{"id":664,"date":"2012-09-29T12:14:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T18:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baconstripempire.wordpress.com\/?p=664"},"modified":"2013-07-17T08:19:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T14:19:06","slug":"phantastic-game-reviews-mark-of-the-ninja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/phantastic-game-reviews-mark-of-the-ninja\/","title":{"rendered":"[Ph!GR] Mark of the Ninja"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, after I ran all my pants through the wash several times and then burned them after my experiences in Sender, I\u2019m back with a far less scary game, that doesn\u2019t involve ninety percent of my bodily fluids to escape my body through no incident that\u2019s my own. This video game is called\u2026 *pause for effect*\u2026 *it\u2019s really dramatic*<\/p>\n

Mark of the Ninja\u2026 yay<\/p>\n

THAT\u2019S ALL I GET!? Fine, I enjoy the game, you don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Mark of the Ninja was developed by Klei entertainment, (sort of) famous for their most recent title \u201cShank\u201d which I found entertaining, so it\u2019s safe to say that I\u2019m a fan. Klei probably has some of the coolest artwork that I\u2019ve seen in a video game (Dust is another game with amazing art, but that\u2019s a subject for a later ramble) in a while. (Finishing sentences before using brackets is for chumps.) Mark the Ninja is a 2D side-scroller stealth game, and it\u2019s heckafun.<\/p>\n

Mark whatever the crap\u2019s story centers around a ninja clan that was invaded by some guy who\u2019s supposedly really important. You play as a ninja, who\u2019s voiceless and nameless, but ironically not faceless, which I think defies at least 16 rules of \u201cvideo games 101\u201d, that states \u201cif a character does not have a voice or name, he must be faceless.\u201d There\u2019s another rule stating that faceless people get the chicks, which I think was the inspiration of Slender. Whatever, I like to call this character Mark McNinja, it seems fitting. Mr. McNinja was given something called \u201cthe mark of the ninja\u201d which is just the title of the game and more specifically tattoos. Not just regular tattoos, time bending tattoos that allow Mark to stop time in his mind and pick where he wants to throw his items and stuff. These tattoos are made out of some sort of flower that has some potent venom or some crap that vaguely explains his abilities. The only drawback behind Mark\u2019s gnarly tattoos is that he\u2019ll eventually go insane, I\u2019m not sure if this is actually something that happens because the game ends before you get a solid answer, but there are two endings and one seems like it would be him spiralling into madness. The story isn\u2019t even close to Mass Effect in epicenes and center-ness, but it was enough to keep me interested until the end, but the story isn\u2019t the only thing that kept me interested.<\/p>\n

TOPIC BRIDGE INTO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH! AM I RUINING THE EXPERIENCE!? SORRY, I\u2019LL JUST BE GOING NOW!<\/p>\n

This game is probably the best side-scroller I\u2019ve played, either in a long time or ever. Basically the game boils down to sneaking past guards using all your gadgets or straight up killing them. But you can\u2019t just run into a room and stab everybody, Ninja\u2019s are fragile people type guys who don\u2019t take as many bullets as \u201cbrick-wall-shooter-man\u201d that everybody seems to have the hugest crush on in the gaming industry. If you\u2019re spotted in this game, you shouldn\u2019t expect to be able to take on more than one guard, so you\u2019ll have to be stealthy throughout. If you are spotted because you fell off something, you can by no means blame the controls. The controls in this game are tighter than \u2026 you know, something that\u2019s- IT\u2019s LATE OKAY!? Like I was saying, this game controls amazingly and any fault you make is entirely yours, so no ten year olds can complain, and I doubt ten year olds would appreciate this game, because it\u2019s a complete departure from your standard \u201caim and shoot, lame sauce\u201d affairs that seem to be so prominent. The levels have plenty of paths for you to take to get to your destination. (I think I said \u201cto\u201d two too many times.) The paths that you should take all depends on your play style, you\u2019re rewarded for not killing any guards and you\u2019re rewarded for killing all of the guards, if you want to be a pacifist or if you want to kill everything will determine how you go about your business. The game accommodates for this with a good system of actually having a map and allowing you to see what\u2019s on the other side of a door or vent without going through the door or vent, if you see something on the other side that you\u2019re not simpatico with, you can just turn around and find a better way in.<\/p>\n

This game isn\u2019t extremely into combat, if you end up getting into a fight, you\u2019re best off running away like a little baby\u2026 that can ru- SEE!? I\u2019M NOT GOOD AT THIS! Instead of just getting into fist fights, you\u2019ll stick to the shadows, by breaking lights, which will attract any guards (through a system I\u2019ll get into.)nearby. You\u2019ll want to distract guards and hide, either up on ledges or in hiding spots, waiting for the guard to get close enough for you to miss his daughters piano recital\u2026 PERMANANTLY! When a guard gets close to you, you press X which stops time then you hold down a direction on the control stick and press X again, if you mess this up your kill will be noisy and the guard will start screaming, attracting more guards to your location.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to my next point, the aforementioned \u201cnoise system\u201d<\/p>\n

Whenever you perform an action, it makes sound, except for walking and stealth kills, you\u2019re a ninja, you don\u2019t make noise. When you make a noise, a blue bubble will appear and stretch out from the location of the noise, any guard within this range will be attracted to it, and probably ask it out on a date. Once the guard loses interest, either because he heard a more tantalizing noise, or he simply lost interest, he\u2019ll start wandering away. The sound system allows you to pick a certain guard who you don\u2019t particularly like and stab him in the nostrils once he wanders away from his friends. Or you can use it to attract a whole bunch or guards and simply walk around them while they\u2019re picking their noses wondering what that noise was.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also this whole light system, basically if you\u2019re not in direct light, you\u2019re invisible. So don\u2019t make too much noise and guards will never see you. That description was marvelous, ten out of ten.<\/p>\n

The Adventures of Mark McNinja is worth a play. If you don\u2019t enjoy fun you can always try \u201cModern Battle Callfield of War 97: Unoriginality is Just Another Bullet\u201d, that\u2019ll be more your speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[523,522,524],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reimer.haus\/bse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}