Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos

About This Game

Gameplay

As with the previous Ninja Gaiden game, the player controls Ryu Hayabusa through a series of platforming levels called "Acts". Players have the ability to jump and latch on and off walls and ladders. Two new abilities that Ryu can do in Ninja Gaiden II are climbing up and down walls and attacking with "Power Boosting Items" while on walls and ladders. Ryu has a strength meter on top of the screen that decreases whenever he takes damage from enemies. The player loses a life if Ryu's strength meter runs out, Ryu falls off the screen or if the timer runs out; the game ends if players lose all their lives. The player can continue and restart the game from the beginning of the level in which they lost all their lives. Players dispatch enemies by either thrusting at them with Ryu's Dragon Sword or by defeating them using Power Boosting Items. These special items consume Ryu's "ninja power", also located on the top of the screen.

History

Electronic Gaming Monthly previewed Ninja Gaiden II in late 1989 and early 1990. The game first appeared in its September–October 1989 issue and again in its November issue; they noted the new levels, power-ups, and an "explosive story that's loaded with twists and turns". In the magazine's January issue, Steve Harris praised the game for its new power-ups, scrolling backgrounds, and more detailed cinematic cutscenes. He said that the game was going to take the series "one step further than before". The game was shown to the public for the time at the Winter 1990 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in which Nintendo Power gave "four star ratings for its great cinema scenes and challenge". The same magazine previewed the game in its "Pak Watch" section in their March–April 1990 issue.