I approached this game with a completely clear mind. I hadn't really noticed it on release schedules, hadn't read any previews and all I knew was that it was Namco. That one fact led me to expect a good game, but sadly, I was disappointed.

The game has a very clichéd story line. The game starts with Ninja rescuing Sensei and then killing his dragon captor. The dragon then spits out a 'Ragestone' (for rage stone, read 'generic all-powerful object'), which sends you into a rage and you accidentally kill Sensei (oh the irony…). His ghost then appears to you, and apparently if you collect all the Ragestones, somehow it will stop O'Dor and his Ranx army of robots. They are scattered around the island, which is divided into hubs.

 

Graphics:

The graphics are in flavour of the month cel shaded style, with anime inspired artwork and character models. However, it's not all good. All the enemies are the same, aside from bosses. There are a few different types of enemies, from grey robots with one spike on their helmet, to slightly more yellow robots with three spikes on their helmets. They appear in most rooms, corridors and open spaces, so you get pretty sick of every type. This graphical theme runs throughout, and there are many repeated items and textures, so what is at first an attractive and new environment because a repetitive journey through identikit land. All the movement is perfectly handled without a hint of slowdown which always helps and makes the game more playable. Plus, the cut scenes are top notch, and make a great first impression with the opening FMV.

Sound:

This is where the games failings really start to shine through. This game has possibly the most irritating soundtrack of any game I've ever played. It's plinky, plonky and downright annoying. Occasionally Ninja blurts out something silly or screams madly, usually for no apparent reason. The voice acting for Sensei's introductions to the levels aren't done badly, aside from the scripts, which are corny, and well, embarrassing to listen to, especially Ninja's 'hilarious' and 'insulting' quip at the end of each of them. Battle sounds are also irritating and repetitive, yet again with this game they didn't put in the effort to produce a well rounded game with a bit of variety; same noises, same textures, same enemies and same songs. Urghh. It also shows up one of the more disappointing, rather than annoying, aspects of this game. There was clearly an attempt at comedy here, which, like most many of the potentially great touches, just didn't work.

 

Gameplay:

The developers clearly tried very hard to make an original and varied game, by using elements from most of the big selling games of recent years. It somehow combines Mario, Sonic, Tony Hawks and most bizarrely Super Monkey Ball. Essentially the game is an action platformer. You set out as Ninja into platform style levels, armed with a sword, ninja stars, poison darts and more. And that's where the gameplay problems begin.

Nothing is quite complete here. The hub is boring and uninspiring, and has nothing going on. There are also lots of niggling flaws. The camera is NEVER in the right place, and what makes it even worse is that you cannot zoom in or out. Not ever, no zooming at all. Possibly the most irritating flaw in the game however is that you walk too slowly! Now, I may sound crazy, but I have never even noticed how fast you walk in other games, other than I get there before I get bored walking and forget where I'm going. Here, you walk slowly, with no way to speed it up. There aren't even short cuts you can take, nor can jumping around that speeds you up. Ok, yes I sound crazy, but you play it and you'll see exactly what I'm on about.

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The levels themselves are also a problem. While I can live with the fact that they are linear, I can't handle what they have done to try to make them appear less linear. One technique used is to get a force field across the entrance to a room, which only goes once you have destroyed all the enemies plus the machine that beams them onto the floor. This leads on to two of the other odd things of this game. The first and minor thing is the coins. Once you destroy something, most of the time a coin or so pops up, but they appear to serve little or no purpose, except merely counting score, which would have been done with a score counter. It's just put in to give you a tiny distraction so you don't realise how linear it is. The second, and wildly annoying problem, is the fighting system.

 

Ok, in the bottom left of the screen you have a bar, increasing to 4 as the game progresses, that gives you special powers when you charge it up. You fill it up fighting enemies, although basic combat doesn't fill the bar up fast. The way to fill it up within a reasonable time scale is to do combo moves. But, and this is a big but, due to the camera, and the general flawed nature of the game, the combos are very hard to successfully pull off. You can aim them accurately, and even worse, once you do a move, if you hit them or not you are stuck still for a few moments leaving you COMPLETELY vulnerable to attack, which has dire consequences should you just happen to be in the middle of a battle for any reason when you do the combo. This means that if you want to use your Ninja skills, and you will, due to the ineffective nature of the standard attack, you have to develop a technique of splitting your enemies up, so they aren't in groups, ready to hack your back after your combo. You also do not get the skill to actually regain health in a level until part way through the game, and this skill is one of those that has to be charged up to use. This means you have to take crazy risks to try and hit enough without being killed to get the health to survive. It is as entertaining as it sounds.

 

The actual level structure is bizarre. Some parts are platform, which I can live with. Some then turn into Tony Hawk, with rails to grind and half pipes to run up and down, each topped of with a time-wasting finishing move at the end of your grind, climb, wall run or half pipe. Then there are Sonic style parts, where you are on a track, running very fast and hurtling round corners by swinging round on a grappling chain. I just don't get this bit; it doesn't make much sense, except as an attempt to add a bit of variety. The most bizarre thing in this game though is the Super Monkey Ball parts. Ok, many of the things that you have to rescue from the Ranx army come packaged, very thoughtfully in my opinion, in a ball that you can strap your self on to and roll down a special track to get back to the hub. While this is actually an entertaining idea, it is done with such terrible ineptness that is just gets you in a bad mood. The tracks are good, but the ball doesn't balance. You have to constantly re-adjust to compensate for its random rolls and complete lack of balance making it a chore.

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As the icing on the cake, to get the belts you need to unseal the doors to higher levels, you need to repeat these levels, meaning not just one dose of pain, but three. That is the main problem. The first time you play each level the majority of the flaws do not leap out at you, but when a tiny slip or misjudgement kills you, the thought of replaying the whole level is one that gets more unpleasant every time.

 

Ok, I have focused heavily on the bad points, because the game just irritated me so much, with a load of increasingly major flaws. There are some interesting ideas, and some of the later levels are fun, at least the first time. There is nothing BAD about the game (besides the camera), just so many flaws where you know a bit more testing and time would have ironed them out and made a far more entertaining game.

Playability:

This game starts of highly playable, and as each level is repeated it becomes less and less so. It is very easy to pick up and play, with the first level providing a decent tutorial stage. Sadly, there is no real depth here, so hardcore gamers will not be satisfied for long.

 

Lifespan:

For me, this game has a huge lifespan, as I eventually found it such a pain to play I couldn't play for more than 15 minutes max a day. Supposing you got into the game, then you could complete it within a few hours as it is pretty basic stuff. It looks nice, has variety, and if you can look beyond the flaws it could be an enjoyable game.

Final say:

Yes, I know I have been harsh to the game here. But, it is the result of a LOT of thought. I have read other reviews, got friends to play it and spent lots time on it myself, but this is still the only conclusion I could come to. It may appeal to some, so rent it before you buy it, as I'm prepared to believe that this isn't the most widely accepted view.