I must admit, after seeing the abysmal score Gamespot gave this game, I was skeptical to play it when a friend suggested it to me. Going into the game extremely biased and negative towards it, I was surprised by how quickly my opinion was changed. First off, this is not the type of high-flying sword slashing game you would come to expect from other ninja games such as Ninja Gaiden. Rather, Tenchu Z focuses on the stealth aspect ( and more realisic) of being a ninja. Although most gamers may find the games slow, and at times tedious, pace boring; fans of stealth games such as Splinter Cell will find a decent amount of enjoyment in Tenchu. As mentioned Tenchu Z wants you to quickly kill your opponents from the shadows as opposed to head-to-head open combat, so understandedly the games swordplay is weak. Stealth kills are executed by sneaking up to an opponent and hitting the 'X' button when an image appears. The type of stealth kills vary depending on a number of factors, and this keeps everykill somewhat exciting. So basically, if you're actively swinging your sword at an enemy, then chances are you're playing the game wrong. You start Tenchu Z off by creating your ninja and partner ninja, who admitedly does pretty much nothing to help you, and as the game progresses you unlock new clothing items which can be purchased with gold earned during missions. There is a surprising number of items to unlock in Tenchu, and collecting these pieces becomes strangely addicting. Along with clothing, you can also purchase ninja skills and items to help to with your missions. In truth, most ot the skills and items are completely useless and the game never really forces you to use certainitems or skills in a specific way; though this isn't exactly a negative aspect seeing as it keeps the game open and allows its players to decide how to deal with their foes. Gamespot's review mentioned how most of the games 50 missions can quickly be completed by simply running to the objective, which is in esscence true; but once again if you are just running to your target then you are no playin the game as it is ment to be played. Besides, couldn't that same statement be made for most games? The point of the game isn't really the final assassination, but rather killing off as many opponents on a level without being spotted and achieving a top rank. The Xbox Live portion of Tenchu Z can be pretty fun if you have some friends to play with. During the multiplayer you can do missions with up to three other ninjas in one party. I found it oddly fun working with a partner taking down enemies . That said, there are some bugs in the multiplayer that really hurt the over all experiece. While playing on live you can experience some serious lag at times, and the Tenchu game channel is essentially broken. In the end, Tenchu Z does have the graphics of an Original Xbox game, and the AI can be a bit passive at times; Tenchu Z is still a great game. I suggest renting it first to see it it's your type of game, like I did, before you pass judgement on it.
I will start by agreeing with many that this game is indeed under-rated. A score below 5 is absolutely abysmal, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I think Tenchu deserves a score in the 7's for this reason: it's ... Read Full Review
This is my first time playing Tenchu so try to keep this in mind. I can't relate to any of the past titles, so this is a review from a new player. Before I actually purchased the game, I downloaded the demo from XBOX... Read Full Review
