Hobbits and ninjas
Tales of the Shire and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
My wife and I are on baby watch. In this calm before a new birth blasts through our lives, we’ve been catching up on games.
Full term and seeking simple comforts, Arvilla’s poured double-digit hours into Tales of the Shire, out this week from developer Weta Workshop. She filed this dispatch from her Hobbit hole:
Gemellia Underhill pops up from her bed. Her mouth twisted in a constant, appraising scowl, she bustles out of her round front door to water and harvest her garden before checking the mailbox to see if her dinner invitations have been accepted. After fishing at Old Ruby’s Pond in the dawn light, she strolls to the village square to sell her catch to afford any last minute ingredients needed to satisfy her new friends' cravings.
Complete with feuding neighbors, friendly farmers, and even one bearded lady Dwarf, Tales of the Shire is the Stardew Valley-alike that I hoped it would be. While many reviewers wished for more depth, the game fulfills my Hobbit yearning for simplicity.
The game’s visuals, however, are more rough than charming. I didn’t see the glitches that PC gamers complain of while playing on the Switch 2, but its graphics were atrocious. My mom, who shares much in common with the food-loving halflings, watched over my shoulder as I mixed ingredients for a Rich Rhubarb Pie. "Oh," she remarked, nose wrinkling as gray blocks became mush, "that looks appetizing." I, too, wish that the berries held their shape, or at least their color, as I prepared them. At least the final product looked somewhat edible; when I feed it to Rosie Cotton (yes, that Rosie Cotton who grows up to be Samwise's dream girl), she's happy enough to progress our friendship.
Tales of the Shire is a simple game for simple folk. While it’s followed a trend of games feeling unfinished on arrival, I’ve enjoyed whiling away my hours in Bywater while waiting for my own life to get infinitely more complicated.
Meanwhile, Morning Edition’s Lindsay Totty and I co-wrote a preview of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance — one of two Japanese arcade platformers reimagined by European developers that happen to debut in the waning summer weeks (the other, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, just arrived yesterday):
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance comes out August 29 on nearly every platform short of a phone: PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch (with Switch 2 compatibility). Produced by SEGA but developed by a French studio best known for Streets of Rage 4, another luminous revival of a classic game, the new Shinobi fuses old-school action with slick animation and metroidvania-inspired exploration. […]
Combat feels smooth and impactful. Musashi's variety of moves widens as you progress, allowing you to easily chain together into powerful combos. Some of the sicker-looking attacks — like "Shinobi Execution," where Joe darts around the screen, finishing multiple enemies off at once — provide extra resources like currency, health, and consumable throwing daggers (kunai). Damaging opponents gradually fills up their execution meter, but some abilities, like the kunai, can do so quickly, allowing you to near-instantly dispatch a screen's worth of adversaries. […]
While focused on action, Shinobi sports some platforming challenges. This is where the game's gorgeous, dynamic backgrounds can occasionally confuse the eye, causing you to miss a ledge or enemy projectile. One challenge room stumped us, for example, more because of how hard it was to see the green grapple-points against a shifting green sky than because of the reflexes it demanded.
Ultimately, however, Shinobi's visuals are more of an asset than a distraction — the game really puts the "art" into Art of Vengeance! With action that feels just as intricate as its aesthetic, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is one to watch as a busy gaming summer rolls into a busy gaming fall.
Finally, I edited my colleague Vinny Acovino’s digital piece on Shadow Labyrinth, which featured an interview with Bandai Namco president, CEO, and “chief Pac-Man officer” Nao Udagawa. I also previewed this gritty revamp of the circular hero-turned-horror in June. I’ve since put more hours into it. Shadow Labyrinth is a competent 2D action game, but lacks the fluid movement and snappy combat of the best in the genre. I could list a dozen metroidvanias that have impressed me more, but none of them let you transform into a yellow orb to scarf down enemies and currency. Shadow Labyrinth will always have that going for it, I guess.
Other Mastromarino Productions
The significance of Britain's potential recognition of a Palestinian state
Had the pleasure of engineering Tamara Keith and Asma Khalid for this studio conversation: Inside Trump's White House makeover. Incidentally, this week was also Asma’s last at NPR — she’ll soon depart for the BBC. Few journalists are so incisive, dedicated, and generous. It’s been an honor to work with her.
I have fond memories of playing Shinobi as a kid, great to see it’s getting a modern day face lift. I’ll be checking it out!
Best of luck with the baby! Those first few months they don't actually do much of anything, perfect for couch gaming. It's a bit of a wash after that 😄