I'm a Ninja - Dexobi, they call me. They fear me. They hire me. They all hire me to kill each other - I'm just the guy who gets things done. Dexobi - the man who turns the living into the dead, the guy who infiltrates, who steals, who thins out numbers, the bastard who tempts others with sushi-laced with explosives or lays down landmines to catch out guards who aren't doing a very good job of guarding. And if you don't hire me to kill your enemies, your enemies will hire me to kill you. Who's it going to be? You decide! [Great sales pitch, you're hired! Now, who first, IGN or Gamespot… Ed].

You might think the above sounds like some new crazy game show involving ninjas and Chinese warlords, Tenchu meets Big Brother or something, but in all honestly, Shinobido: Way of the Ninja for the PS2 feels just like that. It's in no way a bad thing, as it's quite fun from the word go, but lots of things get in the way to ruin the experience, such as really poor visuals, silly bugs and some dire controls - it feels like a PSP title, despite being played with a PS2 pad, and it even looks like an early PSP title. But, to make things worse, the visuals are blown up to full screen, so you can fully appreciate those blocky textures and samey buildings. However, through this sea of blood, guts and bugs, lies a land of ninja paradise, an island of kill or be killed, and for some bizarre reason, I liked it. A lot.

Now, I wouldn't normally go on to play a bad looking, sometimes bad controlling game, but I haven't been a ninja in ages, and something about Shinobido just appealed to me. Was it the earning money per mission element? Yes - I can't remember the last game that awarded me with money depending on how well I did on the mission I played prior to the pay cheque. Did the weapon shop lend itself to the appeal maybe? Yes, it did - I can't even recall the last game that let me buy weapons and items, especially of this calibre, at the end of each level. And the stock in the shop changes daily too, so one day you might be able to buy mines, the next, poisoned food for enemies to eat, and the next, death stars, confusion bombs, potions, grapple hooks, oh my artillery here was superb.

Did the appeal continue through being able to pick and choose my missions, also picking who I work for? Of course it did - I love the assassination and total destruction missions, which have me killing for money, but I don't really like the thief missions, so I tend to leave them out - to me, finding an item and then carrying it back to base without being seen is something I'd rather leave to Sam Fisher. But picking my missions, reading up on what gives me more pay, accepting and then performing it lends itself very well to the appeal of playing as a ninja.

And the killing - was the killing fun, did it keep me playing, did it make me forget about the flaws? Uh-uh, yes it did; once you've equipped yourself at the shop, got those grappling hooks strapped on, got that explosive sushi in your pocket (don't go snacking on the job now!), it's time to go out there and strut your funky ninja stuff. You can sneak around using the L1 button, and while in sneak mode you move quietly, you can lean and walk against walls, and you can pretty much be the ninja you want to be. Of course, there are great advantages of being on your feet - you can move faster, especially when you enable the super-quick sprint, so whatever your style, Shinobido is pretty flexible. There are a variety of ways to kill your foes; if you sneak up behind them your sword flashes and you can perform an instant stealth kill by slicing their throat with the triangle button. Other instant kills can be performed as long as the victim in question hasn't seen you already, such as aerial neck twisters and frontal heart stabbers, ensuring your prey dies without a sound.

There are more ways than the instant kills, though; I was lucky enough to find myself in a situation where my foe was a greedy, gullible, hungry man. I grappled onto one of the nearby rooftops and waited until he walked over to the other side of his guard route, before jumping down and laying down a beautiful land mine in what I thought to be his tracks. I grappled back up onto the roof, and waited - waited - waited for him to return to my lovely land mine of doom. Here it comes; here we go Mr. Foe, get ready to die. But he waited, he stopped, he wouldn't walk over the mine. Maybe he was cleverer than I had anticipated, but I doubted that - I doubted that a lot. So I threw down some explosive sushi. He'd need to eat this for it to be able to explode in his gut, and I knew, if he took the bait, he'd be blown back a few yards, and probably hit the mine too. So, I threw him the raw fish, and to my predications, he looked around, picked it up, and swallowed it. Two, three, BANG! My enemy fell back, his sushi had repeated on him, and he was aroused with suspicion. However, little did he know that one step forward would kill him. That bad fish must have confused him, because he completely forgot about the mine in front of him - his last step sounded an explosion that left him dead, but also alerted other guards to the attention of their friend who they had just lost. Another two confused guards were easy prey for me; I fell down from the roof - standing behind one of the guards I instantly killed him, then bent down, claimed his sword for dual wielding fun, and sliced the remaining enemy into new pieces of sushi. I was having a grand time!

Some flaws get in the way of prolonged play; sometimes the analogue sticks can irritate when it comes to adjusting the camera angles, but that's about the only control issue I had to deal with, as using items and weapons with the handy L2 and R2 pop-up quick use circle is a blessing in itself. Unfortunately, those who are put off by bad visuals and even a bit of bad sound might find Shinobido a little too amateurish. Truthfully, the levels are extremely repetitive - oh, look, a Japanese building with paper walls that I can slice down, where have I seen that before? Yeah, that's right, the last three levels. And look at that, a purposeless building that is only good for climbing on top of - but, ugh, I wouldn't be paid to live in that shed! It's snowing! Or is that my TV displaying dead pixels? It's foggy! Or is that my TV ghosting? I'm sorry to sound harsh, but on a 3 inch display this would probably be a nice looking PSP game. However, on a 26 inch Sony Bravia, Shinobido looks a little, well, badly rendered, to say the least. The sound isn't that good either; the occasional exclamation of hurt is the only satisfying thing on offer here, otherwise the orchestra of repetitive music for the samey levels, the identical sounding footsteps regardless of where you walk and the voiceovers that sound too English (sometimes sounding like Londeners) to be able convince me that I'm actually playing with oriental characters - flaws galore!

Shinobido man - how the hell can I stay mad at you? The truth is, if you can see past the flaws, the bugs, the bad graphics and the poor sound, and that's a lot to see past too, fans of the genre will have a great time on the island of ninja where anything goes. There is a story to keep people playing, one I neglected to mention, but in all honesty, it doesn't matter, as it has no effect on the gameplay, because the missions, the earning money, the buying items and killing unsuspecting greedy men is enough to please me. I must be in one of my minimalist moods, because I've never been so happy with playing in what seems to be a sandbox of ninja as I am with Shinobido: Way of the Ninja.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).