Ninja: Shadow of Darkness

• Release Date: October 01, 1998
• Genre: Action
• Style: Third-Person 3D Action
• Similar Games: Ninja Gaiden (Nintendo Entertainment System), Ninja Gaiden (Sega Game Gear), Tomb Raider (Sega Saturn), Fighting Force (PlayStation), Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PlayStation), Tomb Raider (PlayStation), Fighting Force (IBM PC Compatible), Tomb Raider (IBM PC Compatible), Ninja Gaiden (Arcade), Ninja Gaiden (Sega Genesis), Ninja Gaiden (Atari Lynx), Ninja Gaiden (TurboGrafx-16), Soul of the Samurai (PlayStation), Ninja Gaiden (Sega Master System), Tomb Raider Starring Lara Croft (Game Boy Color), Ninja Gaiden (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

Ninja: Shadow of Darkness stars a young but powerful ninja named Kurosawa. Unlike many ninjas before him, he is able to summon the mystic powers of the arcane. He'll need to use this magic to defeat monsters and creatures from the netherworld. Viewed from a third-person perspective, the game features 11 action-oriented levels spread across four worlds. Kurosawa will travel across cemeteries, mountains, coastal areas, forests, and more.

The ninja can summon flame and lightning attacks or use an arsenal of weapons to defeat those standing in his way. Daggers, swords, throwing stars, and other tools of the trade are available. Since enemies will join forces and attempt to gang up on you, stealth and strategy must often be used to safely make it through the hazardous terrain. The single-player Ninja: Shadow of Darkness requires one block of memory to save progress. Help Kurosawa destroy evil to return peace to a troubled land.

Review: Overall

NINJA: Shadow of Darkness is brought to you by Eidos Interactive, the publishers of Tomb Raider. In case you didn't know that, they put a small banner on the cover art to remind you. With such impressive credentials you'd think they would have produced a better game.

Make no mistake, NINJA is graphically impressive. It has lush 3D environments and wonderful special effects. The characters and bosses look great. Unfortunately looks is all this game really has going for it. It is a bit fun to play but has way too many downsides to be worth the money.

The gameplay is very stilted and the character controls are inadequate for this type of adventure. Without the benefit of analog compatibility, movement of Kurosawa is very odd. In order for you to simply walk instead of run, you need to use the R1 button. It really should be the other way around. Another problem with the controls is not being able to face enemies coming at you diagonally. This should not be a problem but almost all enemies come at you from angled positions. So unless you're very adept at pressing the D-pad, it's very difficult to engage the enemy. This gives them plenty of free shots until you can face them and kill them properly.

There is a lot of jumping in this game, which can get frustrating. When jumping over things, Kurosawa doesn't tuck his feet in or anything. He pretty much jumps like someone making a three point shot, straight up and down. So when you jump over rolling logs and such, your feet often get caught which will cost you some serious life energy.

Since Kurosawa has unlimited throwing stars, you may never really need to engage the enemy. You just need to be slightly out of sight of the enemy and you can nail them with the throwing stars. However, if they are at some type of diagonal angle from you, you will have to fight them head on.

Speaking of enemies, there is a pretty big mismatch between your power and the enemies' power. Some are much, much faster and others are way stronger. They usually attack in groups of three or more. In the beginning it isn't so bad but as you get further along in the game, it gets very tough. The perfect example is when you're facing two guys wielding axes and two guys throwing punches all attacking at the same time and some at diagonals. This can easily get frustrating or lead to Kurosawa being killed.

Now you can collect magical and regular power-ups. While the regular ones boost your physical attacks, the magical ones are only good once and usually don't kill all the enemies. The magic also uses your own life energy so you might kill yourself if you're not paying close attention to your life meter.

Lastly, there are no passwords in this game. You only get three continues. Once they are gone your game is over and you have to start the game over completely. The memory card is only used to record the highest scorer. This just didn't live up to Eidos' usual caliber of game.

Review: Enjoyment

The game is pretty good yet loses some appeal due to its flawed controls.

Review: Graphics

The visuals are wonderful and rich.

Review: Sound

Sound effects and music fit the game perfectly.

Review: Replay Value

There aren't a lot of secrets so once through will probably be enough.

Review: Documentation

Part of the manual contains a very cool catalog that features lots of {@Eidos} merchandise you can buy.

Production Credits