There are many games about Ninjas: Tenchu, Ninja Gaiden or Strider, among many others, each of them unique and very good. The games where we control Ninjas are always quite entertaining, some focus on pure action, where we eliminate our enemies in the most violent ways possible, while others prioritize stealth and eliminate our enemies as quietly as possible so as not to alert others. Each Ninja game of this style is very good individually and I really like these two styles, that's why today I bring you a game about Ninjas, but focused more on the action side.
The story of most games of this style is never their strong point, as they always prioritized the gameplay or graphics before the story, so in many games of this style, from beat em up, run and gun, platform games or games like Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action, which is a horizontal side scrolling game, we will find a simple story, which serves to justify the actions that we will perform in this adventure. Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action or also called simply as: Kaze Kiri, focuses on the ninja Kaze which is entrusted to save the princess of the empire that has been kidnapped by the former student of Kaze's teacher, so it goes on a classic rescue mission where we will have to fight with a horde of enemies henchmen of the main villain of this story, and in the end fight against our rival. Actually the story is a little indifferent when we can eliminate enemies by the force of our sword and shurikens.
Graphically Kaze Kiri is a very good game, with a more than acceptable graphic level and in some moments outstanding, but there are also some moments where the graphic section is very simplistic. Kaze Kiri is a game with a very present anime style, that can be noticed more easily in the "cinematics" that we can see at the beginning of the game and at the end, and also in its promotional art, it has all the essence of anime of the 90s, and although these "cinematics" are very short, especially the end of the game, they are quite well done and manage to convey what represented, to some extent, an era of the video game industry.
As this game is a game where action is paramount, being practically a Hack and Slash, the speed of movement and how our character moves, its sets of animations and fluidity is very important, to convey that feeling of speed and that our character and us, we are lethal when eliminating our enemies. And this is a very well achieved aspect in this game, Kaze (our protagonist) has a good mobility, he moves well through the scenarios, with fast and agile movements. Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action also presents very well represented scenarios of an era of Feudal Japan, there are many details on screen and decorations that manage to set very well every place we go, we will also find, as mentioned above, some place that in terms of details is very simple, but for the most part this is a game that stands out a lot at the artistic level.
The music is fine, although because it is heard very low at times where the action is very frantic goes unnoticed, as the sound effects are heard at a higher volume than the melodies, so it is often a waste, in fact there are times where you do not even hear any kind of melodies and only the sound effects like the wind and the sounds of swinging swords, shuriken throwing and blows are the protagonists, but there are other moments where the soundtrack is the protagonist, it really is quite rare, although I have my doubts if it was a problem with the ROM with which I was playing or really the game is like that. But for the most part the music takes a back seat to the sound effects.
Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action is basically a side-scrolling game with Hack And Slash elements, with a lot of action from beginning to end, fast and agile movements and a lot of death. Kaze, our protagonist, will have to move through a series of scenarios, which will be full of enemies. The stages are not very long, since the game does not consist of getting from point A to point B, because in the scenario where we find ourselves we must eliminate all the enemies that appear on the screen until the "Enemy" bar is completely empty, in this way we can advance to the next stage. It could be said that a great part of this game's modality consists in the elimination of enemies by means of hordes, which will end when the bar is completely emptied, therefore the way and the time in which we finish a phase will depend on the way in which we eliminate our enemies.
After emptying the "Enemy" bar, the boss of that stage will appear, which we will also have to eliminate using our Ninja skills. Something I like about this game is its fast gameplay, our protagonist can attack and move quickly through the stage and thanks to its easy control and mechanics makes it quite satisfying to play. Our protagonist can perform different actions that will help us in this mission, he can attack enemies using his sword or throwing shurikens, but he can also slide along the ground, making an attack at ground level, so he can both dodge enemy attacks and attack them at the same time. Kaze is also very agile when jumping, being able to attack while jumping, the gameplay of this game is very agile.
Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action does not have items that enhance the attacks of our protagonist or items that heal his life bar, he can only recover the capacity of his life bar little by little while he does not receive any damage and the bar is consumed when throwing shirikens and logically when receiving damage. The game has a certain re-playability factor, since in addition to having two endings, also by completing the game for the first time we will unlock a female character with whom we can play, thus changing certain cinematics of the game.
Kaze Kiri: Ninja Action is an excellent action game and Hack And Slash reminiscent of games like Ninja Gaiden or Strider. A game with a lot of action and a very entertaining and easy to learn gameplay. A game with a tight difficulty curve, which will not be a very difficult game, but it is not something that is so easy that it is boring, you could say that has a very tight difficulty to any ability that the player has, so it makes this game a very entertaining challenge to complete.
