A perfect come back of one of the best games in the world! Tenchu at its best!
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10 !!!
Value: 10/10 !!!
Reviewer's tilt: 10/10
Tenchu series is very close to my heart because I have played all Tenchu games and Rikimaru is one of my favorite characters, so it was a huge surprise for me when I heard that new Tenchu is not going to be on the xbox 360 and PS3 but on the Wii and PSP. As a matter of fact, I wasn't very happy about that fact because I didn't have both Wii and PSP. I said I didn't because I have Wii now. I have bought it for Tenchu Shadow Assassins and to be honest it is a fantastic console really. Now I can play new Tenchu and I'm telling you guys, this game is just awesome! I completely disagree with Gamespot score! For me, Tenchu Shadow Assassins should get 10 out 10. Why? Here are the main reasons.
Of course we play as Rikimaru, an Azuma ninja grand master, loyal and honorable person. Rikimaru is a very skillful ninja, who is easygoing and friendly nowadays. The second character is Ayame – a deadly and aggressive kunoichi.
The story is really interesting and surprising. Evil Lord Mei-oh and Onikage came back to put the world into darkness. Kiku - Lord Gohda's daughter has been kidnapped and our mission is to rescue her from the evil hands. There are of course some new enemies and allies. Overall, storyline is really dynamic. Both Rikimaru and Ayame are on the mission but will they cooperate with each other? You will see…
There are 10 missions and 100 small assignments where we need to be really fast because we have a time limit. Missions are fantastic, long and amazingly designed. For example, we've got the village where we need to punish the evil merchant ( :) great mission), the village under fire attacked by the bandits, Gohda's Castle, the mission in the rain where we have to cross the border to capture Ayame. There are many objects where we will be able to hide, like huge barrels, tables and etc. Stealth kills which are now called "Hissatsu" are gorgeous. We have 13 of them and performing those Hissatsu by using the Wii remote is just awesome and incredible. The Wii remote works great here and there are now problems with it. The same is when we fight with an enemy. Our Wii remote is like the sword of our ninja. I'm telling you guys, it's pretty fun and outstanding. Doing stealth kills was never so great and of course we will have to make different combinations on the Wii remote if we want to perform a different Hissatsu on our enemy. That's why the controls in the game are superb. Tenchu Shadow Assassins offers variety of ninja tools like the new Bamboo Tube filled with water, by using it we can put out lights from torches for example. There are tons of new equipment so nobody should be disappointed. I have almost forgot, the first 5 missions we play as Rikimaru and the next four as Ayame. In the last mission we play as the Azuma Ninja leader fortunately. I'm glad because I like to play more as Rikimaru. The game is too short for me and that's the minus of the new Tenchu for me. Just like in the stealth game, we have to stay in the shadows and avoid the light at all cost. In Tenchu 4 staying in shadows looks just how it should look. On the screen we have the image of the moon and it shows us how good we are hide in the dark. It's similar to Splinter Cell. Another cool and new thing is a ninja vision. It's the sixth sense and it helps us to detect where are the guards who are patrolling the area.
By the end of each missions we have our status.
If we want to have a grand master rank we can't be discovered by anyone, we will have to kill each enemy in the whole stage and have a good time. I don't like the idea with time, because if we want to have a good time we need to do things fast and I don't like to hurry. What about the A.I.? Well, it's better than in previous Tenchu games. Guards will look for us in the bushes while they are suspicious but sometimes when we throw a shuriken or kunai in one of them they scream and nobody hear them, even if another guard is near. Also the character animation could be better. The Havoc engine is not working very well in Tenchu 4. Motion capture also isn't a pretty good thing here. I hope these things will be fixed by the time when Tenchu 5 will be released. Too bad that there are no demons in the game. They were in the previous Tenchu games and it was great, well I hope demon enemies will show in Tenchu 5.
The graphics are really good. The best of all Tenchu games I need to say. The characters look very, very well and the environment looks really good. The fire looks great and very realistic in Tenchu Shadow Assassins. Unfortunately some trees and texures don't look good, I don't know why and I'm sure that Wii can have whole lot better graphics. As I said before the graphics are the best from all Tenchu games.
The soundtracks in Tenchu Shadow Assassins is brilliant! I just love Japan music, it's so atmospheric and great! Each mission has unique and outstanding soundtrack and those soundtracks are so wonderful! Also voice-over is really good.
Overall Tenchu Shadow Assassins is the best in the whole series for me. This game has so many pluses! Rikimaru is an outstanding character, one of my favorite. The missions are so cool, the soundtracks are beautiful, the Hissatsu are awesome and ninja tools are great. I can easily say that I fell in love with Tenchu Shadow Assassins. It's one of the best games I have ever played in my whole life! I can't wait for more Tenchu games on Wii ! Finally Tenchu came back to its best!