Ninja Assault isn't impressive by its production and replay value, consider it a weekend rental.
Platform: PlayStation 2
Developer: Namco, NOW Production
Publisher: Namco
Genre: Light Gun Shooter
Age Rating: 15+ ELSPA, ESRB: Teen
Release Date: 12th September 2002 (JP), 18th November 2002 (NA), 4th November 2002 (EU)
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Game Score: 5.0/10
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Summery:
Ninja Assault isn't impressive by its production and replay value, consider it a weekend rental.
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Instead of your regular Ninjas carrying their famous throwing Shirikens and Samurai Katanas, these Ninjas carry guns to shoot down hordes of evil demons, monsters and little gobblins, it's exactly the concept you'll have with Ninja Assault, a Light Gun Shoot "em" up that was released in Arcades in 2000 before arriving on PlayStation 2 with G-Con 2 support 2 years later. If you're hoping some extra features that made Vampire Night and Time Crisis 2 stand out then you'll be disappointed.
In the game Princess Koto gets herself kidnapped by the Evil Shogun Kigai who plans to sacrifice her for his resurrection ritual. Two of her Ninjas Guren and Gunjo find powerful guns called the Mecha Gun which is the only for them to beat Kigai and rescue the princess. In the PS2 the duo are also tagged along by a female ninja named Aoi who has her reasons for bringing down Kigai. The game has received an update to the translation from its Arcade counterpart but however the poor voice acting cannot make the dialogue or characters shine through and that's what Light Gun games fall flat on.
Rather than having any Special Missions to play through, Ninja Assault carries over the Arcade experience with 3 other chapters available. The Arcade mode has 9 different stages while the other chapter modes have about five to six stages that includes some exclusive levels and an exclusive character Aoi. Each stages consists of five minutes of shooting hordes of demons that close on the screen at you and boss battle to fight at the end. Boss battles include a dragon, a fiery fox and eventually Kigai himself. Playing through any one of four chapters will take about roughly 45 minutes and upon completing it will unlock more credits.
In addition to the Arcade setting there is also a Training Mode where you can play 5 different minigames such as Night Ambush where you shoot super fast Shirikens, Samurai Shootout where you shoot dummied Samurai warriors without shooting any girls, Haunted Lake where you shoot coloured fish of your own colour, Gold Rush where you try to shoot the Gold Coins while keeping them up in the air as possible and Fireworks where you shoot fireworks and try to build the biggest combo of Fireworks.
The game also includes a collection of 32 short challenges instead of missions in similarity to Vampire Night in which they involve shooting waves of enemies without taking a hit, collecting Maneki Cats and also completing a segment from the games stages with powered up shots without missing a bullet. The challenges aren't very interesting and the training stages do very little to add any replay value aside from unlocking two extra weapons for Story Mode. The chapters as well sadly don't add much to the game either beside the new levels and character background scenarios.
If you're familiar with Virtua Cop, Lethal Enforcers and House of the Dead then you'll feel right at home shooting dozens of enemies on the screen and fighting a boss at the end. Ninja Assault is compatible with 3 different control options. You can play it with the Dual Shock 2 where the useful thing is that when the cursor is close to an enemy or any of their projectiles it will lock onto them making it easier to aim and shoot. The game is also compatible with the G-Con 2 as well as the classic G-Con 45. The G-Con 2 is most recommended cause you can align the Reload function to either the A, B or C buttons to reload your gun.
The gameplay mostly revolves around quick reactions and building of Combos. You build combos by consecutively shooting enemies without missing. This allows you to build up dozens of points by the amount of maximum combos you put in. This is one of the only features that makes the gameplay in Ninja Assault shine. Whenever you die and continue you'll lose about a percentage of your score so you'll need to keep building your combos so that you'll get your score back.
The game will have Medikits to restore your health and Maneki Cats which boosts your score alongside shooting brief appearing enemies. In the 3 other chapters you'll also find hidden scrolls in which pressing the scrolls button will take out all the weakest enemies on screen. Most enemies will simply charge at you or they will toss projectiles that you can shoot in the air. As for bosses most of the patterns are simple to read and you do damage by shooting them by their weak-point as indicated. The gameplay isn't as better then other Light Gun shooters but at least it's better than Death Crimson OX
Ninja Assault's graphics are very lacking. For the first time on a European PS2 game it supports 2 different Television Hzs to use on. Playing the game on 60 Hz requires a Television that supports 60 Hz otherwise doing so will result with a very bad picture. In 50 Hz the game doesn't look too bad, in 60 Hz the game looks rather bland. Most of the graphics shine in it's character models which do look good but their lip syncing is poor and the environments and the special effects simply look dull. The game has a decent soundtrack but however other then the title screen and main menu, most of the other tracks are simple and generic.
The main attraction of the presentation is that the First Person Camera does a good job in keeping with the Ninja's fast agility which gives the player a feeling of becoming a Ninja as well as giving the dark setting of Feudal Japan.
Ninja Assault isn't impressive by its production and replay value, consider it a weekend rental. The weak replay value, below average presentation and the fact that can be beat in only 4 to 6 hours will make it difficult to recommend at full price.
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The Pros:
1. You can build combos to boost your score.
2. Camera keeps up with the Ninja's agility.
The Bads:
1. Below average graphics, soundtrack and voice acting.
2. Weak Replay value and you can beat all the content in less than 4 hours.
3. Simply lacks the design structure that made Time Crisis 2 and Vampire Night stand out.
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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