The unraveling story places you on the side of the ninjas, and you’ll believe that to be true, but giving you a decisive choice as the game’s final moments draw near. The accompanying cutscenes are updated, and incredibly well-animated to look better than ever, re-enforcing my thoughts that this could be a regular Saturday morning cartoon show. The story is increasingly interesting, and does well to give you reason to understand that the ninjas are right, and the militaristic forces of Hessian Services, are not. The story of Mark of the Ninja sits firmly in the present, where ninja’s have continued to prevail into the 21st century, and the ninja way of life is nearing extinction thanks to encroaching technology. These are things that are equally important to the player. Then, after a bit of time you’ll pick up on the improved 5.1 audio, which makes a huge difference: large buildings sound open and cavernous, and hearing enemy movements walking above and below you are more obvious. The cinematics even were reworked, there’s no artifacting or graininess to them. The artwork has been replaced with original artwork that was of higher quality than what could be output, so you’ll see greater detail and smoother lines with characters and backgrounds. Now on PC, I played the game in 1440p 144fps. Back with the original XBLA release, it was a gorgeous game that performed incredibly well. The most notable and recognizable change for Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is the visual fidelity. Soon you’ll be replaying the level over and over until you master it, collecting everything, and performing objectives you wouldn’t normally do in a single playthrough.

You’re encouraged, if not a bit teased to try to complete every objective in a level. When you complete a level, you’re shown a screen with every enemy you let live or killed, as well as a score for how good or bad you were at the level, and even shown objectives completed or not. And Mark of the Ninja is something that has stood the test of time. Revisiting it in 2018, I’ve fallen in love all over again. When I reviewed Mark of the Ninja back in 2012, it was evident that this was a special game. Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is an improvement in every aspect, and even earning the achievements again are absolutely worth the replay – this is a masterwork by Klei Entertainment. It has been 6 years and 1 month after its original release, and the 2D stealth of Mark of the Ninja is just as good now as it was then. What makes this a remaster is the improvements visually and aurally, which make it the definitive version to own. Mark of the Ninja: Remastered is the same game content-wise, now including the post-release DLC as a single package.

Mark of the ninja ps4