The sequel is here and better than ever! Shoot down over 30 different intricate and different enemies spanned across a magnitude of 13 fantastic levels spread across the oceans and islands that dot the map! Along the way enemy ships will become stronger and larger forces will come after you, challenge them with ever-so powerful upgrades found in the shop menu selection. There you can buy a verity a magnificent upgrades for your bird! Here’s a word from the developer, matakukos:

More than 30 different enemies, bosses and a lot of ships, weapons and upgrades to buy; make your custom ship to destroy everything in this piece of paper! A lot of new features like world map, different backgrounds and weathers, multipart bosses, etc!

Notebook Wars 2

There was some serious difficulty later on in this game as the enemies progressively become stronger, more bullets were fired onto the screen and the enemies simply put, were much more ominous in every form or shape! As you progressed through the game, if you didn’t upgrade you ship every now and then, you’re bound to find yourself at the game over screen more often then not! Try to upgrade your ship in the shop with the coin that you collect and make you ship even more powerful than before. While this game can prove to be threatening and more difficulty on later stages, if you take the time to upgrade your ship you shouldn’t have a problem – although, there are simply some stages that require pure skill, mixed with a maxed out ship. What I loved about Notebook Wars 2 and Notebook Wars 1 is that, the developer allows you to go to older levels, levels that you’ve already completed, to go back and earn even more gold to spend on your ship. This really proved to be a necessity at times, especially if you were having troubles with the stage ahead of it.

The gameplay, as always was flawless, there were no visible problems with the game and the controls, along with the overall gameplay played smoothly and without hitch. The controls were really smooth and simple. Movement feels as though you were gliding in the beginning of the game, but then you could easily upgrade your ship for quicker movement. I actually like the glide motion, but of course in later levels it’s a necessity to be able to get in front of those opposing ships fast, shoot em’ up and get out before they can get any on you. Firing was controls by the simple click and bombs went off with spacebar. What I love most about this series is that you aren’t using one ship the entire game, you’re using a multitude of ships and weaponry. It kind of mixes up the game a bit and keeps it fresh. I loved the wide variety of weapons and ships in NW2.

Notebook Wars 2

The artwork is unforgettable from the last Notebook Wars – I think we all have a memory of fantastic hand-drawn art that the game possessed. The artwork in both games, by the same person of course, is really magnificent and the artwork is really what separates this game from practically every other game around the portals and flash game sites and it works quiet well. The artwork is simply stunning and glorious, yet simple and nothing flashy. I really love the style and I think that’s what makes this game so visually appealing. A lot of the artwork looks redone to me, from Notebook Wars 1 to Notebook Wars 2 and the main difference that I noticed was the gradients (which were done on paper of course) and those made a fabulous effect and looked terrific with the rest of the game. Ships, enemies, explosions and everything else in the game all looked fantastic. The world map looked unbelievable as well!

The music made me really nostalgia, it reminded me, for some reason of, possibly, some of the older Pokemon games (Ruby/Sapphire Elite Four, or other battle scenes (or possibly just grasslands, or locations around the map – or in another game)). Really epic, heroic type music that seemed real celebratory, yet action-packed and an excited vibe to it. It also slightly reminds me of Golden Sun one and two (which have to be a couple of my favorites games ever, and I’m working on going through number three). I thought that the music choose was a little odd, because the cliche shoot music is somewhat of a more action-packed theme and it’s really relentless, this is a more laid-back kind of action music and it’s nice and refreshing. Now that I put a little more thought into it, the music seems “adventury” and it works quiet well with the world map kind of idea. The sound effects were also fantastic! I loved the sound of all the bullets firing and the explosions going off. It made for a perfect war-scene.

There was a definite difficulty ramp and upgrading your ship did a lot to counter the effects of the game constantly becoming more and more difficulty, but still the difficulty rose and you’d be best to upgrade your ship a bit more than necessary for each level. To combat the difficulty ramp it’s a good idea to keep your ship as upgraded a possibly and switch weapons based on which one will work best for each battle. If you do find yourself stuck on a level, go back to a previous level and earn a little extra cash to pay for some new weapons and armors. As the game progressed you were bound to meet new and more dangerous enemies. Not to mention that the bosses also became more dangerous! Keep your ship well supplied for each battle and you should be good!

Replay value was tremendous! There are a total of 16 exciting badges across the game that you can collect, each one had a different requirement, but many of them were earn just by killing monsters or collecting stars. Variety would have helped a bit, such as different and interesting requirements, such as reach level 10, or move your play x amount of speed. Adding to the in-game badges are 39 stars that you can collect, which are found all across the 13 levels (3 stars per level) and what I like about the stars are that they give you reason to try out older levels and for many it’ll be a walk in the park and they’ll have fun. You can also try to collect these stars the first time through.

All in all, Notebook Wars 2 was a fantastic game and it held a special charm, especially created by its graphics that made it a one-of-a-kind shoot em’ up that also included a very varied and interesting shop. In review, the difficulty was perfect. I loved how the enemies were all tough and could fire a multitude of bullets at you and it became very much of a dodging type game, along with a shooter. The gameplay was fantastic and the movement was very responsive and the controls were very easy to memorize and get a hang of. I loved the artwork and I feel that the artwork was really what separated this game from almost every other shooter out there with its hand-drawn graphics. The game had it’s own special charm because of this! The music was amazing and I feel like I’ve listened to it before. It’s rally heroic and epic like, it sound magnificent. The music doesn’t actually seem like it would go with the game this well and the combination was actually pretty refreshing and innovative. The difficulty ramp was perfect, just make sure to make regular stops to the store to stock up on new weapons and ships. Finally, the replay value was pretty high. The game had a total of 16 in-game badges and had even more items/stars to collect in-game. All in all, Notebook Wars 2 is a fantastic game and if you haven’t already played it be sure to today!

Play Notebook Wars 2 on Kongregate!