Ninja Blade Review

BY Nicholas Rego | POSTED: 16 March 2009

Need plenty work, grasshopper.



Nothing draws more fascination than games with ninja warriors in them. Their sleek outfits, their graceful moves, their uncanny weapon skills and calm composure make them elite warriors and feared assassins. There are a slew of games on the market with a ninja as the main character, and Ninja Blade is the latest offering for the Xbox 360 that features a ninja protagonist.



Stepping into the shoes of your character Ken, you are quickly introduced to the main storyline, which is the most obscure and absurd plot in history. A parasitic bug has invaded downtown Tokyo, and is turning people into horribly deformed creatures of bloodlust. As Ken, the one and only person who can stop the terrifying plague, you must descend into Tokyo and rid the city of this parasite. This may sound terribly exciting, but you can mostly ignore the storyline completely and carry on happily with your violent ways. The game puts you straight into the action from the very first level, introducing you to your basic attacks and abilities. Ken can choose to attack with any of three special swords – the Ninja Blade is lightweight and good for quick slice and dice action, while the Stonerender sword is heavy and perfect for shattering armour. You can also choose the Twin Falcon Knives, which are great for rapid ranged attacks and crossing gaps. Besides your swords, you also have a circular bladed weapon that you can charge with the power of air, fire, or electricity to help take down tougher enemies.

The gameplay is fairly straightforward – make ribbons out of anything that comes in your path. Button-mashing is the way to go here, as you’ll swap between light and heavy attacks by quick taps of the X or Y button. Switching between your knives is a simple task of tapping the D-pad, so you can pull off some rather graceful combos without too much of an effort. It’s an easy formula to master, so gamers wont’ be too floored by the waves of enemies that you encounter, as you can pick them off fairly quickly. As you polish off your enemies, you can collect orbs which can be used to upgrade your weapons and unlock new combos, but your new moves are effortlessly pulled off by frantic button mashing.

In between leaping off buildings and severing the heads of giant spore-infested bosses, you’ll be presented with QTE scenes, which involve you tapping the right button or moving the analog stick in a particular direction to dodge an enemy’s attack. While this is very reminiscent of God of War, the QTE scenes almost overpower the game, and occur literally every few minutes. They are good for building up drama prior to a boss fight, but because there are so many of them, they lose their effect early on in the game. What’s equally frustrating is that the game is very forgiving during these scenes – if you miss pressing a button or make a mistake, the entire scene automatically rewinds, and you get to try it again until you get it right.



Graphically the game does quite well – the large city environments have been based upon scans of the real Tokyo city, so you’ve got plenty of areas to explore for hidden items. Your enemies are also quite detailed and varied in style, while some decent blur and rain effects paint a bleak picture of the city. Sadly though, the camera needs a bit of work in many areas, either not allowing you to pan across for a better view, or getting stuck in an awkward angle. The background score is mostly heavy rock, and ties in with the frantic on-screen action quite well. What’s most puzzling is the voiceovers – the main characters randomly flip between English and Japanese voices, which is truly baffling.

Ninja Blade is a decent enough game to play, but it has miles to go to be a ‘must buy’ game, considering that games like Ninja Gaiden have already made a firm mark for this style of a game. Still, there’s decent fun to be had if you’re willing to overlook the out of place story and constant button mashing.