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The new Ninja Gaiden is awful

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Yaiba

I had a great deal of hope for Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, the wacky spinoff of Team Ninja’s venerated hack-and-slasher. The first game in the new Ninja Gaiden – especially in its “black” iteration on the original Xbox – was close to gaming perfection. since then the series has certainly waned in quality. Ninja Gaiden 3 was pretty awful. It seems the series has slipped to new lows.

the general consensus amongst critics who’ve had the displeasure of playing the game is that Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is rather terrible. I’d be surprised; it’s a joint effort between Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune’s Comcept and Team Ninja – but then I remember that principal development is done by Spark Unlimited. Yes, the guys who made Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Legendary and Lost Planet 3.

Here’s what critics have said:

Gamespot: 4/10

Every so often, 8-year-old me–the part of me that thinks that asking everyone what word starts with "f" and ends in "u-c-k" is funny–got a kick out of Yaiba’s exploits. Most of the time, however, I could only wish that Ninja Gaiden Z’s striking art style had been applied to a better canvas.

Gamesradar: 2/5

Ninja Gaiden Z is a disappointing entry in the Ninja Gaiden series filled with repetitive enemy encounters, cringeworthy pervy jokes, and frustrating, unbalanced gameplay. This is not the ninja game you’re looking for.

USGamer: 1.5/5

What’s really amazing is just how much Yaiba is the polar opposite of Ninja Gaiden proper. In every way that the main series is elegant and precise, Ninja Gaiden Z is clumsy and ridiculous. In other words, whether it means to or not, it has much in common with its title character. There’s a germ of a good idea here, but ultimately its lost in a mess of garish colors, vulgar jokes, and really awful design. Ultimately, the legend of Ryu Hayabusa will live on, but Yaiba’s story is best forgotten. 

Edge: 2/10

Yaiba is dumb. All of which is baffling, given that this was made under the eye of Keiji Inafune, who famously lambasted how far his countrymen had fallen behind western game development. His solution, apparently, is to turn one of Japan’s last great series into a repetitive grind riddled with cheap deaths, and to help a western studio with a poor track record reach a new, unthinkable low.

CVG: 3/10

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z does not respect its franchise, its genre, or you. And it certainly doesn’t seem to respect itself. At no point, in fact, does it even appear to care if anyone likes it. But that’s just fine, because at no point will you.

IGN: 5.6/10

If a computer generated an elevator pitch for a game based on random, stereotypical gamer interests, it might spit out a jumble like Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. And while that could totally still be awesome, this experience is so mired in frustration that even a few well-timed jokes can’t save the day. Gaiden games have always been challenging, but they’ve also always been fair. Yaiba is not. Instead, it’s unbalanced and arbitrarily punitive, and after the first few hours, it’s not worth putting up with anymore.

The sole voice of dissent comes via Japan’s Famitsu, who’s panel of four reviewers each gave the game a 9/10. It’s possible that Yaiba is one of those odd games that caters to particularly Eastern tastes, ir it’s quite simply a sign that nobody should be paying to whatever Famitsu says anymore.

I actually liked what I  played of Yaiba back when it was in pre-alpha, but it was a small, ten-minute snippet of the game – but i suppose that’s the problem with demos. They don;t paint a complete picture, showing you the good while doing their best to leave out the bad.

Last Updated: March 19, 2014

23 Comments

  1. Umar Praise The Golden Sun

    March 19, 2014 at 09:16

    I honest to god can’t say I’m surprised

    Reply

    • RinceIsIngwer

      March 19, 2014 at 09:55

      I look forward to your review. What, a 9.2/10? *RUNS

      Reply

      • Umar Praise The Golden Sun

        March 19, 2014 at 10:11

        Lolz, Well you’ll see 😉

        Reply

  2. Tarisma

    March 19, 2014 at 09:18

    Mo surprises there

    Reply

  3. FoxOneZA

    March 19, 2014 at 09:19

    Should be bundled with Castlevania 2! 😀

    Reply

  4. eXpZA

    March 19, 2014 at 09:21

    10/10 ~Garth Holden

    Reply

    • VampyreSquirrel

      March 19, 2014 at 09:25

      Wookies give 10/10’s?

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief of comments

        March 19, 2014 at 09:38

        For Skyrim yes, saw him online and in Skyrim last night in fact…

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief of comments

      March 19, 2014 at 09:38

      DAFUQ???????

      hehehe

      Reply

    • RinceIsIngwer

      March 19, 2014 at 09:55

      Snap 😉

      Reply

  5. Admiral Chief of comments

    March 19, 2014 at 09:38

    Mark of the Ninja – 10/10 in my books

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      March 19, 2014 at 09:38

      Inderdaad.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief of comments

        March 19, 2014 at 09:38

        I love how simple and fun it is!

        Reply

  6. Rainman

    March 19, 2014 at 09:39

    Ninja Gaiden or Ginja Naiden?

    Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      March 19, 2014 at 09:40

      That sounds like a Gauteng porno

      Reply

      • TiMsTeR

        March 19, 2014 at 09:49

        Featuring Die Antword

        Reply

        • Jedi JJ

          March 19, 2014 at 10:11

          Urgh

          Reply

  7. Sk3tz0

    March 19, 2014 at 09:44

    Game might be kak but that header looks pretty shweeet

    Reply

  8. oVg deprived

    March 19, 2014 at 10:17

    All their time and money has been spent making bikini DLC for DOA.

    Reply

  9. Captain Hobbit Popper

    March 19, 2014 at 10:30

    Big and Steaming!

    Reply

  10. CypherGate

    March 19, 2014 at 10:44

    I still think the Shinobi series on Sega is the best ninja games as well as the nintendo Ninja Gaiden series.

    Reply

  11. Kalin44

    March 19, 2014 at 11:08

    I don’t doubt that this game is bad (it looks bad, it reads like it’s bad, and it looked bad for a long time) but the Ninja Gaiden developers who make the numbered series have been very clear that this has always been a spin-off and made by a seperate team, not by the team that works on the numbered games. Now granted they did severely butcher NG3 and I was as annoyed at anyone by wasting $60 on that when it came out, but they did show in their NG3: Razor’s Edge remake of the game after negative reception that they got the message, and the fighting gameplay and weapon/character/magic variety was pretty great in that, so I’m pretty optimistic for NG4. Obviously there were some things in NG3 that couldn’t be fixed in the remake, but that had more to do with story, plot, boss and level flaws that simply couldn’t be corrected.

    Reply

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