I went into Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z with a fair degree of caution and I was prepared for the possibility of it being rather bad due to the overwhelming number of negative reviews, with the only positive reviews here on Amazon proving to be largely unhelpful. Still, my "video gaming OCD" prevented me from completely passing on this one since it's part of a series of games I like. Surprisingly, I found this game to be better than the horrible abomination other reviewers made it out to be. Sure it has issues, but they weren't quite so bad that I felt the game deserved to be hailed as one of the worst games of all time...believe me, there are far worse games out there. This game opens with an impressive intro showcasing the titular, foul-mouthed ninja, Yaiba Kamikaze, in a duel of blades with main series protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa. After managing to hold his own with the famed Dragon Ninja, Yaiba and his sword are both cut down and he ends up like most who dare to challenge Ryu...dead. Before he knows it, Yaiba is revived as a cyborg ninja with the left side of his head and his whole left arm replaced with mechanical implants, then he's suddenly dropped into a zombie outbreak in the Ukraine. The one who rebuilt him, the full-figured Miss Monday, guides Yaiba through a radio uplink and along with her boss, Alarico Del Gonzo, they convince Yaiba to help them deal with the zombie threat in exchange for getting a chance to kill Ryu Hayabusa, who is also making efforts to deal with the zombies. The story is cohesive and makes sense, but it's not really all that interesting, and the "twist" in the later mission revealing who is responsible for the presence of the zombies is far from surprising. The main focus of the story was simply to give gamers a good laugh...and it only partially succeeds on that front.
Yaiba is an interesting character to play as because he's far from heroic and cares only about killing Hayabusa, and he enjoys ripping zombies apart in brutal, sadistic fashion. Miss Monday throws out a few quips and one-liners, as well as a few sex jokes along with Yaiba. Del Gonzo, surprisingly, is the one who provides the most consistent humor, especially in the last mission, but even he only made me chuckle a few times and laugh out loud only once. The zombies themselves provide a fair amount of the game's humor as well, whether it's a standard zombie holding a cigarette out to a fire zombie, only to have itself incinerated along with its cigarette, or a bile zombie vomiting a seemingly endless supply of bile from its mouth as it holds its hand up to the camera to signify that it's almost done puking. Again, nothing outright hilarious, just something to give you a quick chuckle. So, while this game does have a decent sense of humor and does nothing to hide it, the humor is largely juvenile with only a few clever bright spots here and there, so if you are thinking of getting this game simply for the laughs, then you might be disappointed. The graphics help set the mood with a cool cel-shading effect that make it look like you're in a comic book. The gameplay is pretty fun and has some good combat, platforming, and puzzles; but again, nothing too impressive. The combat is largely a button mashing affair against a number of different types of zombies. Yaiba is armed with 3 weapons that can be used on the fly with the square, triangle, and circle buttons respectively. The Heartless Blade is his fastest weapon and does medium slashing damage to enemies. His Cyber Arm is his strongest weapon and lets him hit enemies with powerful punch and slam attacks, as well as break through certain barriers, yet it's rather slow. His arm also doubles as a chain-like Flail which he can swing around to attack multiple enemies surrounding him, as well as break through electric fields, but it does the least amount of damage.
A number of combos can be pulled off by attacking with all three weapons in different orders. Getting off a full combo or hitting enemies with strong attacks when they're low on health will give Yaiba a chance to execute them God of War style, and he can even chain executions together with an upgrade, but it requires some good timing (I actually liked the way this was implemented). Executions are also the only way for Yaiba to regain health. Performing executions on more powerful zombies lets Yaiba tear off certain body parts and use them as temporary weapons, like using the head of a firebreathing zombie to shoot fireballs or use the spinal cord of an electric zombie as an electric flail. As Yaiba levels up, he earns perks that can provide new combos, abilities, or stronger attacks with zombie weapons. Collectibles hidden throughout the levels provide upgrades to Yaiba's health and elemental resistances, as well as journal entries that provide some more background info. Activating his Cyber Eye points out Yaiba's next objective, points of interest, and the vulnerabilities of certain enemies and targets. Finally, after killing enough enemies, Yaiba can activate Bloodlust, which temporarily grants greater attack power and invulnerability.
As you could imagine, almost all the enemies in this game are zombies (referred to in-game as "stiffs"). They range from the classic slow, shambling zombies, to faster ones dressed as clowns and armed with meat cleavers, to the ones overflowing with corrosive bile, the previously mentioned fire and electric zombies, and the truly freakish giant, two-headed baby zombies that serve as bosses. The only non-zombie enemies are the occasional attack choppers, as well as some boss mechs. These enemies are challenging, but not too frustrating. The same cannot be said for two other bosses: Ryu Hayabusa and the final boss. These battles approached nearly the same level of frustration as bosses in the main Ninja Gaiden games. Fire, electricity, and bile are the three main elements in this game and combining them can lead to rather explosive results. Using an electric zombie weapon on a fire zombie will result in a sort of "firestorm" involving explosions of fire and electricity that can decimate surrounding enemies, or using a zombie weapon that shoots bile at an electric zombie will cause the bile to solidify into a crystal-like substance that can only be destroyed with the Cyber Arm. These elemental effects are normally the main focus of the game's puzzles, requiring Yaiba to grab electric, bile, or fire zombies and throw them at generators or other points of interest in order to advance. The platforming sections are rather straightforward and, like the levels themselves, very linear. They entail Yaiba jumping from one wall to the other, using his Flail to swing on certain grapple points, and having to time his jumps in order to avoid obstacles. There's little penalty for falling, you just pick up right where you left off, but the timing for certain jumps and the speed at which Yaiba moves can make certain platforming sections kind of annoying, though the platforming overall is pulled off well enough.
All these different gameplay aspects may sound like a lot of fun to some gamers, but complications arise with several of them. While most zombie enemies are only moderately challenging individually, the second half of the game consists of certain moments where you face several waves of enemies that can kill Yaiba very quickly if you're careless. Certain outrageous circumstances have Yaiba facing fire zombies, electric zombies, clown zombies, and mechs all at once, which can make things very chaotic. These moments are made more frustrating by the fact that Yaiba himself can be killed pretty easily. Even when his health limit has increased, some enemies can kill him with just a couple of hits, and there are times where he faces several of these enemies all at once. The combat itself, as stated earlier, largely consists of button mashing, and plenty of blocking and dodging in-between. Yaiba can also counter enemies by blocking right before they attack him, but when he's being attacked by multiple enemies at once, countering becomes a very unsafe thing to rely on. The button mashing combat and linear level design make the game feel repetitive, especially in the first half of the game. The camera is also kind of wonky at times (it once moved to the other side of the screen while losing sight of Yaiba completely), and it's a fixed camera to boot. While it normally follows Yaiba around well enough, there are certain areas where a fully adjustable camera would have worked better. The controls could have been a tad more responsive too, mostly in a couple of the platforming sections.
Even the game's ending proved to be a little abrupt. While the bad guys are defeated in the end, there was little resolution between Yaiba and Ryu; I believe the developers were trying to leave things open for a sequel, which is not likely going to happen given this game's poor reception. Even though another Yaiba spin-off game is pretty much a no go, I would still like it if they worked him into the next main Ninja Gaiden installment as a rival enemy for Ryu, or even a brief cameo. Yaiba wasn't the most magnetic protagonist, but seeing him as an antagonist in a future Ninja Gaiden game could prove interesting. One last thing: beating the main game unlocks a 2D brawler version of Ninja Gaiden Z where Yaiba is looking for his lost sake bottle. The game comes complete with old school music you'd expect from a 16-bit sidescrolling classic, as well as still-frame cutscenes with dialogue that is purposefully written with more grammatical errors than you would find in the average two sentence long Amazon review. If you haven't already figured it out by this point, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is NOT the game for Ninja Gaiden purists. It is a spin-off set in the same universe with a humorous twist to it and a completely different art style. Those who don't mind button mashing gameplay with a challenge may actually like this game...or not. What do I know? If you're still curious about getting this game, then now would be a good time to try it since the price is below $30. The game isn't horrible, but I could see why someone would be more than disappointed if they paid full price for this largely bargain-bin quality title.
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