Mark of the Ninja: Remastered

I wasn’t sure how a stealth game would work in 2D, but this game absolutely nails it. The gameplay offers a great variety of tools, fun challenges, and levels worth replaying with different approaches and playstyles. I’m not going to sit here and list the pros and cons. If you like stealth games, you need to play this.

A very good game actually unique ninja mechanism, sound design is on point and visuals are amazing, the art style is cool , refreshing and gives off old school vibes , and the animations are crazy. I would love to see an anime with this type of animation. Takes good amount of skill, and you can have multiple play styles, a little aggresisve or completely stealth mode. Has a good story to keep you hooked and gives you a reason for all of your actions. Maxing out all achievements really takes skill. Definitely recommended.

Mark of the Ninja was originally developed by Klei Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios in the year 2012. And six years later, Klei decided to add some spit and polish and a little bit of that fabulous Klei magic to it. And the result is just amazing. Klei is one of those precious few devs that has not yet disappointed me. In fact, I think every game they make is awesome. Griftlands is one of my favorite card battlers of all time and many of its RPG features put to shame many games the proudly wear the RPG label. Invisible Inc. is a phenomenal stealth game with great visuals, impeccable user experience and pretty decent story. And Mark of the Ninja Remastered is just another banger, one that is very close to a perfect 10 out 10 in my book, because the game simply nails everything it seeks to accomplish. Labeling the game is not easy though, because it’s everything, everywhere all at once. But not because it stiches together mechanics from different genres. The devs clearly had a very good idea of the experience they wanted to deliver and they simply borrowed everything they needed to put it together. And that’s very different from making a list of thing that you’ve seen and liked in other games, as a developer, making a Frakenstein of mechanics and features and hope that it sticks the landing. Mark of the Ninja Remastered is a sidescrolling stealth game with plenty of puzzles, plenty of exploration, some platforming and even some combat. But the game isn’t really about any of the aspects that constitute its gameplay mix. It’s about figuring out… and emergent gameplay is at the core of the experience, which I absolutely love. How do I get past these guys, who do I get to this part of the map. How do I grab this scroll? I’ve already completed the objective, but what happens if I venture down this path? And many of these questions have more than one answer and many even depend on the resources at your disposal at the time. See there’s a character progression aspect to this game and it includes unlockable abilities like smoke bombs, ravaging insects, alchemical bombs and lots of other things. And these items can be used to sort out exploration, stealth and even puzzle challenges. Are you fed up with the freaking lasers in a puzzle? Well, how about you toss a smoke bomb and be done with it? Couldn’t quite figure out how to knock the big “unknockable” guys to score the kill? How about you throw some ravenous insects at them and watch them go down? Don’t have any of these things? Well tough sh1t, you’re going to have to deal with it the hard way. Or… maybe not… maybe you can find an alternate path and circumvent the challenge altogether. Controls are for the most part snappy and easy to figure out, but the final stretch of the game demands way too much precision from you and controls start to feel like they are not as tight as they should be for some of the challenges. Production values are also top notch. The visual aspect of the game is excellent. Cut scenes feature Klei’s trademark graphic style: colorful and elaborate with expressive face animations and detailed settings. In-game character animations are also excellent: I’m quite impressed with the various ways in which you can kill enemies in this game. There’s also plenty of blood, visual spectable and decent punchy sounds to go with each kill, which gives you that sense of “uff” and “feck yeah” that you want in any game in which youhave to kill things. The story is also quite decent and it has a very interesting twist near the end. It reminds me of a “♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-I-didn’t-see-this-coming” moment in Rook’s story in Griftlands. It looks like plot twists are a bit of a specialty for these guys. Music is also theme and vibe-consistent and not without the occasional highlight here and there. Now if I had to level some criticism at Mark of the Ninja Remastered, I’d say that the final two or three levels can get utterly frustrating and decidedly not fun from time to time. Do you know these rage-bait meme games like “I wanna be the guy”? Well, I swear there is practically no difference between the worst passages in Mark of the Ninja Remastered and “I wanna be the guy”. Otherwise the game is quite forgiving and when you get killed (or when you savescum) you usually only have to try that one challenge you failed. Mark of the Ninja Remastered is a great time. And I’d say it’s worth playing all the way through at least once and even checking out the game plus mode, which, in a day and age where fomo and anxiety rules everybody’s lives, is quite remarkable. It gets a 9 out 10 and solid Ye Old Gamer Recommends seal of approval from me. https://youtu.be/RNxuNQtiUXE