Shinobido: Tales of the Ninja

Tenchu's creators are back with a real-ultimate-ninja title for PSP, and we're first to review the English version.

	Version PSP	Developer Acquire	Publisher SCEE (EU) Spike (JP) TBA (US)	Genre Action

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By Ian Dransfield

With Shinibido, we have one of those lovely situations that tend to confuse everyone aside from the ones really paying very close attention - the developers used to make the Tenchu games, but lost that licence to FROM Software, so instead moved on to make a new series of ninja games, moving from Shinobido: Way of the Ninja on to this most recent portable effort: Shinobido: Tales of the Ninja.

Players familiar with the PS2 version will take little time to get accustomed to the PSP's version of ninja delights, with the game translating surprisingly well to the handheld.

A few cutbacks have been made on controls, with no free camera control one of the biggest and most annoying points, but otherwise the game stands on its own two feet pretty well. It has to be noted that controls can feel a bit twitchy and over-reactive at times, leading to Immediate Ultra Death/alerting the enemy to your presence etc, but with a bit of practice it'll be easily overcome.

Graphically things are rough; while many would probably see this as a downer, I personally can't help but feel my guts buoyed with nostalgia as I happily remember how shoddily wonderful the original Tenchu looked, even back in the day.

Personal foibles aside, the game does still look alright, but when compared to recent powerhouses like Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops it really shows how little the PSP is being pushed - slowdown when the action gets a bit intense, especially around buildings, is pretty annoying too and could possibly have done with a bit more fine-tuning.

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Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Shinobido: Tales of the Ninja Direct feed trailer   (PSP - SCE)	01:24	19MB	DF, SD, 16:9 640x360p30 2.3Mbps