I have to be honest with everyone before I give you my impressions of Ninja Blade. I had next to zero knowledge of this game before I played it. I might have read a small blurb about its release, but generally I knew nothing about this title. Plain and simple, Ninja Blade is awesome! I am going on record by saying this will be one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2009. Because advertising companies are not force feeding us information, commercials, etc. regarding Ninja Blade, when compared to “heavier budgeted titles”, many gamers might not know of its existence. I’m really glad this demo was released on Xbox Live yesterday, because if it wasn’t, most likely I would have never played this great game.

More details and video of the demo below.

Demo Video:




The demo from took me a little over 20 minutes to complete, but it consisted of 100% pure action from start to finish. I’ve never played a game with such aggressive pacing as this. Even AAA favorites like God of War or Ninja Gaiden don’t pace like Ninja Blade. In the game, you play as one of the elite members of a futuristic ninja combat team. You’ve been issued the task of defending Japan from being overrun by mutant beings and the like. The game begins with the team being deployed from an aircraft over a major city, and you must skydive without parachutes to your destination.

While skydiving you must engage in mid-air combat with flying baddies, via God of War like quick timed events. But no, the action doesn’t stop there. After swinging through the glass wall of a skyscraper, you encounter more enemies on foot, where you’ll get the chance to show off your impressive ninja skills. With the ability to change from a variety of swords on the fly and shurikens at your disposal, you’ll make quick work of these guys. But before you celebrate your brief victory, you’re now facing down the mouth of a gigantic worm-like creature, which you must evade by diving out the window, running on the side of a building, to later run / skydive down the face of the building for more mid-air combat. Then comes the giant spider……….

The developers of this game must have received their inspiration from that Michael Bay Verizon FIOS commercial. You know, “More Fire”, “More Explosions”, “More Action”, because this game is exactly that. I would compare Ninja Blade to a Jason Statham “Transporter” movie. It consists of pure action, passable story line, and its one exciting and entertaining experience.

While I did enjoy my time with Ninja Blade, it was not a perfect one. One annoyance I found was the inability to successfully attack multiple enemies using sword combos. Once I began an attack, I could not redirect my attacks mid combo to another onscreen enemy. While it’s forgivable, it does make fighting multiple targets awkward.

Graphically the game looks great and meets all “next-gen” visual standards. However, during cut scenes when the characters spoke, their mouths moved in a weird manner. This is also a minor issue, and it did not take me away from the experience. The sound was great as well.

Overall, if Ninja Blade maintain this level of action and intensity for 6 - 10 hours of gameplay, I would definitely consider this game a purchase or at the very least an extended rental from Gamefly.com. I believe, this demo achieved its purpose of informing gamers of Ninja Blade’s release and at the same time, it makes you want to run out and purchase this game. The demo is available now for download over Xbox Live and you can expect Ninja Blade to hit stores on April 7, 2009.