Giga Wing 2 - Sega Dreamcast

Game Review & Description

If you thought the original Giga Wing threw too many bullets at your face, well, developer Takumi heard your complaints and responded by cranking everything up to eleven. Released in 2001 for the Sega Dreamcast, Giga Wing 2 doesn't just improve on its predecessor, it blasts it into smithereens with the same gleeful abandon it reserves for enemy squadrons. Set in the war-torn Serbenian Republic, this vertical shooter tasks you with piloting one of five mercenary aircraft to stop a mysterious ancient artifact called the Ark from destroying civilization. The plot won't win any awards, but let's be honest: you're here to watch numbers explode into the stratosphere while dodging enough bullets to make a bullet hell enthusiast weep tears of joy.

The signature Reflect Force mechanic returns, but Giga Wing 2 adds a delicious twist by letting you choose between two flavors of bullet-deflecting madness. The classic Reflect Barrier bounces enemy fire back at attackers like a cosmic game of dodgeball, while the new Reflect Laser absorbs incoming shots to charge up a devastating homing beam. This isn't just window dressing for variety's sake, either. Each approach demands completely different strategies and stage routes, essentially giving you two distinct games in one package. The Barrier rewards precise positioning and careful bullet angling for maximum medal generation, while the Laser offers a more beginner-friendly "point and delete" experience. Both systems feel fantastic, and switching between them keeps the gameplay fresh across multiple playthroughs.

Visually, Giga Wing 2 makes the bold leap from 2D sprites to full 3D graphics, and surprisingly, it's a transition that works beautifully. The polygonal models showcase some of the most impressive visuals on the Dreamcast, with dynamic camera angles and explosive special effects that make every screen-clearing bomb feel like a small supernova. The game runs at a silky 60 frames per second (well, most of the time, unless you activate four-player mode and watch reality itself slow to a crawl), and the orchestral soundtrack by Yasushi Kaminishi provides an appropriately chaotic backdrop to the airborne carnage. Yes, the soundtrack polarizes fans who prefer electronic beats, but the sweeping orchestral chaos perfectly captures the desperate wartime atmosphere.

The scoring system is where Giga Wing 2 truly goes bonkers. Thanks to an exponential medal multiplier that can climb into the hundreds of millions, your score will balloon to absurd heights that would make mathematicians question their career choices. The game famously held a Guinness World Record for the highest score ever achieved in any video game: a mind-melting 2,181,619,994,299,256,480 points. The new "Volcanon" mechanic triggers when 110 medals appear onscreen simultaneously, causing them all to explode into cascades of even more medals. It's scoring cornography at its finest, turning what could be a straightforward shooter into an addictive chase for ever-higher numbers. Between the five playable characters (each with two unlockable ships), unique stage routes, score attack mode, unlockable gallery, and the rare four-player simultaneous mode, there's genuine replay value here beyond the arcade-length campaign.

Critics weren't entirely won over by Giga Wing 2's frantic pace and relatively short runtime (you can blast through in about 15 minutes with unlimited continues), but for Dreamcast shooter fans, this represents a significant evolution of Takumi's vision. It's easier and more refined than brutal contemporaries like Mars Matrix, but still demanding enough to keep veteran players engaged for months while remaining accessible to newcomers. The Dreamcast port benefits from being a near-perfect arcade translation thanks to the NAOMI hardware's similarity to Sega's console, and unlike many import shooters of the era, it actually received a Western release. Whether you're chasing that elusive one-credit clear or just want to watch numbers scroll past the quintillions, a range of hints, tips, and cheats related to Giga Wing 2 to aid you on your journey may be found below.

Full Game Walkthrough Video

GameShark Action Replay Cheat Codes:

The following dongle-dependent codes are designed for use with the North American (NTSC) version of the game, but may work on compatible systems:

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