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Reader review by heroofthewinds
July 02, 2004 The Shinobi has series has been around for quite awhile, beginning as a simple arcade game. Since then, it has expanded and is now on the PS2.The game begins with a climatic and sad battle. The main character, Hotsuma, is forced to battle with his beloved brother for leadership of his clan. Defeating his brother, he is forced to behead him as tradition says. After the fight, the game shifts to the present, where Hotsuma is preparing to battle a wizard who killed all the members of his tribe. Hotsuma learns as he continues that the wizard is using the corpses of his fallen tribe members as his soldiers, and vows to get revenge.
After you get through that little movie, you begin your first level. The game gives you tons of cool moves in your arsenal. Speed dashing, double jumping, and a wall walking ability that would put Spiderman to shame. However, with all this speed comes a price; fight through the level too slow and your sword will suck the life out of you. This can be stopped when you kill enough enemies. Also, if you kill four or more enemies at a time, you'll perform a tate, which causes a short cinema and earns more energy for your sword. Depending on the person playing, this will either make you, or break you.
Lets get one thing straight, this game is NOT for the impatient. Many times you'll find yourself dying right at the end of a level, forcing you to do it ALL over. The game doesn't give you any in-level checkpoints, so if you die, you do it again, and again, and again....The game's difficulty level is extremely high, and when you get past the level, you've got a boss to fight aswell. Things get really annoying when you have to watch your energy meter and kill little enemies meanwhile trying not to get wasted by the boss himself. If the the levels don't give you a headache, the bosses will. They seem to have limitless hit points, and chances are you'll die long before they have.If you do manage to survive the boss fight, you'll be rated on your performance as a whole. Chances are you'll get the lowest score, as the game seems to love to demoralize it's players. No matter how hard you play, unless you're God, you'll probably get the ''C'' rating.
Overall, this isn't a terrible game. Decent graphics and a good soundtrack are among the good things here. Also, it seems to have that draw to it as if it was the Ring of Power; you may hate the difficulty and end up quiting in frustration, but an hour later you'll be mysteriously drawn in to play it again. If you like a challenge, pick up Shinobi. Everyone else, if you value your controllers, stay far, far away. I give it a 6/10.
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