Games beaten so far:
1. Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again - DSiWare (Gold Star save file)
2. Sonic Generations - PS3
3. Super Mario 3D Land - 3DS (with a five glittering star save file)
4. Starship Defense (All no SOS perfects) - DSiWare
5. Soul of Darkness - DSiWare
6. Mutant Mudds (All crystals and water sprouts) - 3DS Eshop
7. The Simpsons Arcade (US Version) - PS3
8. DodoGo! - DSiWare - (Golden egg on every stage)
9. Mass Effect 2 - 360 (Insanity mode difficulty with Sentinel class)
10. Mass Effect 3 - 360 (Insanity mode with Adept)
11. Final Fantasy XIII-2 - PS3 (Platinum trophy)
12. Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii
13. The Darkness II - Xbox 360
14. Lollipop Chainsaw - PS3 (Platinum trophy) and 360 version (all achievements)
15. Dust: An Elysian Tale - Xbox Live Arcade
16. Cthulu Saves the World - Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Indie Games)
17. Double Dragon Neon - Xbox 360
Mark of the Ninja - Xbox 360
So you take elements of Tenchu, Rocksteady's Batman games, and some platforming and mash it into 2D and you have Mark of the Ninja. It works really well. It's better than those games in some ways. The game has a faster pace than the Tenchu games. The way the game is designed means you rarely have to sit and watch a guard for three minutes waiting for an opening like you do in the Tenchu games. The "fear" element is better incorporated into this game than it is in the Batman games because it's actually USEFUL rather than just in the game to make you feel bad ass. The stealth elements work well, and are more simple and intuitive than most stealth titles. This may be a good game to try for people who normally hate stealth. Perhaps stealth just works better in 2D than 3D. After playing this game, I really have to consider that possibility.
The game has some of the most gleefully sadistic ways of taking out enemies I've seen in a game. I won't spoil them. It's best to experience them yourself and be joyfully surprised. Though, there is a point bonus at the end of each stage for not killing anyone. I can't imagine why anyone would want to play the game that way, other than for an achievement. You can safely ignore that bonus, as I still managed the high score in each stage while gleefully killing everyone I came across.
So the game has 13 stages (though level 13 isn't much of an actual stage). They are just long enough to make the game not seem too short. There are frequent checkpoints and at least one mid level save point per stage. Plus, each stage has optional objectives like finding scrolls, completing challenge rooms, performing skill based tasks for "seals" and getting the high score. You can replay levels to do this stuff or try and do it all in your first run through of a stage like I did. I'm kind of a perfectionist. So I don't like finishing a stage with anything not done. There's some really cool upgrades and items you can unlock and purchase as you go through the game, but you'll need to do ALL the optional stuff in order to have the currency for them all. There's different outfits you unlock too that tweak your character in various ways so you can sort of customize your play style. I just stuck with the default one throughout the game though. I also unlocked a new game plus mode for beating the game. I haven't played it yet, but the game told me all my stuff carries over and the game will be harder.
The graphics are like the Shank games. If you like that style, there's more of it here. It reminds me of the Samurai Jack cartoons. There's not a ton of music, as it's mostly a quiet stealth game, but what's there is good and fits whatever mood the game is trying to set for the moment. It's sort of situational, like the Tomb Raider games, rather than constantly present. The story is pretty good, some of it is told through the scrolls you may or may not find as you play through each stage. The ending is very artfully done, but a bit short and anti-climactic.
There are a couple issues I had with the game. It can get a little random and erratic at times. Occasionally enemies don't react the way you expect them too. At times they act just plain stupid. There are other random things too. I've had alarms get raised at times despite me being out of anyone's sights and there being no corpses for anyone to find. I had a weird bug happen once that corrupted my save. In one stage, the game wasn't properly tracking one of the optional objectives I was doing, forcing me to restart a recent checkpoint and redo it THREE times. There are some minor control issues too. The B button is context sensitive. This unfortunately means that you'll sometimes be using it to do one thing, and the game will think you're trying to do something else. It's very irritating to hit B to hide behind something, and instead watch your character crouch down to pick up a body and get spotted by the approaching guard. The checkpoint system is also a blessing and a curse. The game checkpoints often, but does so without telling you in any way that it's happening. Sometimes I would restart a checkpoint due to me being in a bad situation or just wanting to redo a section, only to discover that I can't because the game made a checkpoint about 2 seconds ago. That bug I previously mentioned happening during a checkpoint is what probably corrupted my save. I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just let players save manually whenever they want. Given how often the game checkpoints anyway, I don't see how this would have hurt the game.
It's not a perfect game, but not for lack of trying. This feels like a well crafted title for the most part, and those are all fairly minor issues I brought up. Still, it's enough for me to rate this title a 9 rather than a perfect 10. This is an amazing game that I'd recommend to anyone. After playing this and Dust: An Elysian Tale, I'm really high on Microsoft Studios for publishing these games, and the Xbox Live Arcade service for making them possible.
