Red Ninja: End of Honor

"Great concept, awful execution, and more ninja panties than you ever wanted to see"

For those of you in a hurry, I can sum up the “Red Ninja” experience in a pair of epithets – Vast potential and poorly-executed.

Red Ninja is a would-be stealth game focusing on Kurenai, our crimson kunoichi. In theory, it was designed to combine standard ninja moves, such as wall-running and sneaking, with a bevy of unique features to set it apart from the crowd, including an amusing weapon system that doubles as a rope-swing and the ability to lure your prey using feminine wiles.

Now, if I just ended the review with that description (and assuming you did not actually look at the rating I assigned), you'd probably go over to your favorite online vendor right now and order yourself a copy of the game, because it sounds awesome. Just hang on there Sparky, we're not done yet.

What should have been an engaging stealth game with unique elements was unfortunately turned into a lesson in aggravation. There are a number of unforgivable flaws, specifically in character control, that will have you screaming at your television in rage, possibly ending with a trip to your local game store to purchase a new controller (due to the smashing of your current one, you see)...

Your controls are similar to any other stealth game currently on the market – you move around with the left stick, you swing the camera with the right, and your buttons accomplish various ninja-y feats like jumping, attacking, and interacting with your environment with ninja flair. Luckily, there's nothing wrong with the buttons. It's the sticks that really get ya'. Movement with the left stick is pressure-sensitive – if you push a little, you walk. Push a lot, and you run. But it's simply too sensitive. If you want to walk, you're going to have a hard time doing so, because the line between “shamble” and “sprint” is a hair's breadth. Accompanying this control scheme are certain things you must do while moving – for example, running on walls requires you to be fully sprinting to make it over whatever gap you're trying to circumvent. Sounds easy enough, except Kurenai apparently can't turn while she's running. You must run straight at your mark in order to retain your speed, as slight deviations will cause you to slow down drastically, sometimes even stopping outright. This becomes especially aggravating when you require speed, but you're moving down a twisting corridor.

The moving problem is exacerbated by the other analog stick – camera control. It's certainly intuitive enough – push a direction, the camera goes that direction. It's not hard to get the camera to go where you want it to, so long as you're in an open field and you're not moving.

That's a pretty harsh, but accurate, qualifier. The camera is limited in its movement by walls, ceilings, floors, boxes, etc. It can and will get stuck on just about anything. There is absolutely zero finesse to camera movement – if you're trying to move the camera right, and it gets stuck, it will either not move at all, or else automatically revert to looking up at Kurenai from beneath. Now, a case could be made that the developers are playing on the subconscious desire of their gaming audience to look at Kurenai's underwear, but it happens far too frequently to merely be a titillating quirk. There were more unintentional upskirt shots during gameplay than in a late night cinemax movie. Just facing a corner made me feel dirty.

Aside from almost constantly being forced to look at ninja panties, the finicky camera also causes a fair number of otherwise avoidable instant deaths and segment repetition (don't get me started on the Buddha statue!). Some sections of the game require accurate jumping, wall running, and/or timing. It is very difficult to accomplish these feats when the camera is working against you.

OK, fine. So the movement is clunky and unrefined, the camera is completely wonky... we can live with that considering the awesome unique features, right?

Well, no.

I will admit that the weapon system is very cool. You attack by throwing a knife or weight attached to what is essentially razor wire. If you stick this in an enemy, there is then a line between you and he that, if taut, will damage people in between. So if you're dealing with huge groups of enemies, just stick one and run around, and the rest will take damage once they're between you and your target. Even more awesome, you can hang people if using the weight – just aim the throw around their head while on a platform, then jump off the other side. It's a super-cool system, and one of the few reasons I didn't rate the game worse.

One of the other unique features is “seduction” - you activate it, and it's supposed to entice an enemy away from their patrol pattern, enabling you to get a stealth kill when they get close enough. It's a really fun idea. Unfortunately, they chose to make enemy reaction to this ploy realistic – in other words, it hardly ever works. Most of the time when you attempt this, the guard will just go into alert mode and start chucking stuff at you. They do this even in the middle of your seduction animation, and you can't cancel out of it. Working your feminine charm essentially makes you a sitting duck. I'm not exaggerating here. I had it work a grand total of twice – and one of those was the “tutorial” attempt, which is guaranteed to work. Even when the game seemed to make it obvious that this was the solution to use (eg, a guard that doesn't move and doesn't turn, or one patrolling a hallway with no way around), it wasn't the right play. They just see you and hit you with throwing knives.

I feel there is one other thing to say here – the boss battles, while often very difficult, involve a nice bit of problem solving. They're not simply reflex tests, you actually have to experiment with your environment and different weapons or items to get through them. It is a nice touch, but the control and camera difficulties make them harder than they need to be.

Red Ninja – The concept is Sampson, the implementation Delilah. What should have been an awesome game was virtually killed by needlessly difficult control and all around poor execution. In the end, I did enjoy the game, but it was really a love/hate relationship. I wanted to get through the boss battles and finish the story. However, there appears to be no unlockable content – you are graded after each level, but there's no apparent bonus material, level select, or really anything else that happens once the credits roll. Now that I've played through it once, I will probably never touch it again. It's a worthy rent just to experience the unique weapon, but it's simply too aggravating with not enough payoff to justify a purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/06