Last week an unassuming, typically Xbox green package arrived in our office. In this small, oblong container rested a shiny plastic disk and on the microscopic troughs and shallows of that disk lay the tiny ones and zeroes which, when deciphered into actuality by our chunky white boxes, became a gaming delight of unusually epic proportions. The title of this digital wonder? NINJA BLADE!
Now we at game.ie aren’t allowed to review Ninja Blade – the web embargo runs for another week or so – but we can tell you about it. Join us as we get hands on with From Software’s many-bladed, overacted, gloriously fun slice ‘em up!
Ninja Blade is an anime writ to, mostly, interactive, software. The same bizarre storylines, odd characters, awkward dialogue and awe-inspiring action we have some to expect from Japanese animation infuse every moment of the game. Add to this the fact that you play a kick-ass Ninja and spend much of your time unduly defying the laws of physics and you have a near perfect combination of presumably accidental cheesiness and enthralling action.
The game presents a good mix of play styles, with third person action segments (including running down the sides of buildings) mixing with some more exploration focused segments, on the rails shooting and – as you are no doubt aware – QTE’s. These quick reflex sections where a single button press must be executed with near perfect timing have become a real fixture of the gaming scene since being popularised by God of War (despite the fact that Shenmue perfected the system nearly a decade ago – bitter Dreamcast owner) and their implementation here has been targeted by previewers as potentially game destroying. It isn’t. Yes, QTE’s appear often in Ninja Blade but their inclusion is fluid and really adds to the gameplay – contributing to the epic scope of the battles. Consider that, without the QTE’s, you would merely be watching cut scenes of the major fights in Ninja Blade. Admittedly it is a strangely passive kind of interaction for 2009 but the system works extremely well.
There isn’t really an awful lot more we can say about Ninja Blade without entering the purview of a fully fledged review (which you can expect on March 24th) but suffice to say we have had a lot of fun with it here at the game.ie offices. The multiple boss fights are truly rousing stuff, with the finishing moves always managing to find new and interesting uses for the most unlikely objects.