ninjas

With the holiday gaming season just beginning to turn its gears, we've already been greeted by an early contender for a spot on wish lists. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is one of the best games you probably haven't heard about this year, so allow us to introduce you.

For those who'd rather watch than read, please enjoy our exclusive trailer for the game.

Jeff: The story told in Enslaved pairs an unlikely duo: a monstrous and agile man named Monkey and a sweet but helpless tech-savvy accomplice who goes by Trip. Together they must navigate through a decaying New York City of 150 years into the future, absent of any life save for an antihuman race of robotic creatures. Bound together by a mysterious slave headband, Monkey and Trip must help one another survive the decomposing landscape and its flesh-hungry automaton inhabitants.

With the ever-capable developer Ninja Theory at the reigns (see Heavenly Sword), Enslaved features an exciting combat system and a refreshing take on the action-strategy genre. Fans of the Uncharted and Prince of Persia series will be happy to hear that Enslaved occasionally resembles some of the acrobatic gameplay from these two classic franchises, all while keeping itself unique enough--not to mention the game's opening 30 minutes are among the best we've played all year.

There's a solid amount of variety to keep things moving along, including an upgrade system that rewards the player to explore all of the nooks and crannies of the game space. Enslaved is as linear as games come, but don't assume there is only one route to take.

The game isn't without its fair share of faults, however. Camera and environmental glitches are aplenty, though we never found ourselves completely stuck. There are a few moments where the next move isn't abundantly clear, but it's a welcome change of pace compared with a guide arrow or breadcrumb trail.… Read more

Perhaps there are many of you who keep ninja throwing stars beneath your pillows in order to be prepared for unexpected intruders.

I won't ask where or when you obtained them, but I will tell you that a strange, already refuted allegation has emerged from Japan that Apple CEO Steve Jobs attempted to bring some of these stars back with him after a recent trip to that lovely country.

Among other related news accounts, Bloomberg cites a report from the Japanese tabloid SPA, saying Jobs was detained while attempting to board his private plane. An official reportedly discovered these … Read more

The Metroid Prime trilogy that stretched across two consoles is regarded as one of the best in Nintendo's history. With Metroid: Other M, we're seeing a franchise reboot, a brand new imagining of Metroid that combines 2D and 3D gameplay.

There's a lot of differences this time around--some we liked, some we could do without. Read through for our take on Samus' latest adventure in space.

Jeff: We were anxious to get our hands on the latest tale in the Metroid saga, mostly because of the radically different direction developer Team Ninja decided to take the franchise. Other M shares a lot of its core with 2D side-scrolling NES and SNES titles while being able to still keep things fresh. After just a few minutes with the game, it's abundantly clear how heavily Metroid influenced games like the Xbox Live Arcade game Shadow Complex.

Other M follows Samus and the events that take place after Super Metroid. If you're at all interested in the mythos that surrounds the female lead, you're in luck. The narrative aspect in Other M is unlike any we've ever seen in a Metroid game. Cut scenes are beautifully animated and rendered with tons of background information about Samus' early years. That said, these movies are pretty long and, more upsettingly, impossible to skip. Though we wish we had the option to do so, it is interesting to finally hear our main character speak for the first time--in another milestone for the franchise, Other M is the first game to feature a full voice over cast.

… Read more

There is something every kitchen has in common: the need (and hopefully ability) to chop and cut ingredients. While every kitchen has a knife, not all kitchens come equipped with convenience. Given the chance to take the new Ninja Master Prep Professional out for a spin, I jumped at the chance to see how it stacked up.

The Ninja Master Prep Professional is the newest model in the Ninja line. Featuring more blades, increased power, and an additional processing bowl, the do-it-all food processor/chopper/blender aims to be the workhorse of the kitchen. As it says right on the … Read more

So there I am, hanging out in Melbourne, Australia, and I see a target. I am, let's say, a mugger. So I make my move, and ka-pow! I get clobbered. I'm looking around for Batman or something, but instead I see a pair of petite females in black pajamas and hoods.

"What gives!?" I ask.

"We're ninjas," they reply.

I'm screwed.

Lady ninjas, dubbed by the Australian press as "ninja mums," could be turning into the latest urban rage in some cities there as women learn the ancient Japanese fighting … Read more

A week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the government would start cracking down on illegal file sharing, the feds swooped in and seized assets belonging to operators of accused movie-pirating sites.

The government on Wednesday also took control of at least seven of the sites in question: Movies-Links.tv, Now-Movies.com, TVShack.net, Filespump.com, Planetmoviez.com, ZML.com, ThePirateCity.org, Ninjavideo.net, and NinjaThis.net. More than a dozen bank, investment, and advertising accounts were seized, and authorities served search warrants on residences in several different states.

Authorities are searching for operators of the sites … Read more

Fruit Ninja is a simple, but well-made game that challenges you to slice and dice fruit with a ninja sword as it flies onto your iPhone screen. The controls are extremely simple, requiring you to swipe your finger through a flying fruit as you would slice with a ninja sword. There are two game modes: Classic and Zen. In Classic you're challenged to slice fruit as it flies on screen while avoiding occasional bombs that will end the game immediately or allowing three fruits to drop below the bottom of the screen. In Zen mode you won't have … Read more

I'm sure I'm not alone in my anticipation of what Steve Jobs will announce on Monday at the Keynote for the WWDC. With that (the iPhone 4G or "HD") in mind, I've decided to make my iPhone apps post about games this week in the hope that we can all kill some time this weekend before the big event.

To start off, possibly my favorite iPhone game from 2009 went on sale today. Meteor Blitz (99 cents; usually $2.99) for iPhone is a fun and challenging classic arcade-style shooter where you use dual joysticks … Read more