With all these nerds running around, checking the big Episode II news on starwars.com — for example an interview with the key grip — it seems that everyone in the entertainment industry is trying to cash in with a prequel success. Activision has decided jump on the prequel bandwagon by purchasing the Playstation rights to release the prequel to the million-copy selling "Tenchu: Stealth Assassins". "Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins" is set four years before the original Tenchu. As in the original, you may pick between two different Azuma ninja, Rikimaru and Ayame, each with their own individual story modes.

For those of you who may be newcomers to Tenchu, the name of the game is stealth. With either ninja, you must sneak through 11 different massive levels in the story mode, traveling from place to place throughout feudal Japan on missions handed down from your master, Lord Gohda.

For those of you who persevere through the 11 missions for either character, you are granted an additional seven missions to complete with the use of Tatsumaru, a powerful Azuma ninja.

A new concept in "Technu 2" is mission objectives. Different missions have different objectives, as opposed to the basic find some bad guys/ kill bad guys/ find boss/ kill boss/ go to next level/ repeat. Sometimes the mission is to slide through enemy defenses and assassinate an evil warlord. Sometimes the objective is to creep through a stronghold to steal something. No matter what the objective is you can be sure that it will be a bloody good time.

For me, the one thing that was always so frustrating growing up playing video games was that if you were sneaking up on some unsuspecting sap, you should be able to take them out with one well-placed blow. "Tenchu 2" gives you this opportunity. Fans of the original already know how gruesome the stealth kills are.

In addition to the original stealth kills, each character has three more stealth kills to compensate for the frustration of hiding in a dark corner for two minutes while your roommates tell you what a stupid game you're playing. Then, all of a sudden, you run up and blood flies everywhere, on the floor, on the wall, or on some other goon.

This game has a mature rating, kids. Don't let mommy and daddy catch you if you're from Utah, because that stuff just doesn't fly there — kind of like music. Why the Jazz are in Utah is beyond me. They belong back in New Orleans.

Other cool new additions to the original include some of the sweetest full-motion video animation that I've ever seen in a game that wasn't made by Squaresoft. New ninja tools and weapons, like exploding arrows, blowguns, and blinding dust are also fine additions.

The computer artificial intelligence is is vastly improved. The patrols will stop and look around when they stroll over an assassinated cohort – thus giving away your element of surprise. The solution: pull the body into a corner.

No blood, no foul? Probably not, but for you serious Tenchu fans out there, there is also a mission editor included with the game, allowing those who are most bored on a Saturday night to amuse themselves by creating their very own nerdfest. These people also hide from the sunshine. They hang out in the Fitzpatrick cluster to increase their dark powers. They also check out starwars.com a lot.

Okay, so you're probably going "Ah, another Observer review that finds no fault at all with the product in an attempt at positive PR for everyone." Actually, that's not what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Why should I not buy this game? Why is this review rambling? Is that guy sitting by the door in the dining hall going to see me stick this stack of cups in my bag?" Well, all this and more, my friend. (He's not really looking at you, by the way. Make a run for it.)

I'll tell you what sincerely displeases me about this game. The graphics are the same as the original. There hasn't been vast improvement in any department really. Some things are different, but by no means is it a tremendous change. I think they blew their graphics budget on the opening full motion video sequence.

On top of that, some of the stage paths are not only hard to follow, but almost annoyingly impossible. Example: I spent one hour on first level looking for hole in ceiling. I broke the sign pointing to the hole and I was lost. Which makes me stupid, but it is hard to follow at times.

Another flaw in the system is the view, which is just awful at times. There is a constant need to hit the L1 button to look around, even when you're not in a tight spot.

The most annoying bug I caught was that sometimes, when you're right on top of someone you're sneaking up on and you're going for the stealth kill, the screen flashes and all of a sudden you've passed through them and they start spurting blood everywhere.

This ticks me off because if I'm going to spend the trouble of sneaking up to the bad guy, the least they can do is show me the little stealth-kill movie.

Then there's the problem of the learning curve. The learning curve is not fast if you're unfamiliar with the game. The controls take a bit of getting used to, since 99 percent of the population is still used to playing Mario Kart. A training level allows you plenty of opportunity to work out the kinks, but it is still super-annoying, because you don't want to learn, you want to play. Which is why you're in college in the first place, really.

For those of you who are hardcore and like your games violent and dirty, with great amusement, I highly recommend Tenchu 2. For those of you who have girlfriends, just make sure to hide it before she comes over.

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