Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven Review

Anannya Sen ’s Review

A cool game that takes a little bit of time to get into, but is very fun to play and has all the basic elements of the console version. The first in the series.

I love ninja games. I just wanted to get that out of the way first. In fact, I??m fascinated by the world the ninja must have inhabited. So I played a lot of the first Tenchu on the PS1 and spent a long time hiding in the shadows, looking for ways to perform the stealth kills that were so cool. I also lost a lot of friends during this period. Funny that. So I was really looking forward to playing Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven on my phone and the game is a lot of fun to play.

The graphics are well presented and depending on your phone you will get some nice pics of the main characters to advance the plot. This was not the case on the GX20 where all I got was text instead. In game, the graphics are pretty comparable between phones and nice to look at. The sprites are big and the characters are recognisable. The main character Ayame looks like she does in the console version of the game. The backgrounds are nicely done and vary quite a bit depending on what level you??re on. The other characters in the game are easy to spot ?? the samurai guards are well animated and the ninja??s you face off against also look cool. The animation is not bad, the movement is smooth. During the fighting the animation is well done, but there aren??t a whole lot of moves, just your basic block and slash. The stealth aspects of the game could be improved a bit, as you never get the feeling stealth while sticking to the shadows and rooftops, which you do on the console. You do get some nice cut scenes for the stealth kills on the Nokia series phones which is a very nice touch. It does get a bit repetitive after a while but you can click through it. A decent attempt.

The sound on the GX20 could be improved but on the Nokia's it's great!You get a nice tune when you load the game, very Japanese sounding. You can hear this in game and there are sound effects when you??re running around, making kills and using your items. There is an eerie sound when you perform the stealth kills which is very atmospheric. The in-fight sound effects are there as well, although the sounds when you block and slash can get a bit monotonous. Overall the sound is one of the best features of the game.

The controls are simple once you get used to them. The instructions are pretty extensive on the Nokia but not on the GX20. Use the D or key pad to move around. Buttons 1-7 correspond to using the items you have in your inventory. When you are using or checking anything, a circle will appear with a target pointer in the middle. This changes from a circular crosshair to a diamond shaped cross hair when you can actually use things ie use the main button to search people and move the crosshair over them to pick up items once you??ve killed them. Button 6 will allow you to scale walls and get on top of buildings. During the fighting, right will slash, left and down will block high and low respectively. Double tapping a direction either makes you retreat or sprint towards your opponent. The fighting is side scrolling. You can use your items here as well, they are shown underneath the game area. In order to perform stealth kills, sneak up to someone without being noticed (either from behind or the side) and if you keep edging towards them, instead of bumping into them, you??ll kill them. On the Nokia series phones you get a really cool animation of the kill and you can also do this by dropping off roofs onto your enemies!

The playability of actually pretty good. It takes a little bit of getting into but once you do, it??s basically a run, hide n slash game. You can pick up LOADS of items from people you kill. There are three basic attacking items (shuriken, bombs and smoke bombs), and also sleeping darts, health potions etc. There is a plotline as well about various jewels that apparently control the earth, but it's not explained too well and I had so much fun hacking and slashing that I wasn't too concerned. This is the first of three parts though. The moving, stealth kills and combat system take a little getting used to and you may find yourself dying quite easily at first. But persevere and the game gets better. The one aspect which I think was a let down is the fact that the stealth kills are quite hard. You can kill a few samurai but many will see you even if you??re walking up to them from behind. And when you hide on rooftops or in shadows, the 'alert' meter which shows whether you've been detected, doesn??t go down!! It makes sneaking around a lot lot harder. I guess you have to make sure that you're not really seen in each level to really be able to decrease the alert meter and from the looks of things it's the distance the enemy is from you which matters. Unlike the console version, you can't just wait around forever on rooftops for it to go down. You also have a stealth rating which increases the more kills, and obviously stealth kills, you make. A higher rating increases your stealth and combat abilities so this is quite cool. You can??t seem to get stealth kills on ninjas (well, maybe it was just me, but even with Aka i ninjitsu or getsumei no michi for all you Linnear fans out there, I still think the game wouldn't let you get these stealth kills on) so it was a basic ruck although they were quite easy to beat (on easy).

The lastability is good. There are certain things that get unlocked once you finish the game, you get to see more about the background and also view all the cut scenes again. Worth it maybe on the Nokia series phones but not on the text based GX20. Also, apart from the credits, you get a fighting dojo where you can just have fun slashing ronins to pieces. There are three difficulty levels and once you have finished you can replay any level. I played through on easy and the more time goes by after finishing the game, the more I find myself wanting to replay the whole thing to see if I can do it without being seen or on a higher difficulty level. It is strangely addictive, but then that maybe because I??m strange.

Overall, they got as much of the console version into the mobile version as they possibly could and the game is a lot of fun to play and is a promising start to the series.