Ninja Gaiden 2 demo flips onto Live

By Robert Purchese Published 3 June, 2008

But not in Germany, Canada, US.

The Ninja Gaiden 2 demo has flipped onto Xbox Live Marketplace and sliced some heads off just in time to be overshadowed by its creator's fiery exit from Tecmo.

However, the demo's not available in Germany, Canada and the US. Major "Larry Hryb" Nelson said on his blog: "You can be sure I am going to have a few conversations with people about this." The game is already out in the US and Canada, but he has no idea when you will get a demo.

Ninja Gaiden II comes out in Europe this Friday, and we clapped and applauded as it lopped off libs and squirted great gloops of blood over everything.

One for the fans, perhaps, as our Ninja Gaiden II review points out.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Prodigy_BE #1 4 years ago

    And, according to some dudes who tested the resolution: its in standard telly resolution, and then upscaled.

    Not that I care, as long as it looks good (COD4 uses upscaling, and nobody thinks it's ugly, so)

  • Vice.Destroyer #2 4 years ago

    I nearly groaned when I read the first comment, but then realised that he is not a member of the Pixel Police.

    Phew.

  • gooseman42 #3 4 years ago

    Anyone else having problems downloading the demo? I got to about 40% and it's reset and told me I can't download the demo...no problems downloading other stuff off Marketplace.Could be to do with the traffic I suppose but never had problem before...

  • Prodigy_BE #4 4 years ago

    Pixel Police. Lol. The whole resolution thing is just bollocks.

    On th other hand, lots of games are cheating us out of true HD graphics. Only a few of them have genuine 1080p textures.
    But then again, if a dev wants to ad more characters/explosions/a.i. by freeing extra memory with the "I'll use the cheap upscaling trick in the end" trick, then that's fine by me.

    The only real losers in all this are gamers with ridiculously large HD sets. Because going beyond 52', the upscaling thing really shows.

  • Cronan #5 4 years ago

    Spelling again. "Libs" should be "limbs".

  • alimokrane #6 4 years ago

    Those who cant get it from euro MarketP, you can now get it from JP MarketpP. it's no longer IP locked. It might make a difference in terms of download speed and traffic perhaps ?
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/08 @ 10:59

  • Siberian_Khatru #7 4 years ago

    Oh, the blurb says it has Japanese voice with Russian subtitles, among other languages. Well done MS & Tecmo!

  • rob230 #8 4 years ago

    Out of interest, why don't Ze Germans get anything on live?

  • Dizzy #9 4 years ago

    >its in standard telly resolution

    Do you even know what standard telly resolution is?????

    >Out of interest, why don't Ze Germans get anything on live?

    Because they invaded Poland?

    Oh dear... ;)

    /gets coat

    Seriously... too gory for Germany apparently.

    Edited by 1 at 03/06/08 @ 11:38

  • Whizzo #10 4 years ago

    Out of interest, why don't Ze Germans get anything on live?
    The game probably isn't being released there so putting a demo up for them would be a bit tricky.

  • Vice.Destroyer #11 4 years ago

    Has anybody tried the demo? My little brother (sad bastard) just emailed me and thinks it's just about the best demo ever. And I quote "It's probably a lot more like NG1 than you would expect, but not in a bad way. Same fighting mechanics, much better graphics, same camera (like a Ninja, you will instinctively centre the camera behind you every time you encounter bad people) and some outrageous showboating. I am not sure, but with the Luna Staff, I think I loosened someones head enough to PUNCH IT CLEAN OFF! And when my blade gets dirty, I just shake the blood off. Insane.

    Can you lend me £50?"

    Instant purchase? I do believe so.

  • chrisjm #12 4 years ago

    funny how the 'major' doesnt stick up for europe when we dont get arcade games or demo's when US does but isnt happy when its the other way round.

  • peteb #13 4 years ago

    I'm in Germany and was able to download the demo from the Japanese marketplace, so if anyone else is having problems downloading it, I would just get it from there. I think as long as a demo has an age rating attached to it (and as long as it isn't specifically exlcluded for a country) then you can download it in Germany without it saying "Not available from your location".

  • rob230 #14 4 years ago

    Poor germans, they don't get any good games...

    Haha /Nelson

  • The-Bodybuilder #15 4 years ago

    Points out why it's a 7/10?

  • The-Bodybuilder #16 4 years ago

    @ vice.destroyer

    I love the "can you lend me £50?" at the end.

  • Azazel #17 4 years ago

    Lopped off Lib's what?

  • Vice.Destroyer #18 4 years ago

    @The Bodybuilder.

    Yeah, my brother, the cheeky scamp. Strangely enough, just to get back onto the 7/10 debate again, my brother actually agrees with EG and thinks that this is really only going to be a hit with the converted and the open-minded. The demo had all the weapons at their most powerful available at the start. And there was only one difficulty available.

    He was able to breeze through without any resistance and as far as we are both concerned, that is a poor representation of the final NG experience. Ninja Gaiden 1 was harder than giving birth and cutting your own umbilical chord. With your teeth.

    As much as him and me both are absolute NG fanboys, NG is a marmite type of game.If you have bags of patience and perseverance, this will be contender of GOTY. If you don't enjoy endless dying, a la COD2 on veteran difficulty, then you might think that 7/10 is a little generous.

    But each to their own. It sounds like this demo is a must try.

  • GamesConnoisseur #19 4 years ago

    I had an absolute great time blasting through the demo, yes weapons on their highest setting and only one difficulty but had no real difficulties in getting to the end. The 'showboating' as mentioned is real fun to play and amazing to watch. A certain buy for me, can't question the score given until I had played the full game, though can see why it would be about right. Camera issues is there in certain areas but managed to adapt.
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/08 @ 16:12

  • BadBoyBonner #20 4 years ago

    Not a bad demo - wasn't a massive fan of the previous NG's - seems like more of the same, which is good news for series fans.

    For me the worst thing about the NG games is the level design - not the artistic but the practical (made worse by the camera)and it's lack of directing you to the next part; typical example being having to make blind falls, or falls that look like they would surely kill you etc - something that could probably be alleviated with more exposure to the games nuances, but they do seem a bit jarring at times.

    Technically (585p) well what can I say - Temco, another one of the technical wizards of the Xbox (like Bungie with Halo 3) really do not seem to have progressed very much - certainly they do not appear to be able to coax out the type of show stopping technical prowess they did from the original Xbox. I do wonder if it is because they both feel their previous tech was so good that they can get away with a reiteration of it rather than a brand new code base.

    As a game that will probably only appeal to hardcore fans of the series - rehashing the code would make economic sense for NG games. It looks smoother than Halo 3 - you only really notice the lack of resolution on things like tree's (leaves) and shallow angles - all producing a shimmering effect while in motion.

  • redgiemental #21 4 years ago

    I am pretty damn impressed with the demo. Never got round to playing the first one. Was gonna get from the xbox originals the other day but the marketplace doesn't like my credit card for some bizarre reason. Think this is going on the to buy list.

  • sd99 #22 4 years ago

    Well, was the demo was fucking awesome or what!?! After reading early reviews criticising the framerate, I was well chuffed to find out that this plays silky smooth. Game rocks, and the combat stunning. SOLD.

  • Darren #23 4 years ago

    @sd99 - The demo is only a small portion of the full game so I wouldn't get too excited about that "smooth" framerate just yet... ;)

  • SomaticSense #24 4 years ago

    It didn't get a 7/10 because it's shit, it got a 7/10 because it's massive fun and is essentially the same as NG/NGB/NGS but with added extra unfair cheapness (exploding boss, etc). The way I read it, is that it would've definitely been a 9 if it wasn't for the camera (which you get used to haviong to keep recentring, which only takes 0.001 seconds) and the odd unfair moment. Scores are bollocks anyway,so.....

    For those that have patience and were a fan of the last games, then it's an immediate buy. The engine might be the same, but seeing as it is still the best hack'n'slash fighting engine out there by a mile, that's no bad thing. Demo was fantastic.

  • captainrentboy #25 4 years ago

    Yep, I loved it. Suuure the camera seems to be as much of a whore as it was in the first game, but as long as you remember to press the Right Trigger when brawling with a ton of bad guys, you'll be alright.
    The nippon attacks seem a lot more effective than they used to be too, which is a bonus.
    And I'm guessing the demo must've been fine tuned to perfection, because there wasn't the slightest hint of slowdown throughout my play through, and I was smashing a lot of shit up.

    Can't wait until Friday now.

  • Ryze #26 4 years ago

    Great game - with the same annoyances.

    It's a damn shame that more focus and time wasn't placed upon making the camera just a little intelligent.

    It's straight out of 2003. I couldn't score this more than 8.1 based on my exposure so far - because it's a sequel, where the problems from the original have been widely documented.

    They could have fixed this - in 2008 it's inexcusable.

    Fantastic action, however, and at least they've fixed the horizontal backwards camera. It's shocking that it could have been broken like this in the first place.

    Shame / Amazing. 7/10 is deserved.

  • septimus #27 4 years ago

    For sure a 7/10 (maybe 8). Slow-down can be horrendous at points.

    Camera is at least free moving, so great, but seriously it can mess you up in tight spaces. But overall, a lot better than I expected and more fun than NG Black.

    Try moving the camera in big fights to see the slowdown, especially in open areas.
    Edited by 1 at 04/06/08 @ 11:38