Mark Of The Ninja: A Tattooed Love Letter To Tenchu

I’ve long adored stealth games. Much of this admiration is rooted in my early memories playing Tenchu Stealth Assassins for the PS1.  I recall being young and immensely captivated by the level design and choice of tools, which I felt were inventive and allowed me to approach situations in a wide variety of ways. Many stealth games that I play are held to a standard set by Tenchu.

Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninja (Ninja) comes across as a contemporary Tenchu in many ways. Its levels are well-realized, its choice of tools is vast, and its stealth is straightforward. But Ninja takes its gameplay a step further, incorporating sound and light mechanics, without teetering too far into earlier Splinter Cell territory. It’s handled quite well.

Still, I find myself unfairly comparing my time to Tenchu, which was a marvellously ugly gem. Which I suppose is sort of strange. Beyond its core design being rather similar, much of Ninja is actually quite different from the Tenchu series. For one, Klei’s background in crafting beautiful side-scrolling action games (Shank and Shank 2 come to mind) really shines through. The game’s art direction is pitch-perfect, and blends a complex contemporary cityscape with ninja. Also, the game’s pace is punchy, instead of overly plodding like Tenchu.

Actually, the anachronistic feeling of utilizing stealth and melee to handle armed enemies is slightly reminiscent of Batman Arkham City. Except, the stealth in Ninja is actually good instead being a shallow and ugly mess which makes you wish that Batman didn’t know how to utilize stealth at all in any of his previous incarnations so that Rocksteady didn’t have to feel compelled to make what I feel is the stealth equivalent of water with some of your vomit in it.

I tend to enjoy inventive and challenging stealth games. Or really, anything that isn’t Batman Arkham City: The Stealth Game. Ninja can safely rest its weary head on my soft and gentle compliment. And Klei should pat themselves on the back for developing a stealth game which high-fives smart game design. Perhaps when they make a sequel, they could call it Tenchu.