Mini Ninjas

Review from Matt - Friday, 02 October 2009 @ 5:23pm

When I first saw video of Mini Ninjas pop up on the Playstation Store I was intrigued. They are ninjas. Yet smaller than regular ninjas. MINI NINJAS!

The art style seemed cool and fun, offering a range of combat, stealth and simple story based gameplay.

While a little bit kiddy it's a mistake to dismiss a good game purely because it might be aimed at a wide ranging audience that starts low. Little Big Planet is a good example. While G-Rated there's plenty of awesome fun-ness for even the oldest player, and later levels get fiendish. Locoroco is another “kids” game that just so happens to be made of kittens and win.

I was really looking forward to this one for quite a while then, and was exuberant when I found out it was coming as a demo. I went to the Xbox Live Marketplace and prepared to download. Then I found out that it required Gold membership, and as I have no inclination to pay real cash money for the opportunity to be called a “n00b scrub” a lot I opted to get it from the Playstation Store instead.

I can't say I liked the demo. I didn't. I found it unnecessarily complex, fiddly, and slightly pointless. I didn't find myself enjoying it, and felt more confused than anything else. Maybe this is why I shouldn't play demos?

Who are you calling "mini"?

My interest waned to the point of not even bothering to pick up our review copy when it came in. Eventually Yug dropped it off for me. And eventually I forced myself to play it.

And I have to say, I'm glad I did.

First of all, let me just say something. Games like LittleBigPlanet are not children's games. They may be G rated, but they're complex and intelligent games, offering play experiences to a diverse set of age brackets.

Mini Ninjas is a children's game.

It is, however, an exceptionally good one. There's really nothing wrong with that. It's very good at what it does. I just think people should know going in that it's not anything that will appeal to the hardcore.

The story is simple, starting with your character heading out on a quest to find the other characters sent in to do a job. Which now that I think about it is also the plot of Rambo. Coincidence? I think not.

Your character, Hiro (obviously a thinly veiled attempt to disguise the name Rambo) is one of a small squad of ninjas that your ninja master has sent out in an attempt to discover what's been pestering cute woodland creatures and messing with the weather.

When all you have is a hammer everyone looks like a nail

That the ninja master never thought to send them out in a squad or in pairs seems strange to me. Equally strange is that videos say that Hiro, your character, is “the last ninja I'd ever want to send on a mission”. Yet Hiro is by far the most powerful, having access to Kuji magic and some kick-ass moves. So unless the definition of “last ninja” is “the one most likely to get the job done AND set free all the other more loserish ninjas” I'm not really with the master on that. Actually I'm not even sure why he's the master. We see no evidence of anything mastery beyond sending kids to their deaths.

In any case, the wildlife thievery turns out to be an evil genius creating an army of drones from small woodland critters, who can be freed by destroying them. The enemy turns out to be Dr Robotnik, I mean an evil magician samurai warlord. If you think that concept sounds confused you're possibly overthinking it. That a warlord rules over samurai is irrelevant, and that a warlord isn't a magician is similarly crazy nonsense on your part.

The warlord is kind of Elmer Fudd-esque, and doesn't really do much of a job of inspiring terror. The only things he inspires fear in are his own minions, who live in terror that his wrath will cause him to do magic on them and turn them into woodland creatures.

Wait... they started off as woodland creatures. Why are they scared? They should be trying to anger him and be freed!

Hiro's quest involves following really obvious clues left by his friends and then breaking the n00bs out of whatever idiocy they've gotten themselves into. Freeing them gives you the ability to play as them. Aside from Hiro there is Futo, Shun, Toro, someone and someone else. Futo is a big strong man with a hammer. He makes short work of the big baddies that occasionally dot the landscape. Actually he makes TOO short work of them. A few hits triggers a quicktime event to press A, and after doing that three (or 5 for later guys) times he's toast. But you can pretty much rinse and repeat that immediately, taking out a sub-boss character in around 5 seconds.

Wait... is that smell coming from my shoes? Awww, I stepped in something....

I'd like to describe the varied characters in more detail, but to be honest there's not a lot of point. The extra characters beyond Futo, who is pretty much a requirement for the big sub-boss characters, are not going to get much of a look in. It's a pity to have these characters and the ability to change between them and not give them distinct and different abilities, encouraging you to switch between characters. Distinctly different abilities, such as climbing rocks, or jumping higher, or 1000 other things, would have added a level of replayability and diversity, allowing you to access new items in the earlier levels.

One of them, Shun, uses a bow for ranged attacks, which is very useful. But the others really aren't much different, and certainly offer little incentive to use them instead of Hiro, even on occasion. About the only reason to mess with them is to see their special moves.

The special move is a startlingly over-powered attack that differs substantially from character to character. They'll get a look in mostly just out of curiosity, but by far the best one is Hiro's and it ends up that all of your special moves are used by him.

The special moves (especially Hiro's) are a major feature of the game, and prominent in video footage promoting it. The attack is dynamic and fun, freezing the game and letting you select a few enemies. The number of enemies you can target increases with your level, and by the end you're pummelling an entire squad (up to about 6) with one special attack.

The special attack is triggered by the Y button, and uses up one of of the three red circles on the right of the screen. Those circles are filled by picking up a red sphere that's dropped by about 1 in 5 enemies.

Some of the more on the ball readers will have picked up a slight flaw there. If you can kill 6 enemies instantly and the chances are almost certain that one will drop a ball that replaces the thing you just used up, then there's absolutely no reason NOT to do it.

This is unfortunately the case.

The special move is frankly overpowered, especially later in the game, and the squad sizes become big enough that the red special attack orbs often go unused anyway. The special move becomes “cheap” in every sense of the word. This could have been relatively easily countered simply by making the drop on the red special attack orbs a little less common.

And I'm all out of bubblegum. Oh... wait, here's some! Om nom nom.

Another aspect of the game could have been better used, and that's stealth. Mini Ninjas has a stealth component, but it feels a bit tacked on. In long grass, as well as a few other places such as bushes, you can crouch down. At this point you're “hidden”, as shown by the ninja icon at the top right of your screen. Attacks done from this hidden status are very powerful, killing enemies with one hit. It sounds good in theory, but in practise it doesn't work as well as it should. Enemies seem to see you from a vast distance, taking a lot of the fun out of sneaking up. Enemies can see you when you're on roofs and high ledges, meaning you can't drop down. There's very little strategy possible, beyond “hide in a bush and kill them on the way past”. Tenchu: Stealth Assassin this is not.

The main thing that's so broken about the stealth element, however, is how unnecessary it is. Combat is trivially easy, even without cheating and using the special moves. Killing an enemy in one hit is not that big a deal when they normally die in two or three anyway.

Sadly as well as being kind of easy combat isn't actually very good either. There are two attacks, a normal hit and a heavy hit. The combos involved stop at the “basic” level, meaning all fights turn into a whack whack whack of the same moves repeated. Over and over.

The only time the combat really changes up is when you meet one of the four game bosses. Well... calling it combat is a little overstated. They're basically opportunities for quicktime events. Get into position to trigger the quicktime event, and go. While the action that occurs when you do this is pretty cool, it really should be an actual fight, rather than a scripted setpiece that runs through the motions when you press the right buttons.

Possibly break dancing. I'm not really sure.

So far it might seem like I don't like Mini Ninjas. I've called it a children's game and listed some issues with it that cover key components like characters and combat. With problems in those things, what do you really have left?

Well, a surprising amount, really. Mini Ninjas is overall likeable. It has a charm to it that goes beyond the pedestrian graphics often given to games aimed at a younger market. There's a polish and sheen to the stylised landscapes that often impresses. Much of the setting is simply forest areas, and not much to write home about. Occasionally, though, things get a little more imaginative. In particular there's a late level set in a snowbound wilderness. Blizzards reduce visibility to almost nothing, and the silhouettes of the enemy emerging from the whiteness make a stylish and striking visual. There's one section where you have to run across a bridge, arrows striking down from the whiteness to land around you as you charge under them. Eventually your targets emerge from the haze, the square shields of archers. You run closer in and quickly tap the Y button, targetting them in a long line, quickly dispatching them. Just as you take out the last one a volley of arrows slams around you and you see new attackers emerge from the mist.

It's great gameplay, and it's a lot of fun. It is regrettable that it's not more common.

There are other aspects of Mini Ninjas that are worthy of respect. One is the rather strange concept of “recipes”. Recipes are bought from some NPCs and are used to make potions. The materials for the potions are scattered around the world, in the form of various flowers and fungi. Finding these items is often your reward for exploration, as are some little statues that actually provide no real benefit.

Not pictured - Being A FISH!

The potions also created one of the most awesome moments in the game – the ability to turn into a fish. Yes, you can make a potion of fishness, that turns you into a little Koi, letting you swim through the water. You can jump out of the water and generally lark about as a fish. This (in theory) lets you sneak up on enemies, but more likely it just leaves you bouncing around going “OMG I'M A FISH!”. It's a lot of fun. I'm not sure why.

The flowers and other items that make up your recipes bring something else to mind. These items are much easier to find if you're an animal. One of Hiro's powers is his ability to possess animals. The possession mechanic is weird because you go “into” the animal, rather than leaving your body behind and your mind taking them over. You kind of feel like you should somehow return to your body, but it doesn't work that way. As an animal you can see any of the materials glowing with dark blue smoke, a very visible sign. The animals also allow you to fight, and you attract less attention from enemies, though you're by no means invisible.

It has to be said, though, that the slightly broken and overly easy combat renders both of the above advantages kind of null and void, so you won't really find yourself turning into an animal all that often. Again this is sadly underused. Animals that could run faster, or climb, or... dig. I don't know. Just think that more could have been made of this mechanic.

Oooooooaoah ohhhhh - Aquaaaaaluuuung

All in all, Mini Ninjas is a fun and polished game. A play through will be rewarding for the younger gamer. I know I enjoyed a lot of parts of it, especially the snow later levels. But older and more experienced gamers can find better titles to suit their need for a combat/stealth hybrid. And one that doesn't have you fighting a farting quicktime boss.

Pros

Pretty and fun graphics, cute fluffy animals, cool effect on the special move, being a fish

Cons

Many of its best ideas are underused. Combat is repetitive and a little dull. Special moves are overpowered.

Summary

Mini Ninjas is a kids game, not the “fun for all ages” you might have heard. It's very polished and offers enough variety to keep things fun. Younger gamers will get a lot out of it but the older players should look elsewhere or lament the lost opportunities the game provides. Maybe even worth a rental if there aren't other games you want to play. But there are.