Mark of the Ninja by Klei entertainment is predicated on a crazy idea. “What if we made a stealth game that was super accessible?” Resulting in an outstanding game. Mark of the Ninja is packed with visual cues rather than forcing the player to use context clues like other stealth games. If we were talking about a different genre we could say that Mark of the Ninja is “arcadie”, but “arcade style stealth” doesn’t sound right nor does it carry any weight because it’s not even a real thing yet. However, arcade style stealth action is the most accurate way to describe Mark of the Ninja.
There is a visual cue for literally everything that the player can interact with, taking the “pick up and play” catch phrase to the next level. How much more pick up and play can you get than a game in which you don’t have to know what any of the buttons do. The cues don’t stop at “press this button to preform that action”, sight-lines and sound waves are visually represented. As you’d expect from a ninja game light and shadow play a part in the game. Again Mark of the Ninja leaves no room for confusion, if you’re in the dark you’re one color and if you’re in the light (and visible to your enemies) you’re another color. All these simplifying elements leave the player able to focus on other things like the platforming aspect. Oh, nope, that’s super simplified also. Gaining the high ground and using verticality to get the drop on your foes is accomplished with your rad ninja grappling hook. You may have already made this assumption but every where your grappling hook can be used is shown to you with a little icon. You don’t even have to aim the thing, just hit the button and zip to the next platform. Streamlining and more streamlining make Mark of the Ninja really fun; you feel like a bad ass ninja killing machine who can stealth kill one guy, fly off to a high platform, and drop down on top of another guy all with minimal effort but maximum satisfaction. Of course this is all true only of the single demonstration level that was playable on the PAX show floor.