Ninja Blade seems to have come out of nowhere. It’s hard to talk about a game that only recently made its appearance in the news since its announcement trailer from the Tokyo Games Show last year. GamePlasma was given the chance to get a head start on the demo which will be releasing on the Xbox Live Marketplace next Monday, March 9th.

How it stacks up: From Software has been a pretty quiet developer over the last few years. They seem to be most famous for the “Armored Core” and “Tenchu” series, which to be quite honest didn’t bode very well in the long run. With Ninja Blade, I’m sure the developers took a look at what Ninja Gaiden did that made it so successful and looked to build on that in their own way.

Going into this demo I was a bit skeptical as to how this would exactly play out. Considering the game is an entirely new IP, it’s of course risky when you try and take on a popular character face such as ninjas. While we can say all we want comparing this to Ninja Gaiden, this is an entirely different entity and should be treated as such. The game has its own particular charm. This brief demo gives us just enough taste, leaving us wondering where the game can possibly go from here.

The setting is the year 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. The city Tokyo has been overtaken by an Alien Worm Infestation, the worst the city has ever faced. Ken and his army of ninjas are dispatched to take care of the mess below them, whom are introduced through an opening cinematic 10,000 ft in the air on helicopters from which our hero back flips out of.

When you hit the ground, various other alien creatures swarm over you and there is a counter on the top of the screen that keeps track of each enemy wave you face. Ken is given a choice of a standard blade and a serious looking cleaver whose strength is brutal yet clumsy. Each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses so you’ll want to pick the one best suited for the current situation. While there are many enemy numbers they are easily swatted away with the effort of a few basic combos. As you finish them off, you continue to race towards another part of the building and thankfully the frame rate seems to keep itself in line with the rest of the game. While there are ranged attacks, it is soon realized that quick time events become a big part of the action based on the worm-chase sequence you encounter only moments later.

Afterwards you are greeted with a brief QTE sequence before you whisk yourself to the first boss battle. Arachne, the spider boss assaults Ken with all kinds of ranged attacks from fireballs to waves of energy after thrusting Ken back to the edge of the level. You can easily avoid these troubles by simply activating Ninja Vision with the right bumper. Ninja Vision allows the player to slow down time and increase your strength in attack, however, the drawback to that is you’ll take creator damage if hit by the enemy. So, obviously you’ll want to be careful when you use it. You can access the inventory menu by going through the start menu and using whatever items you need at the time such as health…etc. This’ll help you in the long run when you get deeper into the game and find yourself overwhelmed during a wave of enemy encounters.

My time with Ninja Blade left me interested in what is still to come. Yes, you will probably roll your eyes at the quick time events and basic combat mechanics, but all of this is brought together in a snap of succession. This means you won’t be spending too much time devoted to one or the other. If From Software keeps this up till the end of the game, then you won’t have much to complain about when you the full game is released to retail. Ninja Blade does look promising and come April one can only hope that it delivers enough to keep the general public interested.