by:	March 02, 2009

Ninja Blade was first leaked and then eventually announced conveniently around the time that Ninja Gaiden's creator and then head of Tecmo's Team Ninja subsidiary Tomonobu Itagaki announced he would be parting ways with the company in Spring 2008. Ninja Blade has some striking similarities to the legendary Ninja Gaiden series in appearance all the way down to how the logo is designed, but there are quite a few differences.

The game takes place in 2015, and you are part of a ninja clan that does some pretty incredible missions. You begin the demo by skydiving out of an airplane, shredding demons in mid-air as you plummet towards the earth. When shredding them you are prompted to press a specific button in a timely fashion in order to execute the attack, similar to cult classic Shenmue 2 or Sony's God of War franchise.

These are typically the kind of over-the-top action packed spectacles typically reserved for cutscenes but From Software has taken a little effort and actually made the cutscenes interactive. If you screw up the timing or press the wrong button, the game will rewind itself and let you try again. The same goes for while you are in actual combat in the game, if you die, it will rewind slightly and let you try again. These are definitely the features that stand out in the game. That could be a bad thing depending on how much they rely on it especially, since some of the interactive cutscenes can have awkward timing. Nevertheless, just like Ninja Gaiden this game is dripping in style in some areas and while the visuals are not totally up to par with Ninja Gaiden in terms of polish, they definitely have packed in some detail. The combat in the game is pretty much a standard hack and slash, much of what you would expect coming from the developers of the original Xbox title, Otogi. This isn't really a bad thing though, because despite the repetitiveness, the enemies will vary quite often and come at you in various different ways. You have four swords in your arsenal, each with a slightly better advantage over the other depending on the job. Using X and Y you can deal out attacks and combos with your swords, and with B you can throw an oversized star. Aiming at specific enemies and objects, and pressing down Y and B at the same time will unleash a star tornado. Another glaring difference from that other Ninja game is that blocking only works for so long, and it doesn’t really effect how you counter. The best thing to do is run around really fast and attack when attacking however, the attacks are mighty powerful, and the demo seems as if though it could be giving a taste of what it is like later on in the game, rather than being overpowered in the beginning of the game.

You also have a Ninja vision that slows things downs for you, making you more powerful but also exposing weak spots on enemies. This becomes especially useful when fighting the giant spider in the demo, as it has an exoskeleton shell keeping you from doling out damage. The demo is out now on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace and you can buy the Asia region version of the game online for $60 or less right now and it is region free.

It could be very interesting despite some inconsistencies in gameplay and borrowing the style look and feel of Ninja Gaiden heavily. I cautiously look forward to the release of the game in April, and you can expect our full review of the game soon.

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