'Tenchu: Shadow Assassins' offers ninja action, satisfaction

— -- Nintendo Wii owners who've had their fill of cute cartoon racers and exercise games might be ready to slice and dice in a deadly ninja adventure.

Players age 17 and older can master lethal ninja skills in Tenchu: Shadow Assassins, a new game in the coveted franchise with a look and feel faithful to the original Sony PlayStation hit.

It's not a flawless fighting game, but it's been a while since the Nintendo Wii had a good game created for "core" players rather than the "casual" crowd.

It doesn't matter if you're unfamiliar with this Japanese series, but this new quest continues the saga of two ninjas — the strong Rikimaru, head of the Azuma clan, and the acrobatic and beautiful Ayame — who together must keep the peace in feudal Japan by relying on their stealth, cunning and precision. The story tells of kidnapping, war and abusive power, but we'll let you unravel the tale and characters for yourself as you move through Lord Goda's kingdom.

During the 10-mission single-player campaign, game play is more or less divided into exploration and combat. With the former, you must move about and remain undetected by blending into the shadows and using the environment as camouflage. You will learn how to hide behind walls, move items around a room to reach higher ground, hang on ledges and extinguish candles by blowing water through bamboo shoots.

Once you spot your targets, however, you can take out unsuspecting enemies one-by-one with your sword ("katana"), by tossing throwing stars ("shuriken") from across the room or lobbing small bombs ("Ghostmakers"). You will gain access to nearly 20 historical weapons and other items (including a fishing rod that can be used to snag items or a cat that can scout locations), but no more than three items can be held at one time.

Kudos to the developers at Acquire, who worked on the original Tenchu, for integrating the Wii's wireless and motion-sensing controls so effectively. While there's a bit of a learning curve, you will hold and use the Wii remote and nunchuk controllers as you would the real weapons, whether it's swinging the sword, moving your arms to climb using "Kasugai" hooks on a castle wall or drinking water by holding the Wii remote like a glass. That said, sometimes the automated "camera" angle in this third-person game isn't very good because it's not showing what you want to see until you move in a given direction, and there are a few "clipping" issues where a character's body might go through a wall or object, but these graphical niggles don't take away from the game much.