Ninja Blade Due in April, Demo in March

February 26, 2009 10:21 AM

From Software's Ninja Blade will hit North American retailers on April 7, publisher Microsoft has revealed. The Xbox 360 action game follows a ninja that battles the inhabitants of Tokyo, many of whom have become monsters due to a disease.

In addition, a downloadable demo of the game will be available in the North American Xbox Live Marketplace come March 9. And those who pre-order the game from a participating retailer will receive a free download of the Ninja Blade Premium Theme.

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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thecray

 reply
February 26, 2009 10:54 AM

Damn. The 360 is heaven for a fan of ninjas.

I hope this controls as well as Ninja Gaiden.
- House
  
   reply
  February 26, 2009 11:11 AM
  
  Those are some high hopes, considering the developer.
- pancake humper
  
   reply
  February 26, 2009 11:17 AM
  
  It doesn't. It's fairly average/terrible from what people are saying.
  
  Besides, it's FROM SOFTWARE, when have they made a decent game lately?
- kemical
  
   reply
  February 26, 2009 11:49 AM
  
  I played the demo on the Japanese marketplace.. while I enjoyed it, it is quicktime-event filled, maybe even 50% so.. But they are easy, it is mostly just "hit this button to progress through the bad ass cinematic"
  You get to run down the side of a building fighting enemies... fly through the air fighting enemies... and also slash up enemies in ninja gaiden style ground combat.. The controls seemed fine and I really enjoyed the dash ability.
  There is a boss fight.
  The most annoying thing is targeting and throwing shurikens.
  anyway, fun demo.
  - stuka
    
     reply
    February 26, 2009 12:32 PM
    
    So it's managed to incorporate everything I hate into a NG clone. Yeah, I'm skipping this one...
  - kemical
    
     reply
    February 26, 2009 1:20 PM
    
    alsp, this game has a very Metal Wolf Chaos vibe.
- monchipeters
  
   reply
  February 26, 2009 4:38 PM
  
  If you have (or created) a Japanese XBL account you can download the demo already and it is all in English. So no worries there. Pretty small too, I think about 300mb-ish?
  
  It uses a lot of QTE controls, sort of like Sonic Unleashed. But they are pretty forgiving if you mess them up. i.e. You don' have to start from the beginning of the level. I'm not sure if I like the whole "I have multiple swords to choose from on my back" idea. I managed to complete the demo using one sword.
  How that goes when faced with different enemies is yet to be seen.
  
  The boss was pretty easy too, especially with his Ninja Vision which highlights the enemy's weak points. My only gripe is that Ken is the most Zorro-esque American Ninja... ever. Also, I don't know how many African-American ninjas there are, but Ken has one in his crew too, flying the helicopter. Hmmm...
  I thought ninjas were mainly Asian. I could be wrong!