Ninja Gaiden is a long-standing franchise that saw its debut in the arcade in 1988, and found its way to the Nintendo Entertainment System home console later in the same year. The series has spanned over two decades and nearly a dozen titles, and it has well earned its reputation for being one of the most difficult game franchises in existence. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is the latest entry, and it's far different from its predecessors.
Rather than playing as Ryu Hayabusa, the series' typical protagonist, Ninja Gaiden Z has you playing as Yaiba Kamikaze. Since this is Yaiba's inauguration into the lore, he's given a thick backstory that boils down to him massacring his own clan after growing bored of his work. Soon after he encounters Ryu and challenges him, to which Ryu slices Yaiba to shreds, killing him. Yaiba is then reconstructed and given enhanced cybernetic augmentations to not only bring him back to life, but to make him an unstoppable killing machine. He then sets out on a mission of revenge against the great ninja master.
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z attempts in every manner to be a badass hack and slash game; combining the charm of Devil May Cry with the basic mechanics of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, all wrapped up in a comic book cell shaded graphic style similar to Borderlands. It's vulgar and bloody, it has explicit language and crude jokes. It sets itself up to be a decent title, though grievously it falls flat in all aspects. The jokes and obscene dialogue come off incredibly forced, and the vibrant blood looks like someone took a bucket of red paint and splattered it in random areas. The story, as detailed as it may be, follows a convoluted chain of events that just don't make sense.
Though the worst aspect and biggest downfall of this title is its underwhelming, lackluster hack and slash gameplay. Yaiba can attack with his swords, flail, and cybernetic arm, as well as throw enemies and dash around the battlefield. More often than not you're met with tremendous groups of zombies, generally of the same handful of basic models, and you fight them wave after wave. There's little to break up the monotony save mini-boss battles, execution maneuvers to regain health, and the end level bosses. There are also quick time event platforming sections that feel equally as tired as the rest of the game. It all accumulates into levels feeling way too long, and as a result the game itself is little more than mulch.
Of course you have the fanboys who still bend over backwards to defend this game because "it's not bad just because it's different". That's indeed true, it's bad because it's bad. I have no personal nostalgia or true love for the Ninja Gaiden series, and yes Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is different than any of its predecessors. It's always good to eventually stir the pot and try something different with any series that has gone on for multiple decades. However, in this particular instance it just didn't work out. The game tries too hard to be funny, crude, and obnoxious. It tries too hard to cash in on the over-saturated zombie market. Temco tried introducing a cocky, badass character, and all of these things just didn't work out for them. Here's hoping that some day we get a good Ninja Gaiden title on Steam.
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