Mini Ninjas Review [X360, PS3]

Posted November 23, 2009 by maceman in Featured, Featured Home, Game Blog, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360.

Reviewed on the Xbox 360

The evil Samurai Warlord has returned to the world, capturing animals and turning them into mindless minions, upsetting the balance of nature, and generally creating chaos. The good Ninja master has sent his best Ninjas out to investigate what is happening, but they have not returned. It is now left up to one pint-sized hero called Hiro to rescue the rest of the ninja squad and take on the Warlord to restore balance to the planet; this is his story.

The core of the game is a third person hack and slash with wall runs, jumps, and shimmying. What makes this different from your average game in this genre and makes it enjoyable is the plethora of options available; mostly thanks to the fact you can use all your ninja teammates as playable characters once you save them. These characters can be summoned into battle at any time with the press of a button, and each has their own weapon, special move and fighting style. Although you could probably just play most of the game using Hiro, this would  defeat the whole purpose and restrict you from enjoying a major part of what makes this game so much fun. Still, the fact remains that it would have been good to place more emphasis on these additional characters and make it a requirement to use them in parts of the game rather than them just seeming like an afterthought .

A majority of the enemies are just the multiples of Warlords minions. This is the hack and slash part that can become a bit tedious, but some of the special attacks can be really impressive. Hiro’s attack is the one you will use the most — freezing time and Hiro in mid air, you’re able to pan the camera around matrix-style to select multiple enemies and execute a quick series of attacks that looks great and is very effective for crowd control. You will accumulate a good collection of Kuji magic spells, recipes and other weapons, but only a few will be used throughout the game, like the offensive Fireball defensive Arrowshield and healing potion.

The best parts of the game are the ones that take you away from the hack and slash elements, like the Quick Time Events used for boss fights and using your ninja hat. The hat can be used as a boat to paddle across bodies of water and down rapids, or to bobsled down a snow slope with an avalanche biting at your heals while avoiding trees and jumping gaps. You can even turn yourself into a cute woodland creature for stealth purposes or disguise yourself as an inconspicuous bush or shrubbery that only the Knights who say Ni could see through. Realistically though you will only use this stealth method once or twice just for the fun of it or to find ingredients — I found no use for turning into a fish apart from the fact that it acts as a good source of Omega-3.

Its open levels give you a feeling of exploration and all the aesthetic aspects of the game are simply stunning. Designed with a distinct cartoon style, the different lighting effects and the variety of different landscapes have attention to detail given to every aspect of the visuals. This detail applies to everything, everywhere: water, snow, on dry land with the individual blades of grass and cherry blossoms, over rooftops or in the eerie mist covered graveyards. Although the soundtrack lacks in the variety department, the suitably Japanese pipe sounds, with drums used for dramatic effect when spotted by enemies, does the job and does not let down the overall game experience.

To tell the truth I did not expect too much from this game and I was pleasantly surprised; it is simple enough for the younger or less experienced player to grasp with enough to satisfy third person hack and slash fans. Be aware that it is family friendly, so don’t expect your throwing stars to lodge into the enemies head, oozing with blood. Instead, the bad guys dissipate into a puff of smoke and turn into cute little animals. There is no real repeat value and the lack of multiplayer is a missed opportunity because it would have topped off a great game.

Tagged as Eidos Interactive, IO Interactive, Mini Ninjas, Namco Bandai, Review