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Mini Ninjas
Wii
Small Ninjas, Big Fun
4/5 stars
“Mini Ninjas” is the latest offering from Danish developer, IO Interactive (lately of Square-Enix Europe). IO Interactive is perhaps better known for its grittier games, such as the Hitman series and “Kane & Lynch.” I never paid much attention to IO Interactive's previous releases, but the trailer for “Mini Ninjas” caught my eye with its distinctive art style, sense of humor, and classic gameplay concepts. IO Interactive's compulsive multi-platforming means that anyone who wants to play “Mini Ninjas” has four versions to choose from: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and DS. I chose the Wii version on a whim, simply because I wanted to increase the size of my library for that console.
Presentation
“Mini Ninjas” is stylistically pleasing but suffers technologically on the Wii. The polygonal character models and backgrounds look quite good. There is very little clipping and everything is colorful and well-animated. Unfortunately, there is a significant amount of pop-in, especially with grass and trees. It is quite distracting and can cause confusion about whether or not the player's ninja can successfully hide in tall grass when the tall grass is still popping into existence around the character. In spite of the pop-in issue, each level is large, open, and well-crafted. There is a lot of attention to detail with the environmental textures as well as the layouts that create a vibrant and living cartoon world that is a pleasure to explore. One negative about the level layout is the way the levels are linked together. The only way to backtrack and replay previous levels is from a menu on the title screen, as the levels aren't actually linked together. I would have liked to see a world map of some sort instead of just a list.
The sound in “Mini Ninjas” is mostly well-done. The voiceacting is exemplary and it is noteworthy that the voice actors are the only Japanese names that appear in the game's credits, lending a truly authentic Japanese accent to the English dialog of all the non-player characters. Enemies talk amongst themselves, in Japanese of course, with commanders frequently berating their idiotic troops. They also spout a variety of amusing battle cries while attacking. Other sound effects, from animal to weapon sounds are high-quality as well. The only real sound problem in “Mini Ninjas” is the ambient noise of storms. All of the storm sounds have a distinctly mechanical flavor to them, caused by the fact that their audio loop is too short, which makes them annoying to listen to - especially when the music in a stormy area is quiet and sedate.
The music, like the voiceacting, adds to the overall authenticity of the atmosphere created in the game. The soundtrack is dynamic, sliding into and out of the percussion-heavy battle theme as necessary. All of the tracks fit the scenes in which they are used, from pastoral grasslands, to flooded rice bogs, to frozen desolations.
Technically, “Mini Ninjas” is pretty solid. There are some noticeable load times at the start of each level, but the loading screens feature some attractive 2D art, which makes them bearable. I also noticed a couple of technical issues with audio clips for non-player character dialog in which the audio cut off abruptly or had a static noise. None of these are heinous offenses, but are nonetheless not praiseworthy.
Story
“Mini Ninjas” tells the quirky story of an Evil Samurai Warlord (whose name is either Evil Samurai Warlord or Evil Ninja Master) who has re-awakened an evil magic that allows him to transform innocent woodland creatures into hoards of magical (but idiotic) samurai soldiers. In doing so, the Evil Samurai Warlord has thrown the balance of nature out of whack, resulting in terrible storms ravaging Japan. The Ninja Master of Mount Ninja began sending his ninja students, one-by-one, to see what the Evil Samurai Warlord was up to and try to stop him. One-by-one, the ninjas failed to return. When the Ninja Master was down to his last two students, the talented Hiro and the oafish Futo, he sent them together to find the other missing ninjas and stop the Evil Samurai Warlord, despite the fact that they were not ready for such a dangerous mission. After an initial training session among the friendly Tengu (Japanese bird-men) of Ninja Mountain, the two titular Mini Ninjas set off on their journey. As they travel, Hiro and his friends must cut their way through the massive samurai horde, breaking the spell one samurai at a time and returning them to their true animal forms.
It's a simple story that is well-paced in the way it unfolds. There is little in the way of character development, as most of the characters simply are what they are. One very nice feature is that, upon rescuing each of the captive ninjas, a character vignette appears for them under the ‘Extras' option on the title screen. These vignettes introduce the characters and detail their personalities and skills. They are also pre-rendered, so their graphical quality is smoother than the in-game engine.
Gameplay
“Mini Ninjas” features mostly combat and stealth gameplay within the framework of a 3D action/adventure game. The back of the box boasts about the characters' “authentic ninja abilities and skills,” which is a surprisingly accurate statement. Each of the six playable characters wields a different ninja weapon with a unique fighting style. Unfortunately, their weapons are the only real difference between the characters. Most of the time, the player will need to play as Hiro, the main character, simply because he is the only one who can use Kuji Magic. Of the other characters, the only one that is required is Futo, for his ability to stun large samurai with his hammer. Unfortunately, Futo is slow and awkward when fighting normal enemies, so there is little reason to use him. Shun, while not necessary, is a great character to use in stealth situations, as his bow provides a great alternative to Kuji Magic for taking-out distant foes. The remaining three ninjas just don't provide enough incentive to use them over Hiro. All of the characters share the other ninja abilities of running up walls, wall jumping, walking tightropes, and hiding in bushes.
As a multiplatform game, I was curious to see how “Mini Ninjas” would make use of the Wii's unique control system. “Mini Ninjas” requires the use of the Wiimote+Nunchuck. The analog stick moves the player's chosen ninja, C makes the ninja dash, Z makes the ninja go into stealth mode, A makes the ninja jump, B makes the ninja attack with their weapon, shaking the Wiimote makes the ninja perform a stunning attack that does no damage but prevents an enemy from acting for a few seconds, shaking the Nunchuck causes the ninja to don or doff their special bowl-shaped ninja hat (which blocks arrows and can be used as a raft or sled), and pressing A+B causes the ninja to perform their special attack (which is unique to each character). Pressing the + button causes an arrow to appear, pointing toward the end of the level to help players who get lost, and pressing the 2 button brings up an option menu with choices for checking level progress, changing difficulty, etc. Camera control is handled rather uniquely for a third-person game, in that moving the camera involves holding the - button and aiming the Wiimote at the edges of the screen. The camera controls work reasonably well, but it is unfortunately easy to overshoot the edge of the screen and have the camera become unresponsive in hectic situations. Overall the lack of motion-centric controls pleased me, as the implementation of motion is subtle and doesn't require a lot of mad flailing. Aside from the stun attack, motion is used for picking-up items off the ground (A+upward tilt) and shaking fruit and ninja berries out of trees and bushes to restore health.
Items and characters are handled via the d-pad on the Wiimote. Pressing up opens the inventory menu where the player can use items or assign items/Kuji spells to the quick-select menu (which is accessed by pressing right on the d-pad). Pressing left on the d-pad brings up the ninja quick-select menu for changing characters. Pressing down on the d-pad uses the currently equipped item/Kuji spell.
Outside of the menus, the game interface is clean and simple. The ninjas all share Hiro's stats, which can be improved by gathering experience in the form of yellow Ki from rescued animals. Hiro's health is represented by a row of hearts and his Ki is represented by two meters. One Ki meter slowly fills to form a circle as the player gathers yellow Ki orbs and, when full, grants Hiro an additional level and increased abilities. The other Ki meter is a blue line under Hiro's hearts and represents his stamina. When Hiro uses Kuji Magic, a portion of the meter empties (the amount varies depending on the spell). Ki depleted by casting spells refills rather slowly. Dashing, on the other hand, causes the blue Ki meter to turn gray and refills very quickly.
The Kuji Magic scrolls that Hiro collects throughout the game provide some interesting gameplay options. Most of the Kuji spells are varieties of elemental ranged attacks, like fireballs and ice storms. One of the most interesting, however, is the Kuji spell that allows Hiro to possess an animal. While animals move more slowly than the ninjas, they have the added ability of being able to sense hidden items, causing the items to emit a large cloud of blue stench that is much easier to see than a tiny mushroom or slender flower. Some larger animals, like bears, can actually attack enemies, but most are meant for stealthy uses, as they are much more difficult for enemies to see in tall grass than even a crouching ninja.
The enemy AI in “Mini Ninjas” is particularly praiseworthy. Enemies form squads and patrol or guard specific areas. When they spot the player's character, enemies will charge to the attack, which is typical. But what is interesting is that enemies that are out of line-of-sight won't go for the player's character unless they see other samurai moving in an attack pattern, in which case they join the mob. The player can hide their character while out of line-of-sight in order to shake pursuing enemies.
One aspect of the gameplay is a vestige of the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. At the end of each level, the player is shown how many of each collectable McGuffin they found: Kuji Scrolls, plants, coins, Jizo Statues, and caged animals. As mentioned previously, the level design is so well-done that it makes exploration fun, and these McGuffins require a LOT of exploration to find. While I thought I'd scoured every level in detail while making my way through them, I frequently found myself having to backtrack from the end of the level in search of a single mushroom or barrel of coins that I had somehow missed. While this does extend gameplay time, the lack of a tangible reward just makes hunting for these items tedious. It is especially problematic that all of the items except Jizo Statues respawn during replays of a level, preventing the player from gaining any satisfaction from finding them all. Of course, item respawning does allow the player to return to levels to grind for money and potion ingredient, should they feel the need.
The low point in “Mini Ninjas'” gameplay is the boss battles. There are a total of five bosses in the game and all but the final boss are simply QuickTime Events involving the A button, B button, and waggling. There is a bit of setup that requires the player to maneuver Hiro (the only ninja who is playable during boss battles) into position to trigger the QTE, but after that the combat is largely automated. A noticeable glitch in the Wii version of these QTEs is that the player can simply hold A+B and waggle like crazy through their entirety to have them register the correct button presses. Replacing real boss battles with timed button presses is just an unacceptably bad design decision.
Overall
“Mini Ninjas” is a surprisingly solid experience. For a game about Japan made by a bunch of Scandinavians, “Mini Ninjas” has a lot of style and authenticity, despite the cartoony package. With a little technical cleanup and REAL boss battles, “Mini Ninjas” could have been amazing. As it is, it's still a great experience, despite its flaws. I recommend “Mini Ninjas” to fans of ninjas, “Okami,” action/adventure games, and beat-em-ups.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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