Tenchu Z is one of those games that takes a love of not only assassination, but the oriental to fully appreciate.
The voice acting between missions is done in Chinese with English translations, and though missions may seem similar the problems and situations on maps are challenging to see how much of a ninja warrior is in you.
Your character begins from a small ninja village where you can buy new clothing, items, or learn skills. Skills are divided into normal skills, Combos, and Secret Arts to learn everything from cool sword moves to clinging on ceilings, to even listening for enemy foot steps as a make shift radar.
Combat is also satisfying, though you mostly pray for indirect combat as a ninja. By using different jumps, crouches, rolls, and ways of approaching an opponent your character uses many bloody, varying combos to dispatch guards. Some require capturing your enemy first and bringing him to the ground first before executing a crunchy head crack. Through game play however your chi energy circle acts as a proximity detector, making enemy spotting a little easier and using your own judgment on tactics whether using items like mines or shuriken to deciding where to hide the bodies. Just don't kill any civilians now!
Gold is of course earned by how many special combos and kills you received and avoiding detections helps keep your scores high. This helps achieving a ninja 5 ranking on missions translating into you kick ninja ass.
Unlocking new clothing to style your ninja is also entertaining, but the variety of missions from scaling a giant castle to infiltrating a monk monetary adds to the game play which is solid. Even the graphics aren't half bad, and make it a pleasing experience to see your enemies blood spraying out of him.
I give this game a 6 out of 10 for fun game play that is worthy to buy into your collection. You might not play it every day, but there will never be a point where you will get rid of it. The game is good to play on those summer days, with native music in the background but loses points for technical glitches and bad xbox live glitches.