Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii)

[aruljothi]

   Release Date: Q1 2009
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Action
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Acquire

In this world there are ninja games and there are ninja games. If you prefer those of the "bull in a china shop" variety, well, you know where to go for that. Everyone loves the idea of being an icy assassin lurking in the shadows, but so few of the most popular ninja videogames -- Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Strider -- actually ever put those virtues into practice. So if your idea of a ninja game errs on the side of stealth and sneakery, then Tenchu is most likely your franchise of choice. And the latest iteration in the series, Shadow Assassins (developed by Tenchu's original creator, Acquire), does an admirable job of bringing players back to ninja school.

Where Shadow Assassins excels is in teaching you the in-game ninja basics, both with the story mode and the 10-lesson "Assignments" mode, which breaks down each ninja ability one by one. Learning new moves, like perching invisibly overhead in a corner, mastering how to move from one shadowy area to another, blowing lanterns out with a water-filled bamboo tube, leaping from rafter to rafter, and, of course, performing stealth kills, is integral to progressing through the game's main story line. Acquire's homecoming hasn't just resulted in the addition of new ninja moves, though. The series has been tweaked to help newcomers get up to speed, with one example being the inventory space reduction. Unlike Tenchu's previous installments, Shadow Assassins wisely scales back the number of useable items that Rikimaru or Ayame can use at any given time. Where previous games encouraged you to lug along a sack full of ninja items, now you're restricted to cycling between three ninja tools. Carrying a bamboo tube, shuriken, and sword, but need to use this fishing rod you found on the ground? Now you have to drop an item to pick up another if your inventory is already full. To veterans of the Tenchu series, it may seem like Acquire has dumbed things down, but the tweaks add a more deliberate feel to the proceedings, forcing players to be efficient, quick-thinking ninjas.

Where Shadow Assassins stumbles is in the oft-clumsy execution of the new tools and rule set. In the Japanese version of the game, being discovered by enemies often meant Game Over, forcing you to restart the whole mission. In the U.S. version, things are a bit more forgiving. Now being discovered causes Rikimaru (or Ayame) to use Utsusemi and disappear from an enemy's sight, allowing players to restart from the beginning of the level, but with whatever progress they'd made left intact. The penalty now is reflected in your score, which is based on time of completion, number of times discovered, and how many guards you've killed. So, even the newest players can succeed, even if only through sheer attrition; those who are so inclined can go back and replay a level with the intention of improving their score. And more often than not, you'll be forced to replay a level in order to get a perfect score anyway.

Even the best Acquire games have always suffered a bit from rough or uneven production values, and Shadow Assassins is no exception. Hampering your progress is some dodgy collision detection, questionable level design, cruel camera work, and alternately oblivious and intensely acute enemy A.I. The collision detection issues often force you to try and finesse your characters into optimal positions, leaving you easily spotted by enemy guards. The level design is such that you basically have to try and figure out each level through trial and error, leading to an enormous amount of Discoveries before you can learn a level well enough to get through unscathed. While the game offers a Mind's Eye mode which basically gives you a 360-degree freelook while highlighting light sources and enemies in blue and red respectively, it doesn't always compensate for enemy patrol routines that lie out of sight around a corner, nor does actually peering around a corner always suffice. And in instances where you're given the opportunity to drop down and perform a stealth string of kills, the camera often goes so wacky that the on-screen Wii Remote/Nunchuk prompts are often lost in the effort, leading to yet another do-over. And the enemy A.I. is where the suspension of disbelief falls through the floor. It's at once perplexing and preposterous, that the same enemies that are so good at spotting you if you edge near their field of vision, don't seem to notice someone extinguishing all of the light sources around them.