Tenchu: Shadow Assassins

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins

Legend has it that ninjas are the stealthiest assassins in the world. Now you can try your hand at becoming one of them on Nintendo Wii.

Feudal Japan has proven a terrific backdrop for some of the best-loved videogames. The superb Onimusha action series from Capcom, Ninja Gaiden of course, and don’t forget that Sega’s Total War epics began with Shogun.

Tenchu revels in the atmosphere of ancient Japan, although its heroes are surely larger than life. Azuma Clan ninjas Rikimaru and Ayame are stylised renditions of the famous shadow dancers but the environments they tread pay glorious respect to the celebrated samurai era. It probably helps that the game was produced in Japan, preventing it from becoming horribly corny or such magical lore misunderstood.

As a stealth game your primary concern is to remain in the shadows or otherwise remain undetected – sneaking through bushes, balancing along wooden beams, or creating distractions. As a ninja you’ll have throwing stars (Shuriken) to take down enemies from range, or a sword for swiftly decided combat. More often than not, however, you’ll be executing close-range assassination moves that require nerves-of-steel timing and then some kind of action using the Wii remote and nunchuck.

Throughout the 10 missions, give or take, you’ll need to treat each new location as a huge puzzle to solve. Accessories such as the bamboo tube can help extinguish lanterns, creating a pathway of shadow. You’ll cling to the underside of carriages that pass through city gates and jump swiftly into barrels to stay out of sight. But best of all your ninja vision, or ‘Mind’s Eye’, lets you spot enemies from their heat signature and to get an idea of the direction they’re looking.

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is gripping from the word go, with plenty to keep your hands busy although not to the extent where it feels overly complicated. We expect anyone with a thirst for ninja antics will settle into the control system after carefully observing the initial tutorials. The game often looks astounding on Wii, with atmospheric weather effects and all manner of great lighting effects. Similarly the minimalist music is very tasteful, almost needlessly so for ‘just’ an action videogame. We were surprised to find however that the game does not support EDTV / HDTV as advertised on the box – so no 480p only 576i. That’s just a niggle though.

The only real problem you might have is always wishing the Wii remote could be used to point and aim instead of manoeuvring the nunchuck stick into place. But, again, this is small potatoes given the wealth of missions and side quests on offer.

Wii gamers are starved of quality action titles, but even were they overflowing on the console we’d still highly recommend Tenchu: Shadow Assassins.

4 out of 5