Nightshade – PS2 – Review

A new rift has opened
between the Earth and evil realm.  What does that mean?  Absolutely nothing to
the uninformed.  Rifts are opening up all over the place these days.  You
know, there was a time when "rift" even made it into the title of really bad
fighting games.

This rift, however, belongs to a much more important game: Nightshade.  If the
name doesn’t ring a bell, then maybe Kunoichi will.  Still lost?  Don’t feel
bad – Nightshade is the American version of Kunoichi, the semi-sequel to
Sega’s awesome remake of Shinobi.  (Kunoichi means "female shinobi").  The
levels aren’t rehashed from the previous game, but its new star and similar
gameplay mechanics do not qualify as the next chapter in the Shinobi series.
However, history tells us that side-stories and semi-sequels are sometimes the
best games of all.  (Resident Evil CODE: Veronica is probably the most popular
of any game I could give as an example.)

With a kunoichi in place
of a shinobi, Nightshade looks flashier, sexier, and all the more appealing to
everyone who bought Tomb Raider just so they could look at Lara Croft.  Hibana
is a well-designed character, but it’s her sleek and seamless moves that’ll
really impress fans of the series.  Players can still run on walls, perform
double jumps, and execute awesome Tate combos (in which you strike four or
more enemies in succession, killing all of them simultaneously).  In terms of
controls, this is nothing short of being the Shinobi sequel (or even a
semi-sequel) that the fans were hoping for.

One of Hibana’s most fun
moves is a dive kick.  After jumping into the air you can dive towards enemies
with a fierce kick attack.  Because of the game’s structure, which is designed
to add an extra jump move every time you attack an opponent, players could
potentially jump from enemy to enemy, unleashing dive kicks or other attacks,
and never hit the floor.

The first level is really
intense.  You expect to find yourself hopping across building tops or
exploring a dark and abandoned subway (those come later), but instead you’re
placed on top of a moving fighter jet.  It’s flying through a busy city, and
there are other jets and various types of enemies just waiting to take you
out.  Surprisingly, this stage isn’t very hard, even on the harder difficulty
settings.  I can’t complain here though – the level is fast, fun, and one of
the more unique experiences I’ve had with a game.  The appeal has more to do
with the aesthetics and the camera angle, which changes frequently to enhance
the mood, but it still deserves praise.  It reminded me of the old arcade
games in which your only goal was to shoot the enemy and stare at all the
pretty colors.

If you’ve played any of
those arcade games, you know that they were fun for about thirty minutes.
After that you got bored, stopped playing, and wondered where all your
quarters went.  Nightshade suffers in a similar way.  There are some really
cool levels, like the fighter jet one I described, and even the more stagnant
stages are entertaining.  But the game consists of nothing more than hunting
down enemies and killing them.  There are several ways to do this, and that’s
the one thing that keeps this game alive.  Ninja stars, power-ups, basic
combos, Tate combos and aerial attacks are just some of the ways you can
abolish the enemy in this game.

The problem is, of
course, that after you’ve killed a group of enemies in every conceivable way,
a new batch of enemies appears, ready to strike.

Bogging the game down
with useless puzzles would have been crazy.  That’s not the kind of game this
should be.  It wouldn’t have been smart to give players hardly any battles
either.  What I’ve found with repetitious games like this is that the key to
success is having a multitude of goals.  Why is my only goal to beat the
game?  I could try to play as efficiently as possible to increase my rank at
the end of each stage, but that’s only worth doing in a game that is highly
addictive, not highly repetitive.  A better goal might have been a complex
growth system in which the player gains money and EXP for defeating enemies in
the most efficient way possible.  Your character would become stronger and
faster with time, and you’d be able to buy additional weapons and attack moves
with the money you’ve earned.  Devil May Cry used a system like this to keep
the game from becoming a bore.  (It had puzzles, too, but as I said before I
really don’t want them in a game like this.)

If this game were graded
on the controls alone it would easily get a 9 out of 10.  Sega has done a
remarkable job of cramming so many complex moves and camera angles into an
easy-to-master control system.  This is what makes the game fun to play, even
when it starts to get repetitive.  Knowing this, and knowing how much you
liked or disliked Shinobi, think long and hard before deciding if Nightshade
is right for you.  It’s a better-than-average weekend rental, and if you love
Shinobi’s gameplay style, you’ll have some fun playing through this
semi-sequel.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 7.5
Nightshade is
somewhere between Shinobi 1.5 and a full-fledged Shinobi sequel.  Nightshade
has all of the Shinobi gameplay elements you grew to love two years ago.  It
also has new moves, a better camera targeting system (better meaning improved
– it’s still not perfect, and will likely drive you nuts from time to time),
and more enemies to kill than you could ever desire.  If you really love to
slice and dice, by all means add Nightshade to your Easter wish list (or your
Valentine’s Day wish list if you have a significant other who really loves
you).

Graphics: 7.9
Pretty colors,
fast frame rate, detailed skyscrapers.  There’s not much more worth
mentioning.  This is an attractive game, but it’s certainly not the best
PlayStation 2 can do.

Sound: 7

Difficulty: Hard
Surprised?  You
shouldn’t be.  There are times when you’ll be running happily from wall to
wall, only to die at the hands of an out-of-reach robot.  That’s just one
example.  I could list them all, but then I might as well right a whole other
review.  Lucky for us, there’s a super-easy beginner’s mode.  Use it if you’re
unfamiliar with the series or would like to play through the game very
quickly.

Concept: 7
Aside from some
cool levels and an awesome array of moves (most of which were in the previous
game), Nightshade isn’t that big of a step above Shinobi.

Overall: 7.5
Nightshade might
not offer the freshest experience, but there are few repetitious games on the
market that I’d rather spend my time with.  It’s the kind of game that I’d
play a few times a week, finish it, forget about it, and go back to it in a
year.  Most repetitive games are forgotten the day they go back to
Blockbuster.  You might not want Nightshade to go back to Blockbuster though.
I wish it were a value-priced game – then I could recommend it to everyone.
At this time though I suggest that you proceed with caution.  It’s worth
checking out, but only the most obsessed Shinobi fans will consider it a
must-buy.