Of all the games I've played this year, Mini Ninjas is the one game I think deserves better than languishing in game store sales... cold, unloved and probably sneered at by gamers looking for more 'cool appeal'.
This game has a respectable-but-not-brilliant 71% on metacritic - however I urge you to look beyond that and give the game a go. Despite its flaws, this game smacks of being made with real care.
Coming from the team behind the good (Freedom Fighters), the bad (Kane and Lynch) and the ugly (Hitman) Mini Ninjas has quite a heritage...
It's ugly for sure - the game is clearly based on a PS2 or Wii engine, with flat textures, basic lighting and simple models. However, despite this, the art carries the game and while you'll never be dragging this out to wow your mates, it's never less than charming to behold. It's also pretty bad in parts - one later level in particular is completely awful, to the point where I have finished it, but have no idea what went right on the successful try versus the umpteen goes where i got stuck and died.
However it's also very good indeed. This game give you a toolkit of powers and choices and then simply says 'enjoy' - you always have several options on how to proceed. Granted the actual interactions are simple, but everything at your disposal meshes nicely. To get passed one group I possessed an animal, transformed into a female ninja, played a flute to daze my foes and then turned into the tank character and whammed the lot of them. However, I could've picked them off from afar, snuck past completely or just ran in and mashed X.
This is the game's biggest failing - the designers have too much faith in the player to use the tools given to them... and therefore never force you to into situations where you have to try them out. You can run through the whole game pressing X - which, lets face it, is pretty dull.
Break free of this mentality and experiment and you will have a blast with this game. I promise.
The bottom line is you can get this for less than £20 and it has 21 levels, of which 18 are great, 2 are so-so and 1 is shockingly poor. It's less than £1 per level!
So? Why are you still here and not up to your neck in a bargain bin?
