Ninjack Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

A great looking platform game which is fun to play and challenging as well.

Ninjack is apparently a 'charismatic' ninja. What is that? Someone who charms you before they kill you? Anway, Ninjack is a standard plaform game which is done well.

The graphics are the best thing about the game, they just look sumptuous. The background and scenery are full of colour and detail and the main character himself is well animated and has a gait (especially when walking up ladders) that is amusing enough on its own. He has no face (I'm not sure if he's wearing a mask) but with the white outfit on and the red band, for some reason he just kept reminding me of Elvis! Elvis as a ninja, now there's a thought! The enemies are nicely drawn and have sufficient individuality as well as differing animations. The punch and kick animations look quite good as do the jumps. The game definitely looks impressive.

There is not much sound to speak of, there is some kind of tune while loading but on the main screen and also when fighting, all you get are loud punch sound effects. I would have liked at least some kind of cool background music, maybe a la Tenchu, but alas, twas not to be.

The controls are simple, use the D or the key pad to move and press the main button or 5 to punch. When you are in the air (up jumps) you can press the main button or 5 to do a spinning kick. And down will crouch (there are lots of places where you have to avoid missiles!). My one drawback with the controls is that at times they didn't seem that responsive, but maybe that was just my D pad.

The playability is pretty good. While this is a standard platform game, it's presented really well which helps a lot. If it looked pretty bland then it would be a very average kind of game, but it doesn't so somehow it becomes a lot more playable. The objective is to find the key on each level and the levels get larger and harder. There's also treasure to collect to increase your score and potions to restore your health. There are several types of enemies to battle who each have different characteristics. The levels can be fairly large and sometimes tricky (you may have to make a hard jump or go a certain way when you start the level) with areas seemingly inaccessible until the way dawns on you and you feel a little silly. This makes the game quite challenging and for me at least, fun to play.

The lastability is good as there are 3 worlds to play with numerous levels in each. The other worlds are locked until you finish each world in turn and there are many levels in each world. Also the game has a limited number of continues which makes it pretty tough. Your progress will be saved automatically and you restart at the beginning of the level (quite annoying at times) with the same number of lives you previously had. This makes the game one to stay on your phone for a while, if you like this sort of thing, as it will take longer than 30 minutes to complete.