List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $18.87
Today's Bonus: 37% Off
Over the last 10 years, the video gaming industry has tended toward releasing ever more gussied up versions of Doom. Typical selling points have been realistic gore and hardware pushing eye candy. Mini Ninjas is a great break from that world!
The back story in Mini Ninjas is a simple one. You are among the last of the ninjas left and you must find out what has happened to the others. It is a bit predictable, right down to an "evil master", but the simplicity actually helps. The world of Mini Ninjas is basically Kung Fu Panda meets Lord of the Rings. You travel through a fantasy land filled with forests, rivers, mountains and valleys, but also peasants, villages, dojos, and temples. There is a bit of mild humor as well as a tad bit of stereo typing ancient East Asian (Japanese) culture, but not so much as to offend. The graphics are well done and in a 3d animation style reminiscent of Pixar. The story and play evolve just enough to keep a general player interested without creating confusion. In a move of genius, the IO Interactive managed to temper any violence in the game with back story enemies a player defeats do not "die", but rather revert back to their innocent animal selves right in front of the player. This greatly broadens the age group the game is appropriate for and may also be appealing to the older gamer who is simply looking for some clean fun. There are trophies and optional side quests some rather difficult. The control configuration is easy to pick up and intuitive if you are playing on a console you are familiar with.
That said, there are a few blemishes. The MSRP for PS3 and Xbox is a tad higher than deserved, however, the street price (~10 USD less at the time of writing) is justified. This is also not a game for speed players. It's possible to race through the levels (mostly) and ignore the game play. If you are that kind of player, you will be bored inside of 15 minutes. Maybe most detrimental blemish is that this is a single player ONLY game. That's a shame really, since the game begs for two person play.
Last word is that Mini Ninjas is a great representation of its genre and can be enjoyed by everyone from ages 8 to 80 despite the ESRB 10+ rating. This is a solid 4 Star game.
Review is based on 5 hours of play (multiple sessions) on a PS3, but there is no reason for the Wii or Xbox to play differently. In fact, this game fits the Wii platform perfectly.
NOTE: When it comes to video games, don't just trust the reviews. Video games are expensive and trade-in values are typically low. Most top end games have Free Demos available for download for your computer or console Try Before You Buy.
Click Here to Read More Reviews >>
I admit I was at first turned-off by the somewhat childish cartoon graphic style this game employs, but thankfully I was interested enough to download the demo of this game, and after playing it only a few minutes, I knew I had to buy it. After having bought it and played it through, I can not find anything significantly wrong with this game, so I'm going to call it essentially perfect.Pros:
It has a perfect control scheme, which I don't really see anyone else talk about, but which I consider very important, so let me describe it briefly:
Left stick controls your character, as in many other games
Right stick controls the camera, which I really like, and has option to invert, which is even better
Square is normal attack
Triangle is special attack
X is jump
Circle is sprint which consumes energy to run fast
L1 brings up a quick character selection menu
Holding L2 makes the character sneak
R1 brings up a quick item/spell menu, that selects which item/spell is activated by pressing...
R2 activates selected item/spell (can include shuriken, spells, potions, bombs)
R3 toggles the hat-boat item
I've been playing games since 1980 on the Commodore Vic-20, and my favorite games of the past have been Mario and Maximo games, but this game is easily as good as those games, in my opinion. It has a perfectly balanced play control scheme, well balanced difficulty that is fun, but not too hard to frustrate the player, with the default game difficulty being perfect for non-gamers, and the Hard mode preferred for players with more experience under their belts (though even that mode isn't too hard).
The most similar game this should be compared to is the Ninja Gaiden games, but this game has two significant differences with those games:
1) This game is much easier, so no experienced gamers banging their heads against the wall trying to kill frustratingly hard bosses.
2) This game is far more innocent in presentation, with no real killing involved, and defeating opponents merely "frees" animals, with no blood or guts or brutality or anything normally considered offensive to some. This makes the game much more enjoyable to children and those with an appreciation for good, clean fun.
One other game I'd like to compare this to is God of War, which has some very noticeable contrasts as well:
1) As with Ninja Gaiden, God of War games are a whole lot more violent and potentially offensive (with nudity and lots of brutality) content than Mini Ninjas.
2) God of War has a large number of complex moves available that make it hard to master, but you can't do some very basic things, like move your camera! Mini Ninjas has a very good control scheme (as described above) and most importantly, does not define itself by a near-endless supply of the same many-hits-to-kill enemies separated by a few head-bangingly hard hand-eye-coordination test puzzles, but rather distinguishes itself by brilliant level design and player experience [one mild exception to this is a rather annoying single level where you control a snowball going down a mountain, but it's not enough of a problem to take much away from the rest of the game]. I just enjoyed playing this game about 1000x more than playing God of War.
Cons:
No game is truly perfect, so, yes, there are a few minor gripes I have with this game, which I would change if I could:
1) I really dislike Quick-Time events (time-limited button-press prompts), and I wish the designers had stayed clear of them.
2) This game is so perfect for being family-friendly, that it would have been really, really nice to allow for a two-player co-op option like the Lego series of games are making popular now, which would let older gamers play with their own kids.
3) This game could have done just fine without the downhill snowball level...
Conclusion:
I have been waiting for a game like this to come out on the PS3 for years, and it is a delightful departure from the Assassin's Creed, Ninja Gaiden, and God of War type of game that is currently filling the landscape of A+ titles. Finally a perfectly balanced action game for players that don't necessarily want to be frustrated endlessly or to push the envelope of what is socially acceptable behavior.
But don't take my word for it, by any means, just download the demo and judge for yourself. But definitely don't pass by at least playing the demo on this game, it is a masterpiece and should not be missed!Bought this game for the kids & hubby after they rented it for a few days. They are all enjoying it. My 5 yr old likes it so much he kept asking to play it but with limited screen time it took him a little while to work his way through the game. I don't personally play but I watch and I also think the way the Samari say Mini Nijas is funny. :) Enjoyable game. Not too complicated but hard enough to teach a lesson to the kids to keep trying something even if they aren't good at it.
Read Best Reviews of Mini Ninjas Here
this game is a gift for my grand children for christmas they really love it the price was great and got it in a timely manner @ no problems at all.I have to admit... I am not a gamer at all. My reviews are solely based on the interest my kids (including my husband) shows on any given game AND if they CONTINUE to play and advance through the games.This game is a hit at my house.
As long as everybody leaves me alone, I know their interest is held. As long as I don't hear any arguing or fussing, I know a strategy is being put together in their minds on how to defeat the bad guys.
My kids are 8 , 11, 16, and 39 and this game fits all of them!
0 comments:
Post a Comment