Mark of the Ninja (stealth side-scroller from Klei) catch-all

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Local Shank dev Klei Entertainment has announced what looks like a proper stealth side-scroller called Mark of the Ninja. From what little there is to see, it has the feel of a 2D Tenchu, or what old-school Ninja Gaiden would have been like if you actually, you know, acted like a ninja: sneak, avoid, distract, strike.

You have to play a little text adventure (co-written by Chris Dahlen of Save the Robot/Kill Screen, which bodes interesting for the game) to earn the gameplay teaser trailer.

I'd always meant to check out the Shank games, but now I'm definitely probably grabbing this taffer. Slated for XBLA in "summer 2012".

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You had me at 2D Tenchu. As long as it's the joy of original Tenchu, not the awful sequels.

That looks neat, but Shank is so bad! So bad!

Hmm.

Looks nice and the interactive story is nicely done as well.
Too bad it's just for xbox arcade.

So Chris Dahlen is actually writing the whole game, and this is also the project Nels Anderson has been working on, so I'm basically all over this like a Tenchu guard on a poisoned rice ball.

bandit0013 wrote:

You had me at 2D Tenchu. As long as it's the joy of original Tenchu, not the awful sequels.

I only ever played Return from Darkness/Wrath of Heaven, and enjoyed it moderately well for a stealth experience. It was streets ahead of what little Metal Gear Solid I've played (MGS2), in that respect at least.

Blind_Evil wrote:

That looks neat, but Shank is so bad! So bad!

Hmm.

I dunno, but I played through the co-op game with a friend and I thought it was idiotic fun. Never played single player though.

I'm interested in the new game. Most 3D stealth games are too much for me to deal with, embarrassingly.

Nels has posted a bunch of PAX East previews videos and interviews on his blog. Excitement, I has it.

Giant Bomb Quick Look EX (EX means a creator is with them, that Nels guy in this case).

Look pretty cool still!

This game looks really cool

That quicklook in particular really sold me.

Hmm, I'm interested. Looks... interesting. Yes, interesting indeed.

Looks interesting to me too. I'm liking the stealth gameplay in DayZ so far, but would like something a little simpler.

September 7 and 1200 spacebucks.

https://twitter.com/klei/statuses/23...

Between this and Hearthfire for Skyrim, I'm glad there are no cars I'm interested in for this month's Forza DLC or that'd be an (relatively) expensive week.

I've been playing this for the last couple days. It might be one of the best XBLA games ever. Keep in mind I love stealth games.

Game seems to be killing it in reviews.

Looks like I have a new title to play this weekend.

EuroGamer 9/10
A game that never rests on its laurels and offers ample replay value, Mark of the Ninja is a much-needed shot in the arm for Live Arcade's lacklustre summer offering.

EDGE 8/10
Klei Entertainment's latest XBLA release is a slick, striking stealth game with a blackly comic heart.

OXM UK 9/10
A game this smart and surgical can't help but inspire perfectionism in turn. The stealth subgenre's troubles need no further elaboration, but Klei's work shows that a purity of focus gets results, and moreover, that challenge doesn't have to mean frustration. This ninja is marked for greatness.

VentureBeat 93/100
Even if you’ve never liked a stealth game, you shouldn’t miss Mark of the Ninja. It redefines the silent assassin. Klei said it looked to games like Thief and Tenchu when building Ninja. But the next time someone tries to make a game about sneaking around and killing from cover, they will have to take a long, hard look at Mark of the Ninja.

The Controller Online 8/10
Mark of the Ninja does a great job of bringing stealth based gameplay into the 2D space. It may seem simple at first, but you’ll soon be dangling from your grappling hook, shooting out lights and distracting guards with the best of them. If you’re looking for a new XBLA game to kill a few hours before the busy season starts, Mark of the Ninja will happily kill those hours for you. With a knife from behind, most likely.

God is a Geek 9/10
Mark of the Ninja is another outstanding game in what is turning out to be a golden year for XBLA titles. Its flawless mix of puzzle solving, combat, stealth and platforming add up to what is probably Klei Entertainments best title to date. The main story will keep you occupied for around 8 hours and there are enough challenges and unlockables to make you want to come back for more. Things get a little frustrating at the tail-end but, when all is said and done, Mark of the Ninja is a title you don’t want to miss.

I played five minutes of the trial this morning. The first impression is a little rough because it starts out in nearly-total darkness. Once I got a weapon and moved around a bit I could see the potential for a very cool game.

Too much on the plate to buy right now but I do plan to pick it up eventually.

I've seen "best stealth game ever" from multiple sources now, some of whom usually seem to have wildly different tastes in games. Bodes well, I think.

I'll pick it up sometime this afternoon.

Seems extremely solid. Very nice gameplay. Hope it doesn't get too tough.

Really, really like it so far.

Though the first challenge room I found is currently making me feel extremely stupid. I know I'm missing something incredibly simple but just can't figure out what

*Yep. I'm dumb. Sort of anyway. There was a form of movement I had never used before that I needed to do to get the thingie. Pretty intuitive really, I'm just dense.

After the orgasm on the podcast, I'm grabbing the demo now. Hope to give this a shot in a bit. Sounds like fun... anything that has reminds one of Tenchu is a buy for me.

It does indeed capture that ninja vibe and feeling of great satisfaction when you pull off a perfect takedown of a well-guarded area. Tenchu with more environmental cues and less pattern memorization.

You guys aren't lying - it's a great game! My only issues:

1) The trial has a ludicrously short period prior to where it starts prompting you to buy the game. I wasn't even five minutes in and I got hit with an "unlock now" prompt. Thankfully, I've read a lot of reviews already and like 2-D platformers quite a bit, so buying it was a no-brainer, but damn dude...what if I actually needed to develop an opinion? Why hassle me right away? 1200 points ain't exactly trivial.

2) So far, there hasn't been anything that's jumped out as an indicator of how high the playfield goes. I'm wandering around and looking for ways to get through/over/under rooms, buildings, etc., and my only recourse is to try to jump up the screen and make sure it's not going to scroll up further, even though scenery looking exactly like what I've climbed on before extends up past it. They did such a fine job calling out all the objects you can interact with, but I've got to throw my character up the screen multiple times to make sure the little bit of scroll that let me see more of the environment isn't going to keep moving up. I guess I'll get accustomed to this, but for all the smooth and smart nature of the controls and the fine job of teaching you how to play the first level does, that first level took me entirely too long to finish.

But that's really it. This game is really slick stuff! Even dragging bodies and hiding them in vents is a blast.

ianunderhill wrote:

1) The trial has a ludicrously short period prior to where it starts prompting you to buy the game. I wasn't even five minutes in and I got hit with an "unlock now" prompt. Thankfully, I've read a lot of reviews already and like 2-D platformers quite a bit, so buying it was a no-brainer, but damn dude...what if I actually needed to develop an opinion? Why hassle me right away? 1200 points ain't exactly trivial.

For future reference, I believe it's mandatory for all XBLA titles to prompt a purchase whenever you get what would be an achievement in the full version of the game.

Blind_Evil wrote:

For future reference, I believe it's mandatory for all XBLA titles to prompt a purchase whenever you get what would be an achievement in the full version of the game.

So that makes it a less-than-ideal place to put an achievement, and they should know better.

I guess, but sooo many XBLA games have them that soon or sooner that I guess I'm used to it by now.

Grabbed the demo... Definitely good fun. Probably will shell out the bucks for it and have a few extra points for some more RB songs.

This game makes me wish for a MS Xbox Live Arcade handheld...

Funny you should say that, TheGameguru. In playing through the first level earlier today, I constantly found myself thinking about what a sweet mobile game it would make. But then I thought about what would have to be re-tooled and had further damning thoughts of "too many platforms". In the handheld space, I think this game would require at least a tablet-size display and still some tweaking beyond proportional scaling to make everything easily visible. Then there'd be figuring out a solid way of mapping the controls to a handheld-style control scheme, which says a lot not only about how well implemented the controls are here, but how naturally they fit with the 360 controller as well.

Although I'd be absolutely delighted if the folks behind this could pull it off on any extant platform. Most especially because it'd mean they'd get a lot more exposure, make a crapload more money, and maybe even pop out something even better down the line. Though it's hard to imagine besting Mark of the Ninja.

I hope it does well enough to warrant a PC port. Hell, I'll take a straight port that requires a gamepad, just get this on Steam!

I am really enjoying this game and am having lots of fun with this. I can easily see myself finishing the game, and then finishing the new game+, and doing my best to get 400/400 gamerscore.

Just 100%'ed the first 2 levels.

Hot damn, this game is fine.

It's versatile enough to avoid the instant, "You're detected = Game Over" of most stealth games, but if you're OCD on optional level-specific goals, expect to do some reloading.

There's 3 tiers of goals per level.

- 3 hidden backstory logs (all voiced...all in Haiku :p )
- 3 level specific goals (shoot out 20 lights, go undetected, etc.)
- 3 specific score accumulation levels

On the bright side, checkpointing is uber friendly here and you don't lose accumulated progress if you restart at one. There's no fear of botching it and having to redo a level all over and I've never found myself more than 15 seconds before an enemy encounter or puzzle upon reloading.

Color me impressed.

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Just played the first mission of this, it's awesome so far- can't wait to play the rest.

There's a new Brainy Gamer podcast about the game (first I can remember for a long time) here too.

Welcome to a special Ninja Edition of the Brainy Gamer podcast!

In this edition I talk with Nels Anderson and Chris Dahlen, Lead Designer and Narrative Designer of the new game Mark of the Ninja.

We discuss the development process for the game, the challenges and opportunities of working in the independent space, and why Chris is the Oscar Hammerstein of game writing...among many other topics.

I hope you enjoy.

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