An intriguing homage to basically every notable stealth game ever made - referencing everything from the ninja main character to a certain iconic "!" - Mark of the Ninja squeezes the tropes associated with the genre into two dimensions and nails its execution for the most part.
Every mechanic is well thought-out, melding cohesively to put you into the role of an outnumbered and outgunned ninja who nevertheless has the advantage of stealth and craftiness. Dashing ahead without a plan can often mean suicide, but the multiple ways you can dispatch enemies - stealth kills, attack items, environmental hazards, even spooking them into shooting each other - gives the player a whole lot of flexibility in how to approach each new area. It's my favorite type of puzzle game - difficult puzzles that nevertheless have multiple solutions and encourage you to have fun trying them all out. Lest you feel too overpowered though, the game also forces you to play by the same line-of-sight rules as the enemies - you can't see over ledges or out of vents unless you peek your head out, and often have to rely on audio cues to guess what's around the corner.
The game also deserves credit for making its relatively straightforward and predictable plot feel refreshing through its presentation - it's in the little details like the title screen changing the further you get into the game, and being able to find tomes that give additional backstory in the form of haiku! Without wanting to spoil too much, the aesthetics of the final levels are shockingly memorable, and I would say are worth playing through for anyone even if this genre isn't normally your cup of tea.
This game does have two marks against it - the first one is that once you have a handle on the various enemy AI routines the magic is lost a little bit as their AI is a bit too easy to exploit. The other is the controls - while almost everything feels fluid, quick platforming can ironically feel quite clumsy due to the ninja's ability to auto-stick to any surface he comes into contact with. Also, in screens with multiple grappling points, selecting which grappling point to aim at feels quite inconsistent.
It's still an excellent game in many ways - the host of unlockable abilities and fiendishly difficulty NG+ will probably keep me coming back!
Every mechanic is well thought-out, melding cohesively to put you into the role of an outnumbered and outgunned ninja who nevertheless has the advantage of stealth and craftiness. Dashing ahead without a plan can often mean suicide, but the multiple ways you can dispatch enemies - stealth kills, attack items, environmental hazards, even spooking them into shooting each other - gives the player a whole lot of flexibility in how to approach each new area. It's my favorite type of puzzle game - difficult puzzles that nevertheless have multiple solutions and encourage you to have fun trying them all out. Lest you feel too overpowered though, the game also forces you to play by the same line-of-sight rules as the enemies - you can't see over ledges or out of vents unless you peek your head out, and often have to rely on audio cues to guess what's around the corner.
The game also deserves credit for making its relatively straightforward and predictable plot feel refreshing through its presentation - it's in the little details like the title screen changing the further you get into the game, and being able to find tomes that give additional backstory in the form of haiku! Without wanting to spoil too much, the aesthetics of the final levels are shockingly memorable, and I would say are worth playing through for anyone even if this genre isn't normally your cup of tea.
This game does have two marks against it - the first one is that once you have a handle on the various enemy AI routines the magic is lost a little bit as their AI is a bit too easy to exploit. The other is the controls - while almost everything feels fluid, quick platforming can ironically feel quite clumsy due to the ninja's ability to auto-stick to any surface he comes into contact with. Also, in screens with multiple grappling points, selecting which grappling point to aim at feels quite inconsistent.
It's still an excellent game in many ways - the host of unlockable abilities and fiendishly difficulty NG+ will probably keep me coming back!