Xbox 360 Review: Ninja Blade

What do you get when you mix Ninja Gaiden and Resident Evil up in a pot and then take out the rich creamy filling? Ninja Blade - the latest game by FromSoftware. Before this comes off overtly negative, let me say that this is a fun title filled with impressive cinematics worthy of the new era of video games. However, where it ranks high on cinematics, the actual action and gameplay unfortunately, lacks any real substance.

In Ninja Blade, you play as Ken Ogawa, part of a government-sanctioned ninja group whose job it is to save neo-Tokyo from a genetically mutating disease. Unlike Tenchu’s Rikimaru, who likes to hide in shadows and wait for the stealthy kill, Ninja Blade’s star player Ken chooses the Ryu Hayabusa in-your-face slice and dice approach. Be warned, although you may expect fast paced Hayabusa action ahead, you’ll be in for a severe disappointment. Ninja Blade uses an unreal amount of QuickTime events throughout the game to sap the energy from your gaming experience and make you feel like this is one of the laziest ninjas out there.

The game is filled with intense cinematics from start to finish. This may seem like a good thing, but in fact it’s the opposite. You begin the game by engaging in QuickTime events, where a series of buttons appear on the screen and you press the corresponding button your controller. Each time you do so, you will trigger a QuickTime movie of Ken performing another action. If you miss a button, the game will do a quick rewind and you will be prompted to press the button again. You do this so often, that you will feel like you’ve been taken out of the action. The result is a game that is more like a disjointed movie that requires you to press a button to see the next scene.

It’s sad that Ninja Blade has so many of these quicktime events because the awesome visuals and actions Ken performs will have you wishing that this game actually let you perform the daring ninja moves, instead of having them done for you. On one occasion, also depicted on the back of the box, Ken surfs on a missile. Granted I’ve never surfed on a missile, but I’m pretty sure it’s impossible – even for a ninja. I would have let this slide it the action was designed as more of a mini-game where gamers controlled Ken’s movements on the missile, like riding a skateboard. Also, there’s a mission where you ride up a building wall on a bike. Once again, fantastic theatrics aside, I would have totally bought this, if I controlling the driving. Not the case, here. Ninja Blade is all auto-pilot with a couple of manual control scraps tossed at the gamer.

For the moments where you actually get to fight, Ken is outfitted with three swords: a standard sword, two short swords for faster attacks, and a great sword that can shatter tough armor. Each of the swords is upgradeable as you play through the game, allowing for a variety of attacks and combos. However, you can just slash your way through enemies with typical button mashing patterns, while throwing in a jump attack here and there for good measure. Most of the time, you’ll end up using your greatsword, while switching to your short swords when attacked by an army of thirty or so bats. The short swords also allow you to do some fancy grappling hook work from building to building.

Ken also has three styles of “ninja magic,” which take the shape of a giant shield like object on your back. Once you pull the shield off your back, it expands to reveal a giant shuriken. There are three styles of shuriken, which control either wind, fire or lightning. The variety here is a nice addition because it also allows for some minor puzzle solving. For instance the Cyclone shuriken, that controls wind, can be used to put out fires blocking your way. While the lightning shuriken, can be used to kill enemies standing on puddles of water.

Besides “ninja magic,” you also have “ninja vision.” This allows you to see places in the terrain that you can navigate through safely. For instance your passage may be blocked, but if you run up the side of a wall, you can get to the next part of the stage. You can also run along the sides of walls, while jumping from the side of one wall to the next. This is actually pretty fun. Your ninja magic and vision is tied to your chi meter, the source of your power. Once you use it up, you’ll have to wait for the meter to build back up to use either of your powers.

Ninja Blade features one of the most stylish ninjas to ever get into the ninja game. Ken can pick up different ninja outfits throughout the game. Sounds cool? Sure. You may think ok, different landscape different camouflaged outfit, right? Wrong. You can customize your outfit to create some pretty outlandish looks for Ken. I switched between having him wearing Red, White and Blue to the Italian flag. Then I tossed in a little Rising Sun with the Jamaican bobsled team to shake things up a bit. As much as I love custom characters, this may be the one instance where I think it should have been left out.

Enemy AI is nothing to blab about. You can defeat most of them in your sleep. The boss battles, however, are really good. Each boss has a unique visual and style that helps liven up the pacing of Ninja Blade. Sure, there’s a pattern that you will be able to figure out. But, like all patterns you will probably want to kill the boss quicker, which will result in a more difficult confrontation. Once you have drained the boss’ health down to zero, you can beat them with the Todome attack. The Todome may sound like an epic finish, but really it is just a longer string of more of the same QuickTime events you’ve gotten used to during the course of the game. The hardest part about the Todome is when a control stick directional movement is tossed into the mix of standard button QuickTime-event triggers. But, once again, where gameplay comes up short, you’ll be amazed at how visually stunning the Todome looks.

By Mission 3 you will have had your fair share of QuickTime events and will notice something else in the world of monotony: the stages are overwhelmingly similar. Whether you’re on a rooftop or inside a building, there’s nothingthat makes the geography stand out. What’s even more noticeable is that in Mission 3, when you proceed from one part of a high-speed rail chase to another, the lighting in the scene randomly changes. It becomes jarring seeing the light go from a bluish hue to yellow without any provocation while in the same tunnel.

Overall, Ninja Blade is a monotonous game that somehow still maintains a level of entertainment worth playing through. It would have done more for this title had FromSoftware focused first on making a game and second on the movie qualities that could be added in – instead of vice versa. This is hardly a game you’ll remember a decade from now, or even next year. But, you know what, for those moments that you do play Ninja Blade, you will definitely be entertained.

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