The mystical world of the ninja fascinates a lot of people. Whether they are lurking in the shadows or sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim, people are fascinated. This fascination has finally made its way onto Playstation 2 with Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven.

That’s right, Rikimaru and Ayame return for more action from the shadows.

Tenchu is a mission-based game where each stage has a certain goal that must be accomplished without being spotted. This game takes a lot of patience. You have to hide by pressing up against walls and waiting for the right moment to strike guards that are walking around.

Each mission has three different layouts, so each can be played with a different look, which eliminates the monotony of playing back through the game again.

Graphically the game looks good, even though some of the characters look a little blocky. They probably could have taken a little more time to polish this up, but to me it’s not that big of a deal.

This game also has some new things that you didn’t see in the first two Tenchus: a two-player mode, special skills and attacks.

The two-player mode has split-screen action where players can go head-to-head or work together.

You earn the special skills and attacks by earning enough stealth kills and killing guards that don’t know you’re there in each mission.

There is, however, a downside to this. The computer’s AI (artificial intelligence) isn’t that smart. If you are spotted, you can run around a corner or two and the guard will quit looking for you.

The only other problem with this game is the moving camera. Most of the time it works well, but it can sometimes blocks your view. There is nothing worse than falling into a hole that you can’t see, especially when you’re 20 minutes into a stage.

Overall Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven receives a final score of 7 out of 10. Blocky characters, low AI and bad camera work keep this score down. But, don’t let this stop you from checking this game out, it is fun. And you get to live by the code of a ninja, “Live by honor, kill by stealth.” Check out Tenchu, you won’t regret it.