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I Ninja Review: By: Nathan and Nick

I Ninja? who would have thought? Namco is, fighting, arcade, and racing type games. I ninja, you cannot call a fighting game, because that is not all you do in I Ninja. I Ninja is more like an adventure/action game. I-Ninja, Argonaut's new third-person action game, features an angry little Ninja that, well, fights other evil little ninjas. You see the humor right from the start of the game, when “Ninja” sees his master Sensei has been captured. He then fights a group of Ranx Ninjas and finishes off a type of lizard. He then sees a rage stone and picks it up turning him into a wild/angry Ninja, cutting off Sensei’s head in the process. Sensei turns into some ghost, and tells the Ninja of Master O-Dor and his Ranx army. Master O-Dor and his army of Ranx have invaded and killed almost the entire Ninja Guardians sword to defend the land of evil. The Ninja goes about his way, and about his adventure. The Ninja will encounter 5 worlds, which include: Robot Beach, Bomb Bay, Jungle Falls, Mountain Gorge, Moon Base.

Gameplay
Ninja is little with a big round head; you would think that this Ninja couldn’t move very well. But indeed it’s true, he can, run, jump, double-jump, and turn his sword into a helicopter. If you have ever played Prince of Persia, you notice you can walk on walls, and do all sorts of amazing stuff. In I Ninja you can walk on the side of walls, he can run strait up walls, he can triangle jump between two walls, and he can use some grappling hook in some unusual ways. Ninja is also handy with is sword also; there is quite a bit of sword moves you can do with the little guy as well. As you progress through the game you will notice yourself on a big giant sphere rolling along until you find your way to the end of the level. You also will find yourself taking on a giant robot with your own robot. You will never be unclear on what to do in I Ninja it is laid out very well for you.

This game looks childish but the challenges you will come across in this game are defiantly not a cakewalk. After beating all the missions in a particular level you will face a boss, each boss will grow harder in intensity. When you need to fight, which you will do quite frequently, Ninja can fight up-close or far away. Ninja can take enemies from far away by using these air darts. He can also use these darts to take out obstacles, which is quite handy. Ninja’s weapons include: The typical Katana sword, shurikens and darts, though the sword is the most basic weapon and the most used you will still find yourself using the darts a lot. Ninja has four different rage abilities, which puts him in a temporal power up state. As ninja takes on bad guys his anger will grow, after time he will have enough anger to use a rage ability. The abilities include: Ninja Berserka, Ninja Revive, Ninja Shuriken, and I-Ninja. Ninja Shuriekn is where ninja is put upon a giant throwing star and the star crushes everything in its path. The I-Ninja! ability provides invincibility and increased attack power for a short time. Since there are quite a bit of enemies, the rage meter doesn’t take long to fill up.

So what is the general objective in this game you ask? Ninja must rid the lands of Master O-Dor and his Ranx army, but to do so he will have to earn grades to upgrade his belt colors. If your belt color is lower you will not be able to go into certain missions. In each level or “Hub” there are 11-13 missions you must complete. When you complete all levels and all mission, ninja becomes a master ninja. Also each level includes a boss which I aforementioned above. Each time you face a boss ninja will be using different things such as in the first level ninja is in a giant robot etc.

Graphics
The graphics in I Ninja are one of the games strong points; they match the videos extremely well. The character models are decent. The thing that is good about this platformer is that it looks identical on all three consoles. The Xbox version you will notice a little more textures and so forth but so minor you can’t tell the difference. There is really no use of bump mapping or that many textures to the graphics, so they are a little blah. But I don’t think they were trying to get good textures to blow you away, this game is meant to look the way it does, not to graphically blow your mind. Also, all versions of I Ninja support wide screen, which is always a big plus. The environments have good use of colors and good overall design. The rage ability and Ranx Captain battle scenes have a good Dragon Ball Z feel to them. The cartoon-ish looks of the graphics are what Namco and Argonaut's soul purpose was when creating this game.

Sound
The character voices are done nicely; Ninja’s voice sounds kind of tough with a wine to it, and fits the way he looks. When Ninja is going at his opponents he says the exact same phrases every time, which kind of gets annoying after awhile. The sound effects of Ninja walking, slashes his sword through enemies can all be heard. Argonaut got Billy West to do Ninja’s voice; Billy West, has done voices for Ren and Stimpy, Crank Yankers (on Comedy Central), and Futurama, so he was perfect for doing the voice of Ninja. Argonaut uses 80’s tunes, for some of the music but it does indeed work well with the game and it’s presentation. The music works very well in the game, but you don’t notice it a lot to begin with. It doesn’t annoy you, but it does kind of get old after awhile. Argonaut's game supports Dolby Digital Pro Logic II, but the game really doesn’t utilize this feature at all. The sound in I Ninja is nothing brilliant, but it does have it’s ups and downs as well.

Overall
When you first pop I Ninja in your console, and look at the graphics, you notice they look kind of childish, but don’t let this appearance fool you, the games challenges are harder then you would first expect by your view of the graphics. I think I Ninja is an average platform game, which looks like an early morning cartoon show. But nonetheless this games look is far from the challenge that is brought forward to you. The looks of the game might turn you off, but I Ninja is definitely a fun and exciting game from start to finish.