Ninja Blade Hands-On Preview

What would Itagaki say? Microsoft has another stab at the ninja action game, this time thanks to From Software.

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The cut-scenes between fight segments are also made interactive with Quick Time Event sequences, which are so far pretty easy - and even if you mess it up, it immediately "rewinds" for you to just have another go. We won't debate the merits and drawbacks of QTE here, although it's worth saying that the sequences they take place in are nice to watch, so it's no harm that there's some element of interactivity letting you have the illusion of actually achieving what you're seeing.

The futuristic night-time Tokyo city environment we've played in so far looks pretty tasty, with the action starting off from an aircraft jump, and much of the combat proceeding to take place falling through the air, running around on the sides of skyscrapers and such. All in a day's work for a ninja, obviously.

While the frame rate is solid, it cannot match Ninja Gaiden's stunning 60fps refresh rate, but as is often the case these days, the trade off is that Blade arguably has a bit more in the way of geometry and effects going on. Graphically speaking, you could think of Ninja Gaiden to Ninja Blade to in the same way as Call of Duty 4 to Killzone 2 or Halo 3, with the latter titles taking the more common route of detail over frame rate. The debate is whether or not a game's action moves so quick that 60fps is a necessity rather than a nice-to-have, and while that's definitely true of games like Ninja Gaiden and COD4, we're not sure whether it affects Ninja Blade quite as much, since the action felt pretty stable to us. We'd like to see more environments in the game, though, before putting our comments about superior detail into stone.

The game also looks like it won't be able to match the dizzying visual heights of Bayonetta, also due for release by Platinum Games and Sega this year. The last time I saw Bayonetta was six months ago, but even then, it boasted not only the similar fast-paced and arcadey action found in Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, but incredible detail, vast environments, AND sixty frames per second - arguably trumping all the other games I've mentioned in terms of visual splendour.

We're not sure whether the demo we've played starts off at the beginning of the game or at some stage later, but it does a good job of telling us what to expect. Half the characters seem to be Americans dressed up as ninjas, and we don't get much of an insight into the game's story - but let's face it, that's one area where From Software should have no problem improving on Ninja Gaiden, whose plot was ludicrous.

It's interesting that Microsoft Game Studios decided to pick the game up; on the one hand it's a testament to the apparent high quality of the game that has come across so far, but on the other it is so similar to Ninja Gaiden you have to wonder what the story is here.

Ninja Blade steals shamelessly from Ninja Gaiden quite frankly, but consequently has a nice aesthetic and promising gameplay that held our interest enough for us to want to play more and see what's on offer in the full game. Stay tuned for the verdict in our review coming soon.

Ninja Blade is release for Xbox 360 in Europe on April 3 and in North America on April 7. A demo should be hitting Xbox Live on March 9.

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