Red Ninja: End of Honor

"An ambitious attempt; flawed, but with redeeming qualities."

I didn't expect a whole lot out of Red Ninja when I found it on the clearance rack, but I had to say I enjoyed it to spite its many agitating flaws.
Red Ninja is a game that's characterized by great ideas carried out badly. The camera tends to swing around wildly, but the intention was that it would always track directly behind the character to avoid confusing shifts in direction. The movement detection between walking and running, as well as the speed the character moves, are sensitive to an extreme, but the intention was to leave the character mobile enough to fight effectively if stealth fails. The wire-weapon is confusing and difficult to get used to, but it feels largely experimental in nature, and there are a lot of creative things that can be done with it.
In an attempt to concentrate on Red Ninja's positive qualities, I'll break it down into an easy to digest list.
Good
- Innovative combat and stealth system that incorporates the use of the wire weapon and its various attachments.
- Extensive inventory of options to overcome obstacles; large inventory of items, weapons, and tactics.
- No system of lives or continues; restarting after failure is quick and mostly painless.
- Engaging story, impressive visuals and stages, character models are attractive but believable (even if not historically accurate, but who says they have to be?).
- Creative boss fights that involve more than just trading punches (most of them involve using the wire weapon to cut off or pull on specific targets).

Bad
- Camera work is very erratic.
- Acrobatics (including jumping over pits, swinging, and running on walls) take significant amounts of "getting used to."
- Story sometimes seems campy, main character is often exploited for cheesecake purposes (this might be good depending on your sense of humor!).
- Obstacles other than enemies, like pits and spikes, often come down to trail and error gameplay.
- Be prepared to die. A lot.

Basically, if you're a patient gameplayer, one who has a large enthusiasm for stealth based games, and can enjoy the process of breaking stages like you're solving puzzles, you can probably forgive Red Ninja's flaws long enough to see the conclusion and might even take it off the shelf to fool around with it once in a while after you finish. If you're an impatient player, (the kind who tends to rage-quit often or who's idea of strategy is "putting the crosshair over the monsters head") or you aren't eager to work around a few handling issues, obvious as they may be, you should probably give this one a pass.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/09

Game Release: Red Ninja: End of Honor (US, 03/30/05)