NINJA BLADEFormats: Xbox 360, PC
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: From Software
Release Date: 03/04/2009
Score: 77%
Have you ever, upon leaving the house to head off to the pub/school/church, found that the coat you intended to wear was either in the wash or misplaced, forcing you to sling on the old one from the back of the wardrobe that you never wear any more, and then, having done so, found a tenner folded up in the inside pocket? Well, Ninja Blade, the new demon-battler from Microsoft and From Software is like that: a pleasant, unexpected, slightly lint-covered surprise. Okay, actually there's no lint, but you get the overall thrust of the analogy.
Set in a near-future Tokyo, the game follows the exploits of Ken, a ninja who immediately evokes comparison to a certain Ryu Hayabusa (and rather shamelessly conjures such comparisons by the obvious link between the names Ken and Ryu). Part of a highly unlikely but admittedly very cool tactical recon squad, Ken is sent in with his team – headed by his father, no less – to contain an outbreak of Alpha Worms, parasitic creatures that latch onto living organisms and mutate them into enormous, horrific monsters. If you're old enough to remember the classic PSOne game Parasite Eve then you'll be on familiar ground in terms of the back-story. In any case, it's straight into the action to get to the bottom of the infection, find a cure and demolish whoever's responsible, ninja-style! Needless to say, double-crossing and mystic ninja hokum ensues – but as confusing as the plot is, it's really secondary to the action.
First off, I really should say that Ken is not a Ryu Hayabusa clone. Yes, he is a ninja, and yes, he is as hard as adamantium nails, but he is his own person entirely. Ken's a lot quippier than Team Ninja's infamous super-warrior and somehow that little bit more likeable, and while he's not quite so down with the combos and flying swallows, he does have the ability to switch weapons on the fly. A push of any direction on the d-pad selects one of Ken's four melee weapons, meaning that it's easy to equip your big hitter for an enemy with a pesky shield before switching seamlessly to your twin daggers to finish them quickly once said shield is obliterated. It sounds simple, but it makes a hell of a difference to the gameplay to be able to boycott menus when you need to alter your tactics.
From the moment you make the daring jump out of the chopper, plummeting towards the roof of a skyscraper in downtown Tokyo, the game's main attraction (and at the same time biggest annoyance) comes into play: Quick Time Events. These days those three words should come with a flash of lightning and a dramatic underscore, as dreaded as they are. In moderation, QTEs can break up the pace of a game, add a different element to boss fights (a la God of War) or just throw in another obstacle for the challenge seeking gamer. Unfortunately, "moderation" is not a word in From Software's vocabulary; there is nothing subtle about Ninja Blade at all, and the QTEs are no exception. There's an average of one every 3.9 seconds, even occurring during the cut scenes and robbing you of any respite whatsoever from the frantic action. Thankfully though, they are never boring and usually the correct button presses cause Ken to perform unbelievably cool feats of skill and agility, such as – and this is just a random example – riding a high-speed motorcycle down the top of an exploding train that is currently plummeting from the sky towards the gaping maw of a giant, mutated worm the size of a skyscraper. And believe me, it looks as cool as it sounds! A few sections of the game even let you fight mutants whilst you run vertically down the side of a building, which is hugely satisfying and immense fun. Likewise, many levels start with a little on-rails section, with Ken behind a machine gun or rocket launcher, which are a great way of opening the action on a frantic, adrenalised note.
The combat is easy enough to get to grips with; short-range attacks are mapped to X while medium-range strikes are allocated to Y, then combos are a simple mix of both buttons and A to jump, with B taking care of Ninja Blade's 'magic', accessible by way of Ken's shuriken. This comes in a variety of the usual flavours – fire, wind and lightning – and is used not only offensively but also to progress through the game. Although incredibly linear, Ninja Blade does have its share of hidden rooms and collectibles that often require a minor application of brainpower to unlock. Sometimes there's fire in the way, so the wind shuriken will get rid of it; sometimes a room is pitch dark but the fire shuriken can illuminate the way – simple but effective. There are also hidden rooms behind cracked walls, which can be broken using your heavy sword. Scattered in and around these rooms are various unlockables from costume colour schemes, symbols for your ninja mask, life and magic upgrades and Shinobi-moji, like Ninja Blade's version of Sonic's gold rings. Though these pickups do little to encourage deeper exploration, they do offer reward enough to anyone who chooses to wander off the beaten path at all. In addition to these non-combat pickups, vanquished enemies also drop yellow and red crystals. While it doesn't take a PhD in Japanese Action Games to know what they're for, I'll clarify for the uninitiated: the yellow replenish life, whilst the red act as currency for upgrading your weapons and shuriken powers, making you more and more powerful the further you go. Also, levels can be replayed once beaten, so the completists amongst you can go back and dig up all those missed pickups.
The boss battles deserve special mention, too; most of the uber-mutants are enormous, mountain-sized monstrosities, from giant crabs to gargantuan spiders. Notably, a dragon-worm mutant that wraps itself around the chassis of a plane serves as one of the most memorable set pieces. These battles are often simply a case of memorise the attack pattern, retaliate, rinse and repeat, but such mechanics are so much a part of these kind of action games that calling them unoriginal or even cliché is pointless. They are what they are, and as long as they're enjoyable, challenging and satisfying then who really cares if something similar has been done many times before?
Graphically, Ninja Blade performs adequately; it's nowhere near as flashy as some games on the 360, but it nevertheless mixes slick animation with the glitzy, neon-threaded version of Tokyo it presents. The aforementioned quick time cut scenes are all pretty well done, and all of them are so over-the-top impressive that you forget about the quality of the graphics – it's hard to focus on much else when you're watching a ninja stop a moving plane with his shoulder. The environments would have benefitted greatly from a bit of variety though, since after about the third stage they become very dull to look at. The voice acting, however, is more or less what gamers have come to expect from a Japanese game; the Americans are really American and the bad guys either sound like whiny Yank brats or Sonny Chiba and the hero is always earnest and gravelly. The dramatic music is forgettable but serves its purpose during the many set pieces, while the environmental sound effects are passable.
Ninja Blade is an enjoyable game that's well worth digging out of a bargain bin or taking home pre-owned. Once the main campaign is over (between ten and twelve hours) there's not much to go back for unless you're an Achievement score-whore, and you'll likely never play it twice, but most people were expecting this game to be a stinker and the majority of these will be pleasantly surprised. Derivative of so many games that it actually becomes original, Ninja Blade is frantic, in-your-face fun that never lets up in the action stakes. Besides, when you do find money in your pocket, you don't complain if it's a little bit dog-eared, do you?
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