Hotsuma's Reviews: Nightshade

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You can probally guess how I feel about sega's recent Shinobi series. I like it. Hotsuma was possibly the coolest character design in gaming history. It was challenging, fun, and it let you cleave you enemies and bosses into peices...for it's sequel Nightshade, imagine Shinobi without the difficulty, fun, the cleaving enemies in half, and Hotusma...what are you left with? A cheap She-nobi rip of of Hotsuma named Hibana, the worst camera I have ever experienced, repetitive gameplay, and alot of generic bugs. doesn't sound to promising does it? it's not. the game has a mediocre story revolving around our Hotsuma wanna be (Hibana). in which she was to journey through 12 stages filled with enemies, bottomless pits, and mirros which prevent you from advancing though the level. now that we've gotten that out of the way, lets focus on the character design a bit more. Hibana, as stated is a Hotsuma rip off, she wears the same four-eyed mask and has two ribbons trailing behind her...mugh like Hotsuma's four-eyed mask and his scarf. the various enemies are boring, and consist mainly of insect like hellspawns which can be killed with a simgle hit or so. half   of the bosses follow the same formula. the other half consist of a pinwheel weilding ninja, a perverted death seeker with a fireworks fetish, a spoiled, bratty, whore, and an old guy, who apparently was banging Hibana, and is curently banging the previously mentioned whore, and ANOTHER Hotsuma rip off. this time in the form od a cyborg, with a four eyed mask and scarf....yea...my thoughts exactly. the camera is the worst one I have ever dealt with. it works fine for the first few stages, but in some of the later stages you have to jump from enemy to enemy and then land on a platform, which is either moving, exploding, or insanly small...this wouldn't be so bad if you could actually see the platform. to add to the fustration, if Hibana gets hit by a single attack while standing on any platform, it will knock her off and send her into the pit below you, after which you have to start over again. All these obvious drawbacks...gives way to alot of "if only" moments. it's an utterly dissapointing experience, but the game is strangely addictive, after beating the game...you want to play it again despite knowing you wont like it any more than you did last time...and you wont...but then, you'll play it again, and get fustrated again, and play it again...you get the idea. somehow, sega took a bad game, and made it more addictive than a good game...and for that, I'll give Nightshade a 2/5