The Tenchu series has been around for nearly a decade beginning with the original title, which was released on the first PlayStation way back in 1998. Since then it has spawned a number of sequels on just about every platform you can name, and has gathered a loyal following. Now Japanese developer, K2 has unleashed the latest edition in this ninja assassin franchise for the Xbox 360. Does Tenchu Z open a can of whoop-ass to reclaim the ways of the ninja, or should this silent warrior retire his sword?

gameplay

The ninja has always been idolized in pop culture because they represent the concept of killing as an art and loyalty. They are silent, live in the shadows and are masters of their craft. And if you actually come face to face with one, it will be the last set of eyes you’ll ever see as his blade slices through you. Tenchu Z follows the ninja formula and translates it into a mission-based game where you must successfully complete 50 deadly assignments to earn honor of being the greatest ninja that ever held a sword.

You start by creating a ninja using the player editor, choosing to be either male or female. This feature is not very detailed, giving you only a handful of generic options to select, such as face, body and clothing. It would have been cool if they really enhanced this create-a-player mode with such features as choosing your own sword, or even your choice of footwear so that as you advance, you go from standard noisy soles, to footwear that are so light that they make virtually no noise when you run through a heavily guarded location.

One thing that must be made clear about Tenchu Z is that it is not Ninja Gaiden. If you’re into laying a beat down on a swarm of enemies with cool over-the-top moves, this is not the ninja game for you. Tenchu Z plays more like a variation of Splinter Cell and the Hitman games. Silence and stealth are the best weapons in your arsenal, and you are rewarded for accomplishing your mission with the lowest body count possible. For instance, if you are assigned to enter a village to kill a gangster who is being protected by ten personal bodyguards, if you manage to sneak past all of them and only kill him, your ninja status is raised. But if you have to kill six of his men before you can eliminate him, your status is lowered.

You will spend most of your time in this game in a crouched position, sneaking around very slowly while hiding behind structures or within bushes. What can make this frustrating at times is that the controls are not always user friendly. For one, the camera constantly has to be re-positioned, which is a pain when you are moving around trying to go undetected. More than once I had my ninja positioned at the corner of the screen, only to swing the camera around to reveal that she was standing right in the path of an approaching guard. If you are in a situation where you’re about to be detected, getting out of harm’s way fast is not as easy as it should be. For instance, if you’re trying to duck under a dojo to avoid getting caught, the control scheme that triggers this action appears buggy and took multiple button presses to get it to work correctly. A ninja should not have to be concerned about being able to duck under something swiftly, it should just happen. And using the grapping hook can also be a frustrating, because you have to switch from third person mode to first person mode to activate it, and then aim the cursor at the right spot, which is no easy task when you’re in a rush.

There are two on-screen HUD’s, one displays what’s in your arsenal, and the other informs you how much sound you are making as you move through an environment, as well as how close you are to your target, and how alert his guards are. Sound is the main issue you will be focusing on, because besides footsteps, even removing your sword from its sheath can alert an enemy. Unfortunately, unlike the Splinter Cell titles, you never feel as if your ninja is in any great risk. One reason for this is the AI, which doesn’t seem very focused. Either you will step out of the shadows and every enemy will spot you instantly, or there are times when you’re fighting one guard and his partners don’t even react to what’s going on. And when you are spotted, and do something as simple as hide behind a corner, the guard will chase you at first, but then quickly forget about you and go on about his business without further investigation.

As you successfully complete missions you earn points, which can be used to buy various weapons such as blow darts, smoke bombs, poisonous fruits, and explosives. It is kind of cool when you use some of the items the first few times, but then you realize that your sword, or just avoiding the enemy altogether, is the most effective weapon. Also, be warned, this game does not have checkpoints, so if you spend twenty minutes trying to stalk and kill one guy and you fail, you have to start the mission all over again.

To mix things up, some missions involve completing various tasks, such as infiltrating enemy camps to steal important documents, finding and deactivating bombs, and rescue missions. The heart of the game is mainly to hunt and kill. There are some cool moments like being able to see the enemy’s shadow through the screens of dojo and ramming your sword through to kill him, or jumping off of a wall to land and slash an unsuspecting guard with one blow. Even though there are 50 missions, they quickly become repetitive. I mean, how many corrupt politicians were there in feudal Japan? And doesn’t a ninja have something better to do than kill them? It would have been more involving if there were less missions, favoring quality over quantity, and if these tasks linked together leading up to one big finale.

There are various new games coming out similar to Tenchu Z, such as the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed, which may raise the bar on stealth action games, making Tenchu look more dated than it already is. That is until Tenchu Z 2.0 comes along.

graphics

Tenchu Z’s graphics are not amazing, but they’re not ugly. In places it does look as if it was designed for the original Xbox and then ported over to the Xbox 360. Some of the cinemas that introduce the missions look good, but when the gameplay begins all you’re getting is functional graphics. The village backgrounds and some of the building exteriors look nice, but the character designs, including your ninja, look very bland. Plus, there are so many clipping issues where guards get stuck in the walls, or begin to chase after you and become locked in one spot, running but not moving.

sound

Being that most of the time you’re moving in silence, there are no sounds that particularly stand out, and there’s just one piece of music looped throughout the missions. Even when you’re locked in battle, the sounds of the clanging swords just sound like you’re tapping a fork and spoon together. Since this is a port from Japan, all of the voice acting is in Japanese with English subtitles, and even though I don’t speak Japanese, I can still tell that the dialogue is lame.

replay value

There are 50 missions that will take a while to complete and you can always replay a level at higher difficulty levels to upgrade your ninja status. Other than that there really aren’t any other options available in the solo mode. Outside of that there’s a system link for up to four players, and logging into Xbox Live offers a four player co-op mode, which can be cool if you’re playing with friends you know, but if you’re playing with random players, there is no cooperation amongst the ninjas and you will be ready to leave the game quick.

bottom line

If you’re a fan of ninja and stealth games, Tenchu Z may fit the bill for you. This is not a bad game, it’s just that by now we’ve seen a lot of similar and better titles to compare it to. Tenchu Z has its heart in the right place, and gamers who want a change of pace from the current crop of loud and explosive titles on the market may want to give this a shot.

Review by: Johnny McNair
Posted: 06/28/2007

Gameplay:	7.0
Graphics:	7.0
Sound:	5.0
Replay Value:	6.5
Bottom Line:	6.5