It’s been my belief for a while that the best games available anywhere can be found on Xbox Live. Over the last few years games like Limbo, Shadow Complex, Trials HD, Trenched (or Steel Batallion), Monday Night Combat and others have blown my tiny mind in terms of quality and sheer enjoyment. The latest addition to my list of games never to be deleted is Mark of the Ninja, in my opinion the best Xbox Live Arcade game out this year. Play it immediately.

Okay, maybe I should offer a few reasons and details; but honestly, I’m wasting your time, you should be playing it now.

One of the creators of the game Nels Anderson wrote a terrific guest post about the game over at the Penny Arcade Report which you should totally read: http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-art-of-stealth-mark-of-the-ninja-and-2d-stealth-design In retrospect, after reading the post and playing the game Anderson was pretty modest on how well the mechanics he discusses are executed in the final game. The goal was to create a stealth game which made sense and had intuitive controls and Mark of the Ninja achieves those goals and then some.

Light is your enemy, shadows are your BBFF's

Mark of the Ninja is the latest game from developer Klei, whose most recent games Shank and Shank 2 have also been popular Xbox Live titles before moving onto other platforms. Mark of the Ninja shares a lot of the same aesthetic as Shank, like the previous game it’s a 2D side scroller with cartoon like graphics and animated cut scenes, but where Shank was a Robert Rodriguez inspired Tijuana violence fest, Mark of the Ninja is a dark stealth focused game. Not that it isn’t violent itself, execution animations are insanely violent despite the cartoon appearance. Visually it looks like Kym Possible meets Kill Bill.

I love ninjas, but not the power house quasi super hero type characters like Ryu in Ninja Gaiden. I love real ninja games. But the last good Ninja game I played was the original Tenchu on the Playstation. Since then the best ‘ninja games’ have been titles like Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed, games that don’t even feature actual ninjas. Hell, Skyrim is more of a ninja game than Ninja Gaiden if you play as a thieves guild/dark brotherhood character.

Distracting guards and other experiments with the stealth mechanics is the core of the game

Despite the modern setting Mark of the Ninja focuses on the traditional (largely Hollywood driven) idea of the ninja as a sinister shadow warrior. Your clan, after years of silent anonymity, has been attacked by a group of heavily armed mercenaries and you are tasked by your master with seeking revenge. Marked with tattoos using a mystical ink that grant you powers, but will eventually drive you insane, you must kill your enemy while facing over whelming odds.

Don’t be fooled by the 2D format and cartoon looks of Mark of the Ninja (remember deception and theatricality are powerful tools for a ninja), the game is the type of ninja game fans dream off. Every kill in the game is like a puzzle that has to be solved with study and timing. There are multiple solutions to each puzzle to keep things interesting, but the variety doesn’t make things easier, nor does it lock you onto a particular path. You may choose to crawl through a grate and kill two guards, one after the other, hiding their bodies in the crawl space with you. Maybe you could break a light with a throwing knife, luring the guards over and drop a chandelier on their heads. Or my favourite, gut one guard and hang his body from a lamp post to be discovered, then eliminate the other guard as he runs about in a screaming panic.

Early missions have you rescuing your ninja brothers from the enemy, after which you celebrate with a pizza, or so my internet ninja research tells me

Stealth games are by far the easiest games to screw up. Many games that work based on detection are broken or feature unrealistic scenarios that ruin the fun. The stealth gameplay in Mark of the Ninja is tuned to perfection. When an enemy sees you, the reasons why are obvious, the consequences are sensible and the results of your actions are always what you expect. When there’s a surprise it’s a legitimate surprise, not a cheap screw up in the gameplay or an issue with a bullshit game camera system. The stealth works and its fun precisely because it works so well, mainly due to the visual cues you get when your spotted or when you make a noise. Little glowing circles pop up if you run or break something. Likewise enemies will leave a shadow of the last place you saw them and little visual bumps of where their footsteps are coming from. Attack dogs have a purple aura showing the range of their scent, if you enter that area they’ll become alarmed and move towards you. The visual cues are what make the game and make the stealth gameplay as exemplary as it is.

Rather than a regretable drunken decision, your tats grant you supernatural abilities

The controls are also stellar with single buttons performing single and predictable functions. There's only one attack button, that you should really only be using for one hit take down moves, and the rest of the buttons are related to movement and evasion. Intuitive and easy to learn, between the design and the stealth mechanics at the core of the game, they’re the three pillars this game rests its awesome award on. Many stealth games give you a lot of options and tools to use, Mark of the Ninja gives you what you need and clear opportunity to use it. Despite having full time access to powers like a freeze time ability, none of these abilities turn you into an unstoppable badass.

For all your blades and smoke bombs and traps, when enemies see you it’s time to run and hide and if you succeed in getting away you should always consider yourself very lucky. You will die a lot, because getting drilled by a machine gun is meant to kill you quickly, but each death is a learning experience, the trial and error doesn’t feel frustrating and repetitive.

One of the delightfully bloody kill animations, the squelching, slicing sounds really sell it

The nicest feature of Mark of the Ninja is that the replay value is extremely high. There are bonus scores and achievements for completing levels without killing anyone and several unlockable challenges each level that translate into cash to buy upgrades and skills. Naturally after kitting up your ninja with some of the easy challenges you want to go back and replay levels. There’s also an Game+ mode for you to come back and play it through again on a harder difficulty. Completing these bonus moves unlocks costumes that change the way the games play, some of the costumes allow you to complete quick kills without the QTE button press, but don't let you use deception tools, another costume allows you to run silently, but doesn't let you perform assassinations. There's also a bonus puzzle level hidden within each level. These challenge maps are a fun diversion from the main game.

I downloaded Mark of the Ninja at 7pm on a Saturday night, when I finally put down the control it was after 3am and my eyes were glued open. There are not many games that grab hold of me and compel me to play for that length without even checking the time. Mark of the Ninja is one of those games, exciting, visceral and compelling. You will love it.