Mini Ninjas tells a story about young ninjas sent out into the world to fight a growing evil but never return. Hiro, the smallest of the ninjas and last one to be sent out, has to find his friends and eventually confront the Evil Samurai Warlord. How can he be successful when his friends failed? He has the unique ability to use Kuji magic, which lets him conjure lightning and fire and even possess animals.
Unlike other recent ninja games, Mini Ninjas is decidedly kid friendly. There is no blood or excessive violence. The characters are kids. The story is simple. But it is still amazingly awesome. It is fun and funny and there is something refreshing about breaking the ninja-genre down into its base parts and presenting something simple and accessible. Kids will like it. Grown ups will like it. Everyone will like it.
It has to be said that it is a bit on the short side, and the replay value isn’t great unless you are an Achievement junkie. There aren’t any other play modes, only the story mode. The price tag is less than a normal 360 game at only $50, which definitely helps, but it is still a tough call in terms of overall value.
The gameplay is deceptively simple. When you start out, it is a standard hack and slash game where you just pound the attack buttons and smack enemies around. As you progress, you find magic spells and other ninjas that help beef the gameplay up a bit. Each of the 5 other ninjas you rescue has unique abilities and you can switch back and forth between them at will. One is an archer, one has a big hammer, one has a spear, etc., and switching between them opens up a world of depth.The magic you can use is also interesting in that you can do normal things like cast fireballs and lightning, but you can also enter the spirit realm and possess animals. There are foxes and rabbits and bears and boars and all sorts of animals, and when you are an animal you can sneak past enemy soldiers. The game always gives you multiple ways of getting through a situation, whether you sneak around as a ninja, sneak around as an animal, or simply fight everyone you see - you always have an option. It ensures that the gameplay always stays varied and interesting and you never have to do the same thing twice if you don’t want to.
There is also a potion mixing aspect of the game where you collect flowers and mushrooms and other things to mix your own health or MP potions. It isn’t any more complex than selecting stuff from a menu, but it lets you focus on the gameplay rather than worrying about your health bar.
Also worth noting are the boss fights. You’ll fight an enemy on tall stilts and have to figure out how to cut him down to size, a bird enemy, a smelly man where you have to figure out how to avoid his smell, and other similarly silly bosses. The battles are usually quite simple and are really nothing more than quick-time-events where you get in the right position and have to press buttons as they pop up on screen, but the variety of the boss-types and the way the battles play out make them seem much bigger and more interesting than just QTEs.Pretty much everything about the gameplay in Mini Ninjas seems too simple and kind of stupid on paper, but when you actually play it, everything is just really fun. It is consistently entertaining throughout the 6-8 hours it takes to play through it and there is literally nothing that you’re just going to hate and complain about. Mini Ninjas is pure uninhibited fun, and that is a good thing.
Graphics
Mini Ninjas is a nice looking game. The environments are bight and colorful and really clean and uncluttered. The character designs are simple, but effective, and fit in with the environments perfectly. It is a cute, cuddly game about ninjas that the whole family can love.
Sound
The sound is also really well done. The music fits the gameplay perfectly and sounds really good. There is also a bit of voice work – with dialogue that is intentionally cheesy and bad – and it is all well performed and will get a chuckle or two out of you.
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