Historically, Ninja Gaiden games have always demanded a lot from their players. Mastering the fast-paced action and overcoming the powerful, relentless enemies requires patience, practice, and no small degree of skill. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z – while more of a loose, arcadey spin-off than a true sequel – maintains this tradition, but unlike its predecessors, it’s difficult for all the wrong reasons. While its tongue-in-cheek humor and flashy, cel-shaded animations save Yaiba from complete disaster, the combat is so deeply unbalanced that the overall experience mainly just gave me a rage-induced headache rather than a satisfying challenge.
Yaiba turns the tables by challenging you to find and kill Ryu Hayabusa, traditionally the series’ star, during a full-on zombie outbreak in modern day Russia. Franchise fans might be wondering why our hastily introduced protagonist (the titular cyborg ninja Yaiba) hates Ryu so much...or why we’re suddenly fighting zombies...or why we’re in Russia, of all places, but the plot basically just glosses over all this. The justification seems to be, “There are zombies, and you’re a ninja. Just go with it!” To be fair, many of these questions are eventually addressed in some way before the seven-mission campaign ends, but the awkwardly abrupt opening feels more like a failure to adequately set the stage than a deliberate attempt to create an air of mystery.
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