Tokyo Game Show – The Games, Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade was the first thing I saw. In the delirium of being at TGS I walked strait into it, forgetting my plan of running to Capcom’s booth.

A group of us were lead into a darkened presentation room to watch a video of the level we were about to play. Ninja Gaiden influences were too obvious to be denied. That said if you’re going to steal a sword flailing combat system who better to do it from?

It felt laborious, the combat stilted with an over reliance on quick-time-events (QTEs). It attempts an on-the-fly weapon change that is rendered redundant by the existence of only one effective pointy-thing. Weapons ineffectualness is compounded by enemies who determinedly shambled back to their feet whatever is thrown at them. However strangest of the games issues were the QTEs. So abundant were they through out the short demo that it felt more like Simon Says than a 360 game.

In short, derivative and uninspiring.