Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade is a 2009 hack and slash action-adventure video game, developed by FromSoftware and published by Microsoft Games Studios for North America & Europe and FromSoftware for Japan. The game was released in 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The game is a complete mishmash of hack-and-slash, third-person shooting and quick time events, to the point where it feels very uninspiring and soulless. Speaking of the latter...
 * 2) QTEs: The game is filled to the brim with quick time events, to the point where it feels like you're watching a boring action movie than actually playing a game.
 * 3) * There's also no penalties whatsoever, which makes doing them almost pointless.
 * 4) * Some of the QTE scenes can be ridiculous like riding on a missile and shuriken or riding a motorcycle up the building.
 * 5) Very unappealing graphics that make the characters and parasites look plasticky and wooden.
 * 6) Bland level design and environments that lack a lot of polish and detail.
 * 7) Stupid monster designs like the parasitic helicopter.
 * 8) Pretty generic story that involves Ken Ogawa trying to get rid of all the parasites in the city and get revenge on his father Kanbe and his fellow team member Kuroh.
 * 9) * Ken Ogawa himself is just a poor man's version of Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden.
 * 10) The controls are clunky and awkward as if Ken is moving from sticky slime. He also moves pretty slow which seems odd considering ninjas are supposed to be fast and agile.
 * 11) The combat itself is also slow and somewhat broken with enemies constantly getting cheap blows on you. They also can't be staggered which makes the aforementioned cheap blows even more annoying.
 * 12) The enemy AI is terrible. Most of them will just stand there and shoot at you or just follow the same pattern of running at you and waiting to get hit. You can also use cheap blows on them by doing a heavy attack with the Broadsword, making combat boring and repetitive.
 * 13) You can upgrade Ken's weapons throughout the game but due to the previously explained terrible enemy AI, it feels almost unnecessary since combat is extremely easy.
 * 14) Despite being a hack 'n' slash, the game is loaded with turret sections that feel out of place. There's a total of 5 turret sections that last up to 10 minutes of, once again, boring and repetitive gameplay. It also feels like it's there to pad out the game's run time.
 * 15) The boss battles play out like generic waiting games where you have to keep dodging their attacks at first, wait for them to strike and then attack. They also have a huge amount of health that makes them drag on for too long. Not helping is the constant QTEs that come out of nowhere and pad out the run time even further.
 * 16) Mission 7 is easily the worst in the entire game. It completely reuses the same level design, enemy layout and bosses from the previous levels which feels like the developers were extremely lazy. It pads out way too much time and has, once again, various QTEs and a turret section, adding up to the most tedious level in the entire game!
 * 17) * The story also has no context to why the previous bosses appear again and feels like they were only recycled to pad out the run time.
 * 18) The PC version is filled with various bugs and glitches like invisible poles, enemies phasing through walls, action scenes not playing out correctly, game crashes from pausing during cutscenes and audio glitches during boss battles.
 * 19) The final mission is an absolute snooze fest as, just like the rest of the bosses, it's an endless cycle of QTEs that make it less challenging.
 * 20) The game can be beaten in 9 hours or less (although you're able to replay levels and get better ranks).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The combat can feel decent at times, despite the clunky controls and bad enemy AI. There's also a huge variety of move sets for you to try out.
 * 2) The soundtrack is great.
 * 3) Some of the aforementioned QTEs can be funny and entertaining to watch. It also shows that the game doesn't take itself way too seriously.
 * 4) Various ways to customize Ken's appearance like putting him in a clown outfit.
 * 5) The final battle is pretty decent (although it's slightly ruined by the heavy use of QTEs).