Klei Entertainment has bought us yet another addictive and unique spin to 2d action side-scrollers with it’s newest installment “Mark of the Ninja.” The “Shank” developers have toned down the brutal run up in your face brutal action and substituted it for some sneak up behind you and stab you in the back brutal action. Either way, this game looks and plays great. With a September 7th release, the game is already getting a ton of hype on this new spin to a ninja espionage series. In the game, you have to figure out ways to traverse across the 2d levels without being seen and taking out any enemies you can.
Though it is a stealth based game, you can decide to ignore the stealthy play style and try to fend through the levels by just killing all of the enemies in the numerous gory ways they give you. The benefit to stealth play means more experience points and experience points mean more abilities and tactics that you can purchase to use in the game. This game design makes it so that it’s only suggested that you play in a stealth way but you essentially create your own play style throughout the game. The real selling point on this game has to be the cardboard boxes. The beautiful graphics, great gameplay, and hours of fun you’ll have don’t begin to match up to the excitement I went through when I used my first cardboard box to elude and defeat an enemy. Only Metal Gear Solid fans will understand this unfortunately. If you happen to be a fan of the shank series or the tactical espionage genre I would definitely recommend this game for 1200 Microsoft points.
