Red Ninja... it was a good idea, but it turned out to be a bad game. It is a causal stealth game, about a young female ninja. What's not to like about that? I call it a "causal Stealth" game, because it does not really take the stealth mechanics too seriously. Remaining hidden does not require much skill. To "sneak" all you have to do is press lightly on the Left joystick, in any direction. Even a small child can do it. But no child should, because it is an "M" rated game (for lots of blood, and maybe because of the girl ninja's short skirt). The basic melee combat is just simple "button mashing" (pressing one or two buttons repeatedly). The combat is simple, the stealth is simple, and the guards are simple (simple minded). This definately is not an advanced stealth game, aimed at hardcore players. No, this is aimed squarely at Casual players, looking for a fun stealth game. Personally, I like the sound of that. I think stealth can be fun, if it is not frustrating or overly complex. And Red Ninja is definately not too complex. Red Ninja is just plain fun, or rather it would be fun, if the controls were not nearly impossible to use. The game's gimmick (every game needs a gimmick, right?), is that you use a harpoon type weapon, to kill your enemies. You have a blade, with a wire attached, to the end. You throw the blade at people. Then once you have them pinned, you can tug on the wire, and do lots of damage. Its like fishing, only you are "fishing" for people, not fish. It is an easy manuver to pull off, using the game's "auto target" system. Unfortunately, those are about the only easy parts of the game. There are lots of jumping/climbing elements to the game, and this is where most of the problems are. There is a wall running trick, similiar to Prince of Persia, but this is very very difficult to do right. You run & build up speed, then jump onto the wall, and run Horizontally or Vertically. ANd if you do it wrong (which I do, most of the time), you fall off of the wall, half way through your run. This is the worst part of the game. Better gamers then me, have failed to master this wall running move. And it is a required skill, to advance through the game. You can also use your wire and hook to do some Indiana Jones style swinging. But this is only slightly easier then the "wall running". Its too easy to over-swing, and miss your landing spot. On a personal note: One pet peave I have, is that I like the camera to work a certain way. If I dont like the way the camera moves, I need to be able to "invert" the camera (on the horizontal and vertical axis). Red Ninja did not allow me to do this. Which is a pain, because the way the camera is set up, Left is right, right is left, and up is down. Meaning when you press "left" on the camera joystick, your view moves "right". When you press up, your view changes downward. This is backwards, for anyone that is used to playing 1st-person shooters. And the game does not allow you to change it. The broken wall running feature, and limited camera options are a shame. Because if those two things had worked better, I think Red Ninja would be a pretty decent game. The game looks good enough. The light japanesse flute music is very fitting for a 14th century ninja game. The game also includes some extra things, not normally see in ninja games, like swimming. And as I mentioned the game is not overly complex. Its just a shame...
Other Helpful Reviews for Red Ninja: End of Honour
Red Ninja: The End of Honor opens with a historical inaccuracy that's pretty hard to swallow. It takes place during the Warring States era of Japan's history and implies that somewhere along the line the Japanese invente... Read Full Review
Red nija is one of those which you can call, well.........crap actually bloody awful the game has practically difficult tasks which are impossible to do. i bought this game thinking it will be like tenchu but i was wrong... Read Full Review
