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Mini Ninjas [demo]

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    Mini Ninjas [demo]

    Played this last night and it was brilliant.

    Choice of 3 characters in the demo, my favourite being the main little guy you start as named Hiro. The animation of every character is brilliant, especially when you get in water and can use your hat as a boat.

    The level's environment is gorgeous, with lots of trees and grass that you can hide in to avoid enemy patrols, or stealthily attack them from behind. When you kill the enemies little clouds of smoke appear (wind waker style) and an animal is set free (sonic the hedgehog style). You can also use a magic ability that lets you control animals and use them against your enemies like a boar. The size of the animals correspond to the size of the evil spirit. For example a frog or fox are the normal sized enemies which is the same as Hiro, and the bears and pandas being the bigger, more tough enemies; which you have to switch characters (can be done instantly in game) in order to defeat. On the subject of environments, the game's trailer at the end shows more lovely levels, with heavy snow, heavy rain and a sunken village all rendered in the stylish cel-shaded art that gives the game a lot of its charisma.

    The game has a lot of charm, and their seems to be other small parts to the game rather than just a hack and slash. For instance, if you swim out in the river and use your hat as a boat, you can then fish with Hiro to get sushi for regaining health. You can also pick flowers, mushrooms, berries, fruit etc. which I think can be used to create certain potions once you've learned the recipe.

    The game wont be breaking boundaries, but it has a ton of charm to it that it made the Lost Planet 2 demo that I played afterwards seem incredibly dull and generic.

    Anyway, download the demo on XBL now and try it for yourself.
    Last edited by Malc; 20-08-2009, 09:18.

    #2
    I played this and was a bit undecided.

    I love the graphical style and it plays quite well, I found a lot of the spells/flowers/character stuff a bit fiddly to get to grips with. I did enjoy going back and exploring the level after getting to the end.

    Really reminded me a lot of the old PS2 I-Ninja game, which i used to love.

    Will give another go but looks to me like one that will get lost in the 4th qtr release rush and should be available to pick up cheap quite soon after launch.

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      #3
      I really like the demo, surpirisingly so. Simple, charming, novel ideas, great animation. Pre-ordered

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        #4
        It's very polished and its good to see IO work on something outside their comfort zone (or anything decent after K&L) but the demo moved me towards a no buy. It just felt a bit too kids PS2 game for me, albeit a highly polished kids PS2 game

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          #5
          To be fair to IO it is supposed to be a kids' game. Not as in something regular gamers will all dismiss, but they wanted to make something that was definitely family-friendly.

          Loved it myself - I think the art direction is absolutely brilliant (the character videos are almost up to Valve's work on TF2), and it was nice to see a few LOD options thrown in on PC too. Controls were a little fiddly, and it was pretty linear (lots of barriers, really just one way to go, etc.) but there was some scope for poking around a bit and it wasn't too hard to get to grips with. I'd hope the full thing would offer some kind of challenge for the older or more experienced, but I'm still very interested.

          EDIT: Anyone notice they ripped off the musical notes thing from Wind Waker, too? It's quiet, but it is there - slap the big enemy around at the end of the demo and you get the series of chimes rising in pitch.
          Last edited by Eight Rooks; 20-08-2009, 11:55.

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            #6


            Min-jas

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