss fight glitched on me after beating him, forcing me to do it over when I finally had finished it off, and another point had to be reloaded b/c an enemy that I had to kill to pass to the next point got stuck in a wall. So there may be some bugs you'll experience.

The fighting system is hard to master, and you frequently get thrown around by enemies near the one you are attacking. This game, even on the lowest difficulty, is rather harder than any other game I've played of similar genre, and will cause you a lot of reloads and frustrated deaths, especially when you're stuck on a hard boss with no healing items.

If you are looking for a good challenge, then check this game out. I did enjoy it most of the game despite the lame plot and crazy difficulty.

You will be SORELY DISAPPOINTED! At first, the game seems to be similar in play with a few added features. However, as you progress to middle chapters (5 onward), the game starts to become extremely frustrating, much more so than the first one. The camera angles are awful, especially in tight quarters. The weapons are nice, but the new enemies are ridiculous in strength, block breaking, and mini-cutscene combos, which do tremendous damage even from the small enemies. The bosses use these as well, and often take half of your health on one unescapable combo. If you want to punish yourself, give it a shot. If your looking for a good hack n slash, either rent God of War 2 or wait for something else.