 Hey, thanks to Huey for the request from my Patreon page, who wanted to see some new Steam Drunk for the first time in a while, taking a look at a game called Mark of the Ninja. And yes, this is yet another 2D side-scrolling Ninja platformer where you're overpowered to the gills with tons of abilities, but the enemy and level design matches them, move for move and step for step. So if you've played really difficult games like Ninja Gaiden, the Shinobi series for Genesis, Higane for Super Nintendo, Ninja 50 for Game Boy Advance, or even Super House of Dead Ninjas for Steam, which I took a look at a few years ago, you'll like Mark of the Ninja just as much, if not more. The main difference that makes Mark of the Ninja stand out from all those other games though, is the use of stealth. As you can see from the footage, this game hits all the ninja trademarks using weapons like swords and darts and a grappling hook, you're able to cling effortlessly to walls, all the good stuff you'd expect, but the way the stealth elements are implemented here are as good as any stealth game I've seen. The use of light and darkness is very cleverly done, you can hide in doors or behind objects or just lurk in the shadows, but if you're spotted you are thoroughly screwed and get ready for some craziness. It doesn't stop there though, there are all sorts of different techniques you can learn that are predicated on sneaking up and eliminating enemies without being detected, like using your grappling hook to drop behind a guard like Spider-Man before taking him out, or hanging beneath a floor grate and pulling down a guard to his death, it's so much fun. You also have the option to buy these techniques once you get to the third level, using quote unquote honor as currency, and you earn honor just by completing levels and not getting detected by enemies. The stealth elements and techniques here are what make Mark of the Ninja stand out, I mean sure I guess you could just ignore all that stuff and sprint through the game and treat it just like any other action platformer, but there's already a million games where you can do that, and there's very few that have the kind of stealth mechanics here that are done so well, so you'd be wasting the game's strengths. The thing is though that a game of this nature is a bit of a double edged sword, no pun intended, anytime you're presented with a game like this where practically every single button on the controller does something, and in my experience the Xbox 360 controller works fantastic here, then I mean I can see why that would be a bit intimidating and overwhelming. The game does try its damnedest to explain and demonstrate each ability, as well as harp on the importance of stealth, and it does this by providing a pretty thorough walkthrough. I understand this may bother some people, but I thought it was well done, the point is there is definitely some hand holding here at the beginning, for better or for worse. Once you get the hang of the controls, abilities and techniques of Mark of the Ninja, you'll have a blast playing this game, there's so much depth here, there's all sorts of different methods and paths to proceed through each level, and the open ended design here gives the player enough freedom to go about things however they'd like. Every level has score challenges if you're into that, as well as optional objectives and all sorts of hidden items, there's a lot to discover here. So yeah, Mark of the Ninja isn't your typical run to the right and kill everything that moves type of Ninja action platformer, if that's what you're looking for then you might want to look into something like Super House of Dead Ninjas. Mark of the Ninja is something a bit different, where you take your time, plan ahead, avoid being seen, and take out enemies before they know what hit them. This game is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it was recently on sale for as little as $3, that is some ridiculous value. So yeah, Mark of the Ninja may be tough to get into at first, it's a little intimidating, but it is well worth checking out.