Have a good look at your Playstation games, and see what you have. Heaps of sports titles, driving games, fighters, platformers... they're a dime a dozen right? Games like Tenchu are much harder to find. Metal Gear Solid is of a similar flavour. Strategy, stealth, cunning, exploration -- it's all good.

So what's new in Ninja land? Glad you asked grasshopper. Read on...

Our hometown favourites make a welcome return in Tenchu 2. Rikimaru and Ayame return (in much younger forms). Also filling out the ranks is newcomer Tatsumaru -- sort of the older brother-next in line to be the master sort of dude -- although this Ninja is not available when you first play the game. You must first master Rikimaru and Ayame before you are able to use him.

Also making its debut in Tenchu 2 is the brand spanking new level editor. Oh yes would-be mapmakers -- the truth is out there, on CD in a Playstation case. Maps saved to memory card take up only 2 blocks making it very environmentally friendly. Environments within the editor include castles, caverns, villages, beaches, shipwrecks and dojos. Mountains can be made big, and small. Enemies can be added in large numbers if you're feeling overly evil. Water, cannons, cliffs, traps, bosses -- they're all available for your mini-god experience. It's a great idea, and adds greatly to the replayability of the game. Make missions for your mates -- watch them elude hidden bombs, spikes, and pits. Grin as they climb unforgiving cliffs, and rock faces. Then laugh evilly as they drop into the middle of nine samurai, six bowmen, two bosses ... happily this editor is so easy to use that the manual can stay smugly within the case.

The single player mode starts each Ninja within Azuma village - the training ground for up and coming ninjas of all ages. Several areas within the village will coach you through the various techniques required to keep you from catching a bad case of death. Once these are mastered you are 'tested' by your master - if you survive, you then proceed into the missions -- ten for each character (thirty in total).

Your tasks take you into bandit country, deserted villages, mysterious caverns and mines, castles, and ships. Some missions occur during the day, some at night. Different characters will play through similar levels, but their objectives will vary as will the timeframe (i.e. Rikkimaru's first mission is in the daylight, but Ayame's mission is on the same level at night -- with altered objectives).