Nightshade plays out like an anime title in almost every way. For starters, there's the story. It's a pretty basic tale of hellspawn, mercenaries and robots bent on trashing a Tokyo that's still recovering from the last demonic invasion. The Japanese government has had quite enough of this inter-dimensional nonsense, and so they enlist Hibana, a female Ninja, to do a little housekeeping. Hibana is a mix of lethal skill and attitude and she's ready to hack, slash, kick and super-power her way through the opposition. As you begin each level, the story unfolds in some nicely animated cut scenes that are fresh out of the anime playbook. I mean seriously, when was the last time you saw stealth bombers roaring above city streets and zipping between skyscrapers? Or Ninjas fighting it out on the deck of said bombers? And that's just the first mission! Needless to say, fans of anime will probably enjoy the basic, yet well-illustrated storyline.

Tates are the key to combat and the core of Nightshade’s gameplay. To complete a Tate, you have to attack all the enemies on screen, saving the group leader (typically a simple mini-boss) for last. As you slash, kick or shuriken through each member of the enemy group, your strikes become more powerful, until finally you can deliver serious hurt to the boss. Complete a perfect Tate in the allotted time (sorry, there's no clock, you have to play it by feel) and you'll earn bonus points while being treated to Hibana making one of her wise guy comments that punctuate the game's passable collection of dialog. While Hibana’s (and everyone else's) voice acting is somewhat limited, it serves its purpose to flesh out the tone of the game.

When you're not fighting your way through waves of funky looking opponents, you'll be hopping around some pretty well designed levels. The designs take their cues from multiple game genres, serving up a nice mix of platformer and action fare. I typically find any platformers get old fast, but in Nightshade, the designers were wise enough to not subject you to platform hell, so there's just enough to keep the levels interesting.

Hibana is a pretty lady, as are the environments in this game. There's plenty of color, which reinforces the anime sensibilities of the game. Character models, with the exception of some of the hellspawn, are lifelike, as are the various environmental elements you'll encounter throughout your forays through the levels. At times you'll find an excess of big chunky polygons, and the cities may seem a bit flat, but overall the game looks a decent bit better than the average.

Hardcore and casual gamers will find plenty of reasons to come back to Nightshade. First off, there are the multiple difficulty settings, which when jacked up to "hard" will force you to play levels several times to complete them. Then there are the coins, which must be collected so that you can unlock costumes, round replays and all sorts of other fun. And of course, I’d be remiss to overlook the "replay" count, which tracks how many times you’ve had to restart a level and scores your performance based on them. Oh, you only get one life, so you will find the replay count rising as you face-off against some of the uglier bosses. Needless to say, many gamers will find themselves restarting rounds to see if they can lower the "replay" count, so I guess you’ve got some actual game replay value right there.

While there's not a whole lot to Nightshade besides fighting, spell casting and platforming, it's still a stylish little title that should keep the Ninja fans out there busy for more than a few days. For the truly hardcore, well, they can always crank up the difficulty and try to earn every Tate and find every coin, which should keep them busy for at least a week or two. In the end, Nightshade will make a fine rental for anyone, though probably not the best purchase.