I-Ninja
Little ninja that couldn't.
Published: January 26, 2004
I'm not sure that it's just by nature of the fact that I'm getting older or if it's the literally thousands upon thousands of games I touch every year, but it's becoming harder and harder to keep my interest in games until the end. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for that fact that it's policy for PSX2.com staff to play a game all the way through (or close to it if time doesn't allow), since movie reviewers wouldn't (or shouldn't) just up and leave halfway or three quarters through a movie and then try to pass judgement on the full offering. Granted, games are almost always at least four or five times longer than your average movie, but I still feel we as reviewers -- and more importantly gamers -- owe it to the developers to see their product through till the end.
The problem is, most games these days seem to run out of steam long before they're finished. I've noted in a couple reviews that just because a game is short, there's no reason to knock it too much; obviously the developer had enough foresight to keep the whole experience concentrated enough to keep it fresh throughout. Prince of Persia is a perfect example, but perhaps Sly Cooper is a better on in this instance, since I-Ninja feels quite a bit like Sucker Punch's brilliant sophomore effort, but doesn't boast nearly the same amount of control.
Argonaut's ninja-fueled action game draws heavily from inspiration in everything from the aforementioned Sly Cooper (and a bit from PoP, though the games were in development for a while, so it may have been a coincidence) to Jak & Daxter to the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and plenty of touches from other games. The monomonikered Ninja (voiced fantastically by Futurama alum Billy West) is a smart-assed pint-sized little ball of energy, and after an accident sends his Sensei flying from the material plane, it falls on him to rescue his Master from his ethereal fate by acquiring a couple of rage stones and by taking out the corpulent, gaseous menace appropriately named O-Dor.
I-Ninja, while certainly heavy on action, mixes in a couple of well-used pinches of gameplay variety to distract from the endless seas of spawning robo-ninjas, robo-dragons, robo-dogs, wall running and chain swinging that populate each of the game's couple-dozen missions. A first-person boxing match in giant robots is actually the game's first boss fight, but random missions scattered throughout the game's five worlds add in stationary cannons, Super Monkey Ball-style bonus games, a few instances of Ratchet & Clank-style grinding missions and some Sonic-esque speedy dashes up, down and around ramps. All of these distractions are quite well done, and for a while really pepper the whole gameplay mix with freshness in much the same way that Sly Cooper minced its platforming roots with borrowed gameplay moments. The difference, again, between Sly and I-Ninja comes in balancing and pacing.
Sly offered the opportunity to revisit levels to add a bit of gameplay length and unlock a brilliant (and still otherwise unused) DVD-style commentary bonus, but you didn't have to replay any of them. I-Ninja forces you to revisit levels, turning the ordinarily interesting prospect of killing a certain number of enemies or hunting for red coins or racing through the level before the clock runs out into tedious affairs that get old well before you've collected each level's available grades to upgrade to the next ninja belt level in order to progress through the game. While the level designs are decent enough in their own right (if a bit inconsistent in length), when used as a foil for these extra missions, it becomes rather apparent that they weren't designed to be tackled as evenly with the extra modes. What's more, by forcing you to replay them over and over instead of allowing players who are stuck to move on, they lose their freshness rather quickly.
The CG in the game was actually handled by Don Bluth Films, and directed and storyboarded by none other than Don Bluth himself. The style is definitely there and while painfully short, the rendered cinemas offer a decent look into what the ninja is all about, and introduces characters interestingly enough. It's just a shame that there wasn't more to look at, since it would have been nice to see talent like the Bluth Studios tapped for more than about 5-10 minutes of CG.
Fortunately, for all the unevenness in the gameplay itself, it appears Argonaut knows their way around the PS2 hardware. While the levels themselves are rather sparsely textured with simplistic, lower-resolution texture work, the art style and direction is quite well done. Even from a cold boot, the game takes longer to save to a memory card than it does to load up a level -- even when transitioning into a whole new area. It's impressive to say the least to see how much is loaded up in a matter of seconds. Couple the game's solid visuals with a rock steady framerate and easily adjustable camera that rarely clashes with the game's level design and you have a game that's hardly tough on the eyes.
The ears, however, are another story. I-Ninja's music can be best described as unintentionally grating, usually consisting of looped simplistic drum tracks and a few repetitious notes that help carry things from one section of the game to the next, then shift pitch and start all over again. It's not the worst music I've ever heard, but it's certainly not fun to listen to. There are few levels where things break from the norm and end up sounding slightly pleasant, but on the whole it's rather grating. At least on the plus side you can turn it off, and it easily moves to the background unless you're stuck retrying a level over and over again (which can happen towards the end of the game).
The only bright spot comes in the game's writing, dialogue and sound effects. The humor spills almost entirely from the lips of the ghostly Sensei, who regularly minces parables into chuckle-worthy bastardizations, but Ninja's comments can get old rather fast. Luckily, things like a "SHHH!" sound when skipping past dialogue is plenty amusing and the actual voice work from the entire cast (of which there were a whopping five actors) is well done. There's a bit of Futurama's Fry in Billy West's Ninja, but it's nice to hear a little of that familiarity -- especially when there won't be any more Futurama to tide anyone over.
I-Ninja started off smartly enough. After watching Ninja run into the giant boxing robot Tekayama and then to hear metallic clanks as the camera slowly moved up the robot, then into a slow-moving elevator (complete with perfectly fitting muzak), I was sold. But slowly, all the humor and bits of mixed up gameplay elements lifted from other games became more and more repetitious. By the end of the game, I didn't give a crap about finding any more red coins or killing another 90 enemies, I just wanted out. To have a game transform from something fresh and enticing into another drab, boring, overworked action game is something I've not had the displeasure of watching too many times, and aside from possibly renting the game if you just have to play it, I can't see why I'd recommend anyone else ever go though what I did. Steer clear.
The problem is, most games these days seem to run out of steam long before they're finished. I've noted in a couple reviews that just because a game is short, there's no reason to knock it too much; obviously the developer had enough foresight to keep the whole experience concentrated enough to keep it fresh throughout. Prince of Persia is a perfect example, but perhaps Sly Cooper is a better on in this instance, since I-Ninja feels quite a bit like Sucker Punch's brilliant sophomore effort, but doesn't boast nearly the same amount of control.
Argonaut's ninja-fueled action game draws heavily from inspiration in everything from the aforementioned Sly Cooper (and a bit from PoP, though the games were in development for a while, so it may have been a coincidence) to Jak & Daxter to the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and plenty of touches from other games. The monomonikered Ninja (voiced fantastically by Futurama alum Billy West) is a smart-assed pint-sized little ball of energy, and after an accident sends his Sensei flying from the material plane, it falls on him to rescue his Master from his ethereal fate by acquiring a couple of rage stones and by taking out the corpulent, gaseous menace appropriately named O-Dor.
I-Ninja, while certainly heavy on action, mixes in a couple of well-used pinches of gameplay variety to distract from the endless seas of spawning robo-ninjas, robo-dragons, robo-dogs, wall running and chain swinging that populate each of the game's couple-dozen missions. A first-person boxing match in giant robots is actually the game's first boss fight, but random missions scattered throughout the game's five worlds add in stationary cannons, Super Monkey Ball-style bonus games, a few instances of Ratchet & Clank-style grinding missions and some Sonic-esque speedy dashes up, down and around ramps. All of these distractions are quite well done, and for a while really pepper the whole gameplay mix with freshness in much the same way that Sly Cooper minced its platforming roots with borrowed gameplay moments. The difference, again, between Sly and I-Ninja comes in balancing and pacing.
Sly offered the opportunity to revisit levels to add a bit of gameplay length and unlock a brilliant (and still otherwise unused) DVD-style commentary bonus, but you didn't have to replay any of them. I-Ninja forces you to revisit levels, turning the ordinarily interesting prospect of killing a certain number of enemies or hunting for red coins or racing through the level before the clock runs out into tedious affairs that get old well before you've collected each level's available grades to upgrade to the next ninja belt level in order to progress through the game. While the level designs are decent enough in their own right (if a bit inconsistent in length), when used as a foil for these extra missions, it becomes rather apparent that they weren't designed to be tackled as evenly with the extra modes. What's more, by forcing you to replay them over and over instead of allowing players who are stuck to move on, they lose their freshness rather quickly.
The CG in the game was actually handled by Don Bluth Films, and directed and storyboarded by none other than Don Bluth himself. The style is definitely there and while painfully short, the rendered cinemas offer a decent look into what the ninja is all about, and introduces characters interestingly enough. It's just a shame that there wasn't more to look at, since it would have been nice to see talent like the Bluth Studios tapped for more than about 5-10 minutes of CG.
Fortunately, for all the unevenness in the gameplay itself, it appears Argonaut knows their way around the PS2 hardware. While the levels themselves are rather sparsely textured with simplistic, lower-resolution texture work, the art style and direction is quite well done. Even from a cold boot, the game takes longer to save to a memory card than it does to load up a level -- even when transitioning into a whole new area. It's impressive to say the least to see how much is loaded up in a matter of seconds. Couple the game's solid visuals with a rock steady framerate and easily adjustable camera that rarely clashes with the game's level design and you have a game that's hardly tough on the eyes.
The ears, however, are another story. I-Ninja's music can be best described as unintentionally grating, usually consisting of looped simplistic drum tracks and a few repetitious notes that help carry things from one section of the game to the next, then shift pitch and start all over again. It's not the worst music I've ever heard, but it's certainly not fun to listen to. There are few levels where things break from the norm and end up sounding slightly pleasant, but on the whole it's rather grating. At least on the plus side you can turn it off, and it easily moves to the background unless you're stuck retrying a level over and over again (which can happen towards the end of the game).
The only bright spot comes in the game's writing, dialogue and sound effects. The humor spills almost entirely from the lips of the ghostly Sensei, who regularly minces parables into chuckle-worthy bastardizations, but Ninja's comments can get old rather fast. Luckily, things like a "SHHH!" sound when skipping past dialogue is plenty amusing and the actual voice work from the entire cast (of which there were a whopping five actors) is well done. There's a bit of Futurama's Fry in Billy West's Ninja, but it's nice to hear a little of that familiarity -- especially when there won't be any more Futurama to tide anyone over.
I-Ninja started off smartly enough. After watching Ninja run into the giant boxing robot Tekayama and then to hear metallic clanks as the camera slowly moved up the robot, then into a slow-moving elevator (complete with perfectly fitting muzak), I was sold. But slowly, all the humor and bits of mixed up gameplay elements lifted from other games became more and more repetitious. By the end of the game, I didn't give a crap about finding any more red coins or killing another 90 enemies, I just wanted out. To have a game transform from something fresh and enticing into another drab, boring, overworked action game is something I've not had the displeasure of watching too many times, and aside from possibly renting the game if you just have to play it, I can't see why I'd recommend anyone else ever go though what I did. Steer clear.
