Some games hold up well over time. Their timeless gameplay, outstanding art direction, or powerful story ring just as true ten years after release as they did the day the game was put onto store shelves. Then there are those games that focus solely on pushing technological boundaries. Some look prettier, some try to be bigger, and some just try to be more ridiculous than any game before. Eventually, though, technology evolves, new gameplay elements are created, and these games' lack of compelling gameplay retires them to that basement box in the sky. Such a fate befalls Ninja Blade, the 2009 game from Microsoft and From Software. Ninja Blade attempts to present the player with the most over the top situations possible, but a year later, the likes of God of War and Bayonetta have one upped Ninja Blade, and the shallow, repetitive gameplay doesn't come close to the complexity of any other major entry in the genre. Still, if you've played the latest from Platinum, Capcom, Sony, and Tecmo then Ninja Blade is a serviceable alternative while you wait for the next big thing.
Ninja Blade's story doesn't make sense and doesn't try to. You are the unfortunately named ninja, Ken, and it is your duty to stop an infection from destroying the city of Tokyo. This infection, of course, turns people into monsters, and you must defeat these monsters while trying to find a way to stop the infection for good. While you initially are part of a team, a first level betrayal leaves you alone to face this menace. There are a couple decent twists throughout the game, but so much of the story makes no sense that it is impossible to become invested in any of the characters. Just know that Ken is one crazy dude, and you'll be put into plenty of equally crazy situations over the course of the game's nine levels.
Probably the worst thing about Ninja Blade is its setting. The entire game takes place in downtown Tokyo. There is no level variation in the slightest. You will be fighting in skyscrapers, sewers, and back alleys from the first minute of the game to the final battle. One level taking place aboard a crashing plane is an exception and also manages to be the best level of the game. Most other missions are mundane treks through oddly empty streets as you kill the same two or three enemies over and over in the exact same brown and gray areas. By the end of the game you'll be begging for even the tiniest iota of artistic inspiration from the team at From Software. It is especially hurtful because the last exclusive-to-Xbox action game developed by From was the beautiful Otogi. All this ugliness is exceptionally detrimental to a game with a focus on fantastical feats of acrobatics and combat. It is hard to get your blood pumping when every level looks like the last.
The gameplay of Ninja Blade fairs only slightly better than the environments. There are a couple parts to the Ninja Blade formula, the most prominent of which is the hack and slash combat that has become part and parcel with this type of game. Unlike Ninja Gaiden or God of War, though, Ninja Blade features a very limited combo system. While you do have two buttons for attacking, they can't be combined. Since every enemy in the game can be taken out by merely mashing X over and over, that is all that you will really do. There are finishers mapped to the Y button but you can't break an attack mid combo and most enemies will die to just a couple hits, so you'll find that it is actually more difficult to use the finishers than it is to just mash to success. There are additional combos triggered by combining the X and Y buttons with modifiers, but these one-off attacks are simply unnecessary to beat the game.
It doesn't help that there are only a couple enemy types in Ninja Blade. Ken has three different swords at his disposal, one fast but weak, one strong but slow, and one somewhere in between. While some enemies can only be defeated with one sword or the other, it is obvious to tell which enemies can be felled to which sword, so there is no real strategy to the combat. The limited selection of enemies also means that you will know how to defeat every enemy in the game by the end of the second level. There are points in the game where one sword is required to progress, such as using the strong sword to break open a damaged wall, but these areas are easy to spot with Ninja Vision (more on that later) and don't require any sort of mental effort from the player. Most of the time, you'll simply use one sword until another one is required to progress, switch to that sword and then use it until you need to switch again. There are no unique combos for the swords, and all work against most enemies equally well. This means players will likely stick to whatever sword they currently have equipped, leading to highly repetitious combat that isn't nearly compelling enough to carry the game on its own.
Unfortunately, while you will also perform some rudimentary platforming and engage some enormous bosses in addition to the standard slicing and dicing of enemies, the platforming is rather dull, and the bosses frustrating. You can only run up or along certain walls that are clearly marked in the environment. If you can't find the right wall to jump on you can use Ninja Vision. This ability allows you to slow down time and view the world in a red monochrome, save for blue highlights showing things you can interact with. Because of this, none of the platforming or "puzzling" is at all difficult. In addition to your swords you have some spells that you can use to open up pathways. For example, fireballs can burn vines blocking your progress. You can use these spells in combat as well, but you rarely will. Overall, the traversal aspects of the game are simple and derivative, if still at least momentarily enjoyable.
Bosses, on the other hand, are not enjoyable in any way. There are well over a dozen of these giant monstrosities throughout the game but all suffer from the same problem. Simply put, bosses have too much health. While this at times make the battles hard, more often than not the exorbitant health bars simply make each encounter take far too long to complete. The final boss, for example, takes close to an hour to defeat. Once bosses are reduced to zero health, Ken must perform a Todome on them. These finishing moves are identical to those of God of War, if much more ridiculous. One quick time event early on sees Ken bat a wrecking ball into an enemy, while another has him ride a motorcycle through the air and into a boss's face.
Quick time events are the hook of Ninja Blade. In addition to the Todomes, Ken will perform some ridiculous acrobatic feats in time to button presses from the player. Smartly, missing a button merely rewinds the event a couple buttons and lets you try again at no penalty. In addition, the start of a quick time event is always preceded by a shot of Ken's eye, alerting you to get your fingers ready. If anything can be said about Ninja Blade it is that it has the best implemented quick time events in any game yet released. But having the best example of a terrible and dated mechanic isn't really much praise. Probably the biggest issue with Ninja Blade's quick time events is that their over the top nature has since been eclipsed by both God of War and Bayonetta. Anyone picking up the game today who has played those two games (and if you haven't then why are you playing this?) will find that Ninja Blade's main draw is one that has become dated a mere year after its release. While a couple sequences will still make you smile, most are things that have been done better in newer games. Once again the crashing plane sequence remains a highlight, but one short level out of nine longer ones isn't enough to save the game.
Also doing the game no favors are the graphics. As mentioned, the art direction of this game is terrible, but the technical side of things fairs little better. Animations are decent but compared to games released even a year or more before they simply don't hold up. Characters look plastic and fake, the city is empty, boxy, and lifeless, and overall not a single graphical element is even remotely appealing. The final level of the game is suitably epic, but the eight levels leading up to it simply look dated and dull.
The audio doesn't fair much better. The voice actors are atrocious, delivering their poorly written lines in a horribly cheesy fashion. By default the game swaps back and forth between Japanese and English voiceovers seemingly at random. While players can head to the options menu and switch voice acting to all English or all Japanese, the fact that the default setup is a weird amalgamation of the two definitely calls into question the logic of the developers. The soundtrack is also entirely unmemorable. Not a single tune stands out in any way. The music never gets in the way of the action, but it won't get your blood pumping or emotions flowing either. The sound effects are decent, but the game could use a lot more ambient noise. Most often the game is simply silent. Some sort of aural stimulation would have been a great value. As it is, every aspect of the audio is below par, but aside from the voices, nothing really gets in the way of your enjoyment of the game.
Between its mundane combat, terrible platforming, dated quick time events, laughable graphics, and nonsensical story, you might think that Ninja Blade is absolutely not worth playing. For fans of the genre, though, Ninja Blade is a decent time killer. You won't be awed by any aspect of it, and indeed every element has been done better many times before and since. But if you are itching for another action game to play, Ninja Blade is a playable option. It could be better in almost every way, and the once impressive quick time events have since been outdone, but if you want to rent something over the weekend, Ninja Blade is a fair choice that can be finished in an afternoon. If, however, you have not played any of the genre stalwarts, virtually all of them are better than this sad attempt at frivolous hyper-action. On the other hand, if you have experienced all other options, and are itching for some monsters to slay, Ninja Blade is a largely bug free and frustration free entry that could keep you occupied for a few hours.
