Some people's qualms with the game might be excessive amount of blood. There is a decent amount of blood and gore, so if you are squeamish you might want to brace yourself. However, after about 4 minutes of playing you don't even notice it. I'm pretty sure this is a bad thing but I think I'm desensitized to video game violence. The enemies, the one spewing the massive amounts of blood, are annoying. There are plenty of enemy ninjas and they have all taken pages from The Black Knight's play book. "It's only a flesh wound!" Yep, you can chop off individual limbs if you so feel inclined, and you will. But just because they are missing an arm and both legs doesn't mean they are going to give up. They keep attacking. Once I got killed by enough gimps I learned to finish them off right away.
The levels are fun, well designed and a good length. I'm only on Chapter 4 but so far I would say the difficulty is manageable. The levels themselves aren't hard as long as you have a few items to refill life if needed. The bosses are pretty tough, I will admit. The Chapter 2 Boss is quick and then 3rd Chapter boss is just weird. So while the bosses are hard, once you play and die a few times you will master exactly how to beat each boss. The real challenge, at least so far, are things you wouldn't expect. The first is jumping and scaling walls. There is a move called Invisible Path and trying to execute caused me use questionable language. You really have to be patient, something I am not. The other thing that presents a challenge is the wildlife. Sure there are ninjas and dragons and what not but the first time I died, outside of a boss battle, was by rabid wolves. The bat's are gruesome too.
All in all, I'm on chapter 4 and can't wait until it's my turn on the Xbox 360 again. Even though it's my Xbox 360 I'm letting my brother play KotOR2, I'm a sweetheart. This game is a lot of fun. It's fast paced, it plays well, the graphics are amazing and after hours of playing I'm not bored. My only negative so far is that I can tell it's getting progressively more difficult and I'm afraid I won't be able to play it through. I'm really getting the feeling, from friends who are farther than me, that I'm not going to like the game anymore come Chapter 7. This might be one of those really fun games that you just never beat because you loose interest. The camera angles are also a little off but after playing Lego Indiana Jones any camera angles are a-okay with me.
On a personal note Ryu Hayabusa might be my new video game crush, granted he dresses like a buff Mr. Slave. The whole game you get to look at his cute butt. Don't pretend you didn't notice.
Also, Tuesday night at 10pm PST 1am EST, The Game Show will be giving away a copy of this game. Tune in to win a free copy.
