Ninja Assassin, a movie game that apparently hardly anyone likes. I've seen many reviews of this game, all sayings its too hard, the stealth mechanic is underdeveloped, terrible controls, messy swipe-fest, the first boss is impossible. I found all these complaints to be complete rubbish, except the point on the stealth mechanic which is true, you pretty much only get to do stealth kills in one stage and from then on stealth becomes a vestigial element.
The game is very much like Draw Slasher essentially (I'll be bringing that up quite a bit) in that you're a ninja and you swipe to slash. However, while Draw Slasher was a simple game against slow enemies, Ninja Assassin is far more demanding, and just drawing horizontal slashes everywhere will only get you past the first stage or two. The plot loosely follows the movie, though given the content and name ("Ninja Assassins", its as redundant as "Dog Canines", maybe they were aiming for "Ninja^2" to show off how Ninja the movie is) the plot is hardly important, but told through comic-style cutscenes (with text dialogue awkwardly repeated in the in-game dialogue). The graphics are good, presentation is stylish, and it certainly looks better than made-in-flash Draw Slasher (not to say Draw Slasher is a bad looking game).
The story mode is really short, a mere four Acts long which could be completed in an hour or two. The length of the individual stages felt right though, as gameplay is about fast precise slashes, not a lengthy sprawl. Levels are difficult, especially when you haven't adjusted to the gameplay, but there is little penalty for dying, you don't even need to reload the stage to retry. The inclusion of a survival mode lengthens the replayability. You'll play as four characters in both modes, actually just a generic ninja and the main character with different weapons/costumes.
The controls are not terrible, you swipe to slash. You run to the starting point of the swipe and follow the slash through. If you want to combo, you start your slashes from your character. If you just swipe your finger everywhere expecting this to be Draw Slasher then don't be surprised if you can't beat the first boss. You can throw shurikens by tapping enemies, but its mainly to stave off solitary enemies. One character however, uses a chain that doesn't have an 'ammo' limit like the shurikens do and is quite powerful against regular ninjas, making it much more useful. In the second Act you can hide and perform stealth kills, which was rather enjoyable and introduced an element of tactics. However, stealth kills are unavailable from then on, and hiding spots become rather useless. While I was somewhat disappointed at this, the game is pretty short, and the main focus is on action.
Despite many complaints, I didn't find it to be frustrating, rather I found each stage exhilerating, its the kind of difficult that is possible and rewarding. I did die a lot facing the stage with the guards, but once I learned to chain combos I found it quite rewarding to slice through a whole line of guards, leap over a guard's shield and slice them in half. Seeing how it all comes together when you actually put effort and thought into your attacks, killing the final boss with literally no health left, that gave me a feeling I hadn't felt in games for a long time. Recent games I've been playing are either too easy, too repetetive or unreasonably difficult, so this game was a welcome change.
Again, this isn't Draw Slasher. Here there seems to be a big emphasis on combo-ing. When you slash an enemy there is a brief slo-mo effect. That's not so you can admire the gore, thats for you to add another chain to the combo.
The first boss is easy, wipe out the armed thugs, jump over him and slash his back. The second boss is even easier, just use short slashes and jump over him when he charges. The final boss is probably the hardest part of the game, you need to use jump slashes to counter his, while attacking the other ninjas, this is where swiping precision and combos becomes essential.
Overall, many people who complain about this game just seem to play it expecting it to be a shallow swipe-fest like Draw Slasher (the two games are very similair, admittedly), but this game requires more skill than just painting the screen red. The reason the stealth mechanic is dropped is because the game is short, and stealth gives way to precision slashes and combos, unlike the first stage that could be won with random swipes. It seems many people just give up and are either impatient, incompetent, or just weren't expecting the game to be this demanding. I don't see how its frustrating, you restart stages immediately without reloading and except for the final boss, it took me generally less than five retries per stage. My big complaint is that its too short, I got it today and beat it within 3 hours, but the survival mode and IMO enjoyable stages will probably keep me playing.
I was discussing with some friends earlier how a certain flash game was also incredibly difficult, but for the wrong reasons such as bad programming, leaving success more to luck and trial-and-error. Looking back at that, I appreciate how Ninja Assassins may seem unreasonably difficult, but can be accomplished through a bit of effort and thought, and understand how some people have been put off because they weren't expecting it, or are just too incompetent and use to easier and more simple games.
Little tidbits, you can use your iPod library music, you can fiddle with the main menu using the accelerometer, your health refills if you stand still for about 5 seconds and in the Bonus menu you can play this little shuriken app where you choose a shuriken and target, then motion with your iPhone to throw it. Apparently the latter feature is multiplayer.
As cheesy as it is to summarize it, this game is for mother fucking hardcore gaming Ninjas only, fuckfaggots. If Draw Slasher is Naruto, then this game is god damn Strider 2. If you shit your pants playing Ninja Gaiden II on casual, then fuck off ya gay Pirate dickeating pansy and go back to shitty browser based borefests and Imaginez Babies (I'm never going to forget that game). Ninja Assassins isn't a perfect game, but it is a damn good one, especially given the source material, and for its current price of $1.19 AU its a steal. I'd even say its worth it for its original price. Probably the best iDevice Ninja game next to... erm... Traffic Ninja?
...Well, ok NG2 is kinda an unfair game, but you get the idea.
Start your hardcore ninja training now dattebayo!
(I can't believe I said that...)
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