Red Ninja: End of Honor - PS2, Xbox

Making a good ninja game doesn't seem hard. A little ninja-sneaking, a little ninja-combat, a couple of cool ninja weapons, throw in a ninja-ette (kunoichi for all you nipponphiles out there) and you're set. Red Ninja has all of these things, but it still ranks more along the lines of b-rate movies like Red Sonja or American Ninja, than say the Godfather or Scarface (ok, so there are no killer ninja movies to compare Red Ninja to).

If I were a ninja, and I was looking for a ninja date, you better believe I'd be be bringing flowers, and chocolate dipped shurikens to the home of Kurenai from Red Ninja. But despite my best efforts, I'm not a ninja, so I'm stuck playing Red Ninja instead of hitting on her. It's a real shame too, as I'm sure trying to woo Kurenai is a lot more fun than playing Red Ninja.

If you've played Tenchu, you've played Red Ninja. Sure there's some differences, but it's as if Red Ninja stole the Tenchu manual of how to make a mediocre ninja-game and followed the instructions to the letter.

Red Ninja has a lot of interesting gameplay elements, such as seducing guards and breaking their necks, and lots of spraying blood every time you dispatch an enemy, but really, it's Tenchu, except you can see the main characters underwear. Red Ninja suffers from the same horrible AI as Tenchu, and from similarly poor level design. One moment you can run up walls and jump 15 feet, the next you can't jump over a low wall due to an invisible barrier. Add to this an evil desire for jumping puzzles and a wonky camera and you'll find yourself cringing anytime you have to pull off any sneaky ninja stunts.

The strangest part of Red Ninja is that is has terrific art design, and yet horrible execution. You can see where the water tiles are stitched together, and the pixelation is horrific, at times.

Red Ninja is a game that could have been charming, if it had a bit more time, as it stands, it's just frustrating.