Team Ninja | Geekscape

SDCC 2014: Hands-On With ‘Hyrule Warriors’

by Josh JacksonAugust 11, 2014

Hyrule Warriors, the marriage between the Legend Of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors, has been well documented since its surprise reveal many a Nintendo Direct ago. New characters, weapons and enemies have been revealed at a rapid pace, and yet, it was still hard to get too excited over a game that at first glance, appeared to be another Dynasty Warriors with a Link skin. Could this new game bring some of the Zelda flair to a game play style that has felt stale for years now? Being ever so diligent, we hit the Nintendo Lounge at San Diego Comic Con to find out.

Featuring Link, Zelda and Midna as playable generals, I got the chance to play as the two ladies on display. Link gets enough screen time, don’t you think? At first glance, it may not look like it matters too much who you play as, but both characters offered a variety of combat options, making them both feel distinct.

Starting with Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule shows off her plethora of light magic attacks to eliminate foes that happen to surround her. With a unique mechanic that forces her to charge up her skills, a quick tap of the A button would fill up the meter, allowing her to end combos with devastating attacks, combining her newfound rapier skills with her proficiency with spells. When her special meter is all charged up, a light arrow that destroys anything in front of her emphasizes her dominance. It’s no wonder she’s usually in the background of the core franchise games. We can’t have her overshadowing the legendary hero, no can we?

With Midna, she doesn’t fight with a traditional weapon, and many of her attacks force her to get right in the faces of enemies. Yet when she attacks, she does so in a few ways, both of which take advantage of her magic from the Twilight Realm. Standard attacks create a wolf that she temporarily mounts, which attacks with the ferocity that Link had back in Twilight Princess. When surrounded, Midna does her best Bayonetta impression by swinging her transformed hair, damaging the enemies around her. After powering up, she uses her hair to spike a giant ball of energy down onto the field, devestating the opposition in the process. Well played, Twilight Princess.

Aside from the combat, the Zelda series has its fingerprints all over the objectives from the demo. While the structure of the maps will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s touched a Dynasty Warriors game, leading your character to different points on the map to eliminate enemy generals, the goal of each mission was surprisingly varied. For example, enemy reinforcements burst through a cave, opening a hidden path with a treasure chest containing bombs. Now added to my arsenal, they could be used to uncover paths as well as in combat, just like a core title.

When it came time to face off against the stage’s boss, (King Dodongo from Ocarina of Time), hacking and slashing wasn’t enough to take it down. In true LOZ fashion, puzzle solving came into play, forcing me to throw bombs in its mouth to do heavy damage. The reward for playing well was a cinematic flurry of attacks, leading to an easy victory once played right.

I might be still on the fence as to whether I would pick this up on day one, but from what we’ve seen, Hyrule Warriors offers more than we could have ever expected, joining aspects of both franchises to create a potentially special experience. In addition to the Adventure Mode, new weapons and characters shown during its dedicated Nintendo Direct, and it’s looking like this game is becoming more and more deserving of being on our radars.

Are you a believer yet? Hyrule Warriors will launch exclusively for Wii U on September 30th.

E3 2013: Throwing Down With ‘Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate’ and its Three New Fighters!

by Josh JacksonJune 23, 2013

After Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate was announced a few months back, fans of the series such as myself were curious about what exactly would make this new version worth picking up. After all, two versions have already been released since October of last year, why would we want to invest again? After walking through Tecmo’s E3 booth, it was apparent that three new fighters would be a great start. In addition to the return of Leon and Ein who debuted in DOA 2, Momiji and Rachel from Ninja Gaiden make their debut alongside Jacky Bryant from the Virtua Fighter series. While they may be able to hold their own in the worlds of demon slaying and tournament fighting, how will they fare in DOATEC’s newest fighting competition? I tried each one to find out.

Momiji

As the first newcomer announced, Momiji looks like she would fit right in with Kasumi and Ayane in the kunoichi department. This apprentice of Hayabusa has never had a chance to show off her hand to hand skills before now, and after finishing my matches with her, I’m happy to say that she’s a blast to play. Momiji has many fast hitting attacks like you’d expect from one of the ninja characters, but seemed to be much more hard hitting. Borrowing some floaty looking techniques that are usually seen from characters like Hayate, she tends to give up a small amount of speed in exchange for some powerful and surprising combo ending attacks.That was the beauty of playing with Momiji. When it looked like her strings were done, the most painful part would follow up to blast unsuspecting opponents. So far, it looks like she’s living up to the expectations of the other kunoichi characters as a formidable, yet easy to play as fighter.

Rachel

Like Momiji, Rachel is usually seen with a weapon in hand. With her trademark hammer out of the picture, this fiend hunter has a lot to prove when it comes to hand to hand fighting. While using Rachel, I definitely got a Tina vibe from her. A powerful, yet slower character, she relied on short, hard hitting combos to inflict damage on anyone unlucky enough to go against her. While I wasn’t able to test out her grapples, her ability to grab opponents out of the air mid combo is a trait usually reserved for the wrestler type fighters. It’s good to see her strength is being put to good use! Easily the most straightforward of the three characters I tried, the Ninja Gaiden mainstay feels right at home with the heavies of the game.

Jacky

While twin sister Sarah was already throwing down in the original DOA5, it’s no surprise that Jacky wouldn’t be too far behind. A Virtua Fighter mainstay, the Bryant brother specializes in Jeet Kun Do, mostly relying on his speed to catch opponents off guard. It’s obvious that Jacky’s style wouldn’t carry over from Virtua Fighter exactly, especially since the mechanics and button layout are different, but like the other guest characters, his style is replicated pretty well. Mixing fast high and low combos are the name of Jacky’s game, and opponents are going to have to telegraph his moves in order to stand a chance. While he’s the most complex of the three new fighters, he also came off so far as the most rewarding. Jacky was always my favorite in Virtua Fighter, so figuring out how to pull off some of my favorite combos in a DOA game with him was a reward all in itself.

Would I say that these three fighters are enough to justify buying the game all over again? That depends on how much you want to stay up to date with the community. If I had already bought DOA 5, I’d likely wait for a price drop, but considering I never got around to it, these new players might be enough to get me to jump back into the ring when Ultimate is released later this year. Until then, I’ll be counting the days until I can really dig in to what these three have to offer.

Dead or Alive Ultimate is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 3rd, with the free to play Core Fighters version coming to the PSN at the same time.

E3 2013: Hands-On With ‘Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z’

by Josh JacksonJune 23, 2013

Lately, it seems like no one is safe from the zombie apocalypse. In the case of Yaiba, he’s not even safe from them in death. From the minds of Megaman creator Kenji Inafune and the development team at Team Ninja comes Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, a spin off that takes the world of ninjas, magic and fiends and throws it in the middle of a zombie outbreak. While the inherently violent idea of the undead seems like it should be a perfect fit with a series known for its creative use of dismemberment, does Yaiba bring anything new to the table compared to the dozens of zombie games already on the market? We looked to find out during our time with the game at E3.

While Yaiba’s outfit looks almost identical to the classic NES ninja garb, don’t mistake him for Ryu Hayabusa, the usual protagonist of the series. You see, Yaiba was one of the many ninjas that have fallen at the hands of Ryu and his Dragon Sword, but his thirst for revenge made him special. Because of this, Yaiba has been revived and rebuilt with cybernetic parts by a mysterious organization, promising to give him his chance at revenge. The catch? He has to stop an outbreak of walking corpses before he’s allowed to get his opportunity. It sounds silly, but considering the cheesy dialogue, comic book cutscenes and cell-shaded visuals that Yaiba employs, it’s obvious that this new game is meant to be far less serious than its predecessors.

Gameplay wise, Yaiba is shaping up to be more like something out of the Dynasty Warriors series than anything associated with the punishingly precise action gamers have associated with Ninja Gaiden. It wasn’t uncommon in the demo to find dozens of zombies on screen at once, and Yaiba’s flashy, fast hitting punches, kicks and sword slashes can tear them up in seconds. Even larger sub-boss enemies could be taken down relatively quickly, although their upgraded defense and blocking ability took a little more patience to get around. After chopping them into pieces, Yaiba could use their limbs, such as two arms attached by a string of flesh, as alternate weapons. You’ve never seen nunchucks until you’ve seen them made of human hands! If would be ninjas were still having trouble with the undead menace, players can trigger a powered up mode after killing enough enemies or taking too much damage, causing Yaiba’s cybernetic side to take over. If you’ve played any action game over the last decade or so, you know the drill. Temporary boost in power, health regeneration, faster attacks… the whole shebang!

And knowing the drill is part of my concern so far. Inafune is one of my favorite designers and Team Ninja has been one of my favorite development teams, but the time I spent with Yaiba paled in comparison to what I’d expect from the core Ninja Gaiden series. Taking a typical action route, the game looks flashy, but didn’t require anywhere near the skill associated with Hayabusa’s adventures. Attack options were slim and the camera was bad. And when I say bad, I mean pointing at the ground away from my character to the point where I couldn’t see anything kind of bad. Keep in mind though, that the screen had a very noticeable “pre-alpha” tag on the screen, so Ninja Gaiden Z is still very much in its early stages. Let’s hope someone on the team is aware of these issues before the game is released.

So far, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z has potential. Despite its early lack of challenge, repetitive combat and glitches galore, the idea of a cybernetic ninja slicing through hoards of zombies has the potential to be tons of mindless fun. While I may have personally have had my fill of the whole undead outbreak scenario, if anyone can pull it off, Inafune and Team Ninja can. After all, Ninja Gaiden is one of my favorite series of all time, so I’ll keep the faith and watch for updates as this newest take on the classic series shapes up.

Violence Is Reborn… On The Wii U? Check Out The ‘Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge’ Trailer!

by Shane O'HareSeptember 14, 2012

The Wii U is really making me excited. I was already sold on it because I am a Nintendo fanboy, but I was worried that it will face the same issues that Wii did. Limited graphics and very kid like games. Sure there were a few gems on the Wii, but it was primarily a kid console. Well the Wii U is changing that. Take a look at this trailer for Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge!

Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Not only does the trailer start out with some nice robo titties and anime booty, but it goes right into the ultra violence.

NG:RE will feature the original Ninja Gaiden 3 game and all the DLC, plus a nice graphic improvement.

No official release date has been given, just a Q4 2012, but we can assume it is a launch title. At least I hope it is.

DmC: Devil May Cry Gets A New Trailer and Some Tasty Screenshots

by Shane O'HareAugust 9, 2012

The hyper stylized hack and slash Juggernaut, Devil May Cry is getting a reboot, and we just got eyes on the possible new title (DmC, just DmC) and a great look at the environments with this new trailer. TAKE A GANDER!

Not only do we have this trailer, but we have some new screens too!

This lovely gamer can be labeled as only one thing right now. “Excited”. I was a little apprehensive, as was most of the gaming world, that the new look for Dante was a move in the wrong direction. Even after Ninja Theory said it was based on Nolan’s Dark Knight films, we weren’t impressed. After seeing this trailer I’m sold. The gritty J-Rock sound and crazy hyper weird world colored with words that one would find in a Hot Topic employees diary make for a very fun looking game.

Virtua Fighter’s Akira Invades Dead or Alive… And Why it Sucks

by Josh JacksonMarch 21, 2012

Crossovers are all the rage lately, especially with fighting games. So it’s no surprise that Team Ninja wants to get in on the action. At GDC, the newest trailer for Dead or Alive 5 showed footage of a gi wearing, headband donning karate man taking on flagship character Kasumi. No, not Ryu… that OTHER guy who looks just like him. Virtua Fighter 5’s Akira will make a special appearance in the upcoming fighter.

And they couldn’t have chosen a worse character.

Don’t get me wrong. I love DOA and I’m also a fan of Virtua Fighter. And because of that, I have no idea how Akira will fit in with fans of either series. First, you have the DOA fans who expect fast pace, simplistic fighting with counters keeping button mashers in check. Virtua Fighter on the other hand, is notoriously technical, forcing players to work for their combos with elaborate inputs and set ups.

In a game full of characters that are difficult to master, Akira is probably the most complicated of all. So how will he faithfully transfer into the world of Dead or Alive? Either he’ll handle completely differently, (which is highly unlikely,) or he’ll be altered severely to fit this game’s mechanics, (bingo, that’s where my money is.) So either you’ll frustrate DOA fans with a much harder character to use or you’ll annoy VF fans who hate to see Akira stripped down so much, (which is rare that you don’t want a character stripped down in DOA.)

Or… fighting gamers won’t care either way and will just have fun with this new character. While I don’t think the two franchises meld together well, as long as he’s fun to play, I don’t care. Check out his review trailer and let us know what you think!

Ninja Gaiden 3 is Here… and I’m Terrified.

by Josh JacksonMarch 21, 2012

Well, terrified is probably overstating it, but let’s just say I’m nervous.

Ever since Team Ninja revived the classic series on the Xbox in 2004, I’ve been on board with anything that has Ryu Hayabusa on the cover. When it came to action games, nothing would quench my bloodthirst better than the unforgiving, yet rewarding fights that gamers were guaranteed when they saw the words Ninja Gaiden on the box. But 2004 was a long time ago. Since then, head designer Tomonobu Itagaki left his team amidst a dispute with publisher Tecmo, Tecmo themselves have merged with Koei and as for the team itself, it’s had its share of hits, (like Dead or Alive Dimensions,) and misses, (the controversy surrounding Metroid: Other M comes to mind.) Last year at E3 when I saw the new Ninja Gaiden on display, I ran over to the open demo, anxious to see how one of my favorite franchises was moving forward. I booted up the game, selected hard mode, (of course!) and got down to cutting foo’s up.

But instead of being excited when I walked away, all I could think was, “what happened?”

I remember when a boss like this would be difficult.

What I played felt like a completely different game. So many key aspects that made the first two so great were gone. When I was trudging through the streets of whatever European town Ryu was in, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the lack of essence dropped by enemies, numerous “cinematic” action sequences that inturrupted the fast paced game play with almost every kill and Ryu’s red glowing arm that would activate an attack that instantly wiped out all the enemies on screen after a small amount of foes were slaughtered regularly. Wall running, a trademark of the series, was gone in place of really… slow… kunai… wall climbing. Oh, and half assed stealth sections were added where a mysterious fog would keep enemies from seeing you. I understand that they’re trying to make 3 stand out from the previous two, but all of these areas had no flow. It was like they were just slapped together for the sake of some kind of false variety.

My biggest fault with it though… was that I didn’t die. Not once. I beat all the enemies, climbed all the boring walls and took down a giant mech with hardly any effort. Remember, this was on hard in a game with a reputation for being challenging on easy. Knowing that I could just haphazardly run through the game without a care in the world, how is this Ninja Gaiden?

I’ve tried to stay away from reviews, and I’m about to boot up my GameFly copy to see how it turned out, but the fact that I’m even getting what was always a must buy franchise through GameFly is telling for me. If I wanted a button masher where I could just headbutt my controller through to the credits while half my game consists of quick time events, I’d play God of War. But if this is the direction Ninja Gaiden is heading in, I fear for it. I fear for Dead or Alive. And I fear for one of my favorite developers in Team Ninja. As I start this game up, I’m hope I’ll find that the fear is unfounded… but from what I’ve played so far, I’m afraid that it won’t be.