Captain Catsquid's Profile

Everyone knows ninjas are cool, and there have been some pretty awesome ninja based games in the past, from classics like Shinobi and the original Ninja Gaiden, to the first 3 Tenchu games, each of which had its individual strong points. My personal favorite being Tenchu 2 mostly because the ability to swim underwater and drag bodies opened up the game play so much, and trading levels you designed yourself with the level editor with your friends never got old. Tenchu Z also has its strong points, but not enough to earn it the classic status of it's predecessors.

I'll start with the positives. Firstly, you are now able to customize your own ninja, choosing gender, appearance and attributes, though fans of Rikimaru and Ayame may find this less than exciting. Unlocking new customizations as you progress through the now short, mission based levels helps keep you motivated, and the game looks nice, but...

...Why are there no enemies on the roof tops anymore? Why can you only paddle across the surface of the water? Why has the AI gotten even worse? And why the f#*k is there no level editor? Imagine the longevity that trading levels with your online friends would create! Am I the only person who has noticed some developers adding to an established series seem to not have played the damn games they're writing sequels to? Why would you overlook such features? They make games like Tenchu 2 on the old PS1 actually outshine and out live some of their next gen counterparts, because video games can be like relationships, once you've become desensitized to how attractive someone is, they better have some substance or things are going to get very god damn boring.

Playing through all 50 levels on hard wasn't hard, but it was long and repetitive, and if you want to get all the achievments, you have to get Ninja 5 (Grandmaster rating) on all 50 levels on all 3 skill settings. That's 150 levels of the same shyte over and over again, I'd rather eat my own eyes personally. And dont expect much from the online aspect, that got tired so fast that my xbox could have been smoking meth and still fallen asleep.

In summation, if you're a fan of the series you will probably still enjoy this game, despite all my whining I did, but you will be disappointed. Unless you want the whole collection, hire this one, because 7 days is all you'll need.

Game play 6
Graphics 7.5
Sound 7
Value 5