Mark of the Ninja takes a refreshing look into stealth games. It’s a 2D sidescroller where the noise and lighting of the environment dictates what you can perceive and what the enemies can see and hear of you. This doesn’t sound that groundbreaking but the art style is what makes it work.

I love the gameplay here, simple to get into but tough to master. Each level has a good amount of stuff going on such as scrolls you have to collect, challenges to complete and an overall score where you’ll be rewarded if you’re as invisible as possible and punished if you make a big mess and the alarm sounds off or they detect you.

However, the game might as well not have any story because it’s so bland. You’re in a clan of ninjas bla bla have to kill this bad guy bla bla… The only somewhat interesting stuff happens by the end of the game but I feel like there’s zero narrative or character study. I understand that the story is just an extra to the game but its quite impressive to make such a boring story about ninjas.

I can’t really say that I loved Mark of the Ninja as a whole as after a couple of levels it does feel a bit repetive and one-dimensional in what you can do. The variety of items you can use to distract guards and costumes each with its own pros and cons, along with the beauty of the environments still makes it a great game. I would recommend to anyone even if they aren’t into stealth games as it is definitely something different in the genre and it has stunning visuals throughout it all.