At this year’s E3, I saw more zombie games than I really knew how to handle. Thankfully, Tecmo Koei’s Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z didn’t take the same serious tone when it came to the undead. And, considering the game is the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, the creator of the original Dead Rising, Yaiba could be considered that franchise’s spiritual successor at a time where Dead Rising 3 is looking to take on a more realistic feel rather than the over-the-top, comedic tone that the Dead Rising franchise originated.
The game’s titular character, Yaiba, is a rival ninja who just couldn’t best Ryu Hayubusa. After slicing his arm off, Ryu then takes Yaiba’s life… and before you get the wrong idea, Yaiba doesn’t get reanimated as a zombie in-game. Inexplicably — or at least in the hands-on preview I played — Yaiba is very much back alive and on a quest for revenge against the ninja who killed him. Oh, and he’s got a new robotic arm. And there are zombies around.
Combat is very Ninja Gaiden-like, minus a bit of the difficulty curve (but not too much) and with crazy weapons like zombie arm nunchucks. Tons of zombies are on screen at any given time, allowing you to carve through the undead with glee. Super moves are activated when enough energy has been stored, only serving to amp up the carnage… though, at times, it just made it difficult to figure out what was happening on-screen.
Yaiba is not alone in his quest for revenge; periodically, a female support character will call in to give him additional missions or bits of exposition. While the two had some legitimately amusing dialogue back and forth in the preview, the support character herself is extremely one-dimensional. Worse yet, it’s that awful kind of flatness where the character says “f*ck” with every second word because someone thought that would make her edgy. Ick.
Ultimately, the problem I have with Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is that it had the potential to be a cool little ninja revenge story centered around a new protagonist (well, maybe an antagonistic protagonist, in this case) within the already-established Ninja Gaiden world. Sadly, it’s looking a bit all over the place with new moves, new weapons and random zombies and weirdly grotesque bosses all thrown together in one big heap. Tecmo Koei might have jumped on the undead bandwagon just a touch to late for my taste; do we really need more zombies at this point in time?
Whinging aside, Ninja Gaiden Z can easily provide some good, mindless — and ultimately, pointless — fun that will obviously appeal to Ninja Gaiden die-hards zombie enthusiasts or those who appreciate Inafune’s humour.
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