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Mini Ninjas announced (Wii/360/PS3/PC/DS)

comedy bomb said:
Looks like I-Ninja. I-Ninja was fun for like 5 minutes.

The Wii screens are obviously fake.

That is all.

I thought I-Ninja was fun. Oh well, looks like a pseudo-interesting game at least. Could turn out well, could be another shovelware title, will have to wait and see.
 
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http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/143/14314876/imgs_1.html
 
Mini Ninjas

PC demo is out, I'm surprised nobody mentioned it- it's pretty fun. It's only $30 on the PC and works with the 360 controller, I think I'm going to pick it up.
 
I dunno about this.

It's okay. Kinda slow, kinda button mashy, kinda kid-centric.

I hate the circa 1994 circle shadows and the apparent lack of follow-through/polish on what's basically a pretty interesting visual style.
 
Are you playing the PC version? Play it for a while- it kind of grows on you. Once you get the hang of the quick inventory, it's pretty fun. You can do a lot of stuff in the demo- fight, possess animals, fish, etc. I imagine the full game will be more complete/difficult.
 
Played the demo at my brothers, (no room on the HDD to download it myself....). I like it a LOT. Reminds me of the old PS1, DC, and PS2 kiddie adventure type games like Rayman, Spyro, Psychonauts, etc etc. I don't mean iddie in a negative way at all, btw. Ths ame oozes with cham and lighthearted awesomeness. Swappable ninjas with uniqe skills? Check. Many items to collect? Check. Making new items/potions(?) by combining collectible flowers and herbs? Check. The use of destructive magic? Check. Animal Possesion? Check. I'm getting carried away and need sleep. It's a good fun game with so much to do in a small portion (small isn't accurate with the amount of stuff available) of ONE level in the demo solidified a purchase from me in market filled with games fighting for my attention.
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
Played the demo at my brothers, (no room on the HDD to download it myself....). I like it a LOT. Reminds me of the old PS1, DC, and PS2 kiddie adventure type games like Rayman, Spyro, Psychonauts, etc etc. I don't mean iddie in a negative way at all, btw. Ths ame oozes with cham and lighthearted awesomeness. Swappable ninjas with uniqe skills? Check. Many items to collect? Check. Making new items/potions(?) by combining collectible flowers and herbs? Check. The use of destructive magic? Check. Animal Possesion? Check. I'm getting carried away and need sleep. It's a good fun game with so much to do in a small portion (small isn't accurate with the amount of stuff available) of ONE level in the demo solidified a purchase from me in market filled with games fighting for my attention.


Sounds like something to grab for the DS then IMO. Thanks for the mini review.
 
As I played the demo I kept asking myself why IO were the ones that had to make this. I mean, it is okay, but it is in no way special at all.

I would have been much happier if IO worked solidly on a new action title for the past few years instead, or added much more depth to this to make it both adult and kid friendly
 
I downloaded the demo because my little brother saw the trailer and really liked it. I played it, it was ok, not my thing. My brother picked it up and somehow spent an hour and a half on it. I think I'll get this game as a Christmas gift for him. The art style is nice, the gameplay was a bit wonky when I played it, but my brother quickly got the hang of it. I wonder when IO will reveal more info for Hitman 5 or Kane & Lynch 2.
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
Played the demo at my brothers, (no room on the HDD to download it myself....). I like it a LOT. Reminds me of the old PS1, DC, and PS2 kiddie adventure type games like Rayman, Spyro, Psychonauts, etc etc. I don't mean iddie in a negative way at all, btw. Ths ame oozes with cham and lighthearted awesomeness. Swappable ninjas with uniqe skills? Check. Many items to collect? Check. Making new items/potions(?) by combining collectible flowers and herbs? Check. The use of destructive magic? Check. Animal Possesion? Check. I'm getting carried away and need sleep. It's a good fun game with so much to do in a small portion (small isn't accurate with the amount of stuff available) of ONE level in the demo solidified a purchase from me in market filled with games fighting for my attention.
Sounds like exactly my kinda game :)
 
I like that you can use your hat as a boat ^_^ and it seems like the game does a few interesting things, like using flowers & herbs to make new potions and the spell that turns you into an animal. Unfourtunatly, the general gameplay didn't really hook me - I would have bought this for sure if it were a downloadable or budget release, but as it's a full release i'll probably wait til it's cheaper to pick it up.
 
Not sure if it's my set-up but the PS3 version seems to have a much higher contrast between the light and dark areas of the game world?


Can anyone with both demos confirm?

I may need to do some calibration of my TV if this is the case.
 
I enjoyed the demo as well. Might buy it if not too expensive. This will make the wait for Uncharted 2 more bearable...
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
Played the demo at my brothers, (no room on the HDD to download it myself....). I like it a LOT. Reminds me of the old PS1, DC, and PS2 kiddie adventure type games like Rayman, Spyro, Psychonauts, etc etc. I don't mean iddie in a negative way at all, btw. Ths ame oozes with cham and lighthearted awesomeness. Swappable ninjas with uniqe skills? Check. Many items to collect? Check. Making new items/potions(?) by combining collectible flowers and herbs? Check. The use of destructive magic? Check. Animal Possesion? Check. I'm getting carried away and need sleep. It's a good fun game with so much to do in a small portion (small isn't accurate with the amount of stuff available) of ONE level in the demo solidified a purchase from me in market filled with games fighting for my attention.

Yep this game really reminds me of some of the games I grew up with that just had some great personality
 
I like the demo a lot. Very casual and easy, I can see myself playing this while taking a break from hardcore gaming. There are so many neat ideas, the gameplay is very smooth and fun. Oh and they nailed pretty much every ninja cliche without being too western-lame/corny/cheesy.
 
Keyser Soze said:
As I played the demo I kept asking myself why IO were the ones that had to make this. I mean, it is okay, but it is in no way special at all.

I would have been much happier if IO worked solidly on a new action title for the past few years instead, or added much more depth to this to make it both adult and kid friendly
Yes, this seems like a complete waste of their talents and is completely different from anything they've created before. That's not to say I don't like seeing developers branch off, but this is just too far removed. Even worse, the themes of this game prevent us from enjoying another brilliant Jesper Kyd score. The music I've heard from this game fits the themes, but isn't really all that appealing. I'd assume Kyd did the soundtrack, but it certainly doesn't sound like him.

I'd imagine that the Kane and Lynch situation resulted in this chance. I don't blame IO for what happened there (I thought it was a decent game). Eidos really dropped the ball and the whole Gerstmann thing really pushed people to hate the game.

It would be nice to see them return to the themes they handle best after this...
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
Played the demo at my brothers, (no room on the HDD to download it myself....). I like it a LOT. Reminds me of the old PS1, DC, and PS2 kiddie adventure type games like Rayman, Spyro, Psychonauts, etc etc. I don't mean iddie in a negative way at all, btw. Ths ame oozes with cham and lighthearted awesomeness. Swappable ninjas with uniqe skills? Check. Many items to collect? Check. Making new items/potions(?) by combining collectible flowers and herbs? Check. The use of destructive magic? Check. Animal Possesion? Check. I'm getting carried away and need sleep. It's a good fun game with so much to do in a small portion (small isn't accurate with the amount of stuff available) of ONE level in the demo solidified a purchase from me in market filled with games fighting for my attention.

The more and more I casually play it ...yeah, this pretty much sums up how I'm feeling about it.
Seriously, I'm geniunely and happily suprised.

It's awesome great as you can play it in front of your kids which is precisly the reason IO Interactive went forward with it:
wikipedia said:
The game's origin lies in the developers desires to make a game that they could "play with their kids".
I think that's pretty rad.

dark10x said:
Yes, this seems like a complete waste of their talents and is completely different from anything they've created before. That's not to say I don't like seeing developers branch off, but this is just too far removed. Even worse, the themes of this game prevent us from enjoying another brilliant Jesper Kyd score. The music I've heard from this game fits the themes, but isn't really all that appealing. I'd assume Kyd did the soundtrack, but it certainly doesn't sound like him.

I'd imagine that the Kane and Lynch situation resulted in this chance. I don't blame IO for what happened there (I thought it was a decent game). Eidos really dropped the ball and the whole Gerstmann thing really pushed people to hate the game.

It would be nice to see them return to the themes they handle best after this...

True true, but as I said ...I like that they branched off and tried something else for a change.
 
Ha! It's not even as good as I-Ninja.

Piece of shit game, that is bested by tons of last gen games. Jak, Sly, Ratchet.. pretty much anything.

I don't know what the hell happened to Io this gen.. holy shit.
 
Played the demo (PS3)...what a forgettable experience. The idea isn't even original in itself, and it copies most to all of it's elements from other games, some you may not even have thought of. Bland and forgettable environments that would be called lacking detail and barebones for an N64 platformer, sloppy controls, far too easy, button masher, I can go on all day.

- Ninja Gaiden, obviously. It's like a kid-ified Ninja Gaiden with all technique removed in place of button mashing and imprecise movement
- i-Ninja. Even more obvious. That game was actually a fun romp, while this is uninspired.
- Mystical Ninja starring Goemon/Ganbre Goemon series. The main character Hiro is ripped off from Goemon, complete with outfit and only the pipe replaced by sword, and a hood put on, just colored all black. They also rip off Goemon's lovable and fat pal Ebisumaru, with the fat ninja side character, complete with hammer as Ebisu uses and all. Clothing is similar, and even has a thing covering his eyes like Ebisu. And that's not all, the female character is straight ripped off of Yae from Goemon series. She has the same clothes, just colored black, and even has a flute. All the "smoke" character change animations are almost completely ripped from the first N64 Goemon. There are many other little things, like the fireballs/shurukins almost an exact replica of Goemon's flaming coin toss/normal coin toss.

It seems like the developers searched all games with "ninja" in the title of the last decade or so, and decided what elements of each one to rip off. :lol

With all that said though, even though this is a low effort, shameless rip-off, this generation has been lacking simple action/platformers like these that remind me of the N64/PS1 platformer days. I'll probably end up picking it up if I have spare money this Fall amidst the other games, seems like the trophies would be impeccably simple as well.
Oh god, why??
 
Granted I was expecting it to be pretty bad, but I was positively surprised. There's much more to it than I thought there'd be. Feels to me like Kung Fu Panda focused more on exploration and adventuring than fighting and platforming. It's just a well made, harmless kids game.
 
demo was a positive surprise for me. thought it would be terrible, but there's quite a lot to it. very enjoyable zelda/ninja gaiden style thing. I'll probably pick this up.
 
I enjoyed the demo very much, and even if the combat is simple, there's a lot of arts/jutsus and stuff to add some variety. The graphics are simple, but good enough with a great art-style. Looking forward to the demo. It could be more platformer-oriented, but it's great for what it is.
 
I liked the demo. Its a charming little adventure game with some cool bits like rafting on your hat. The combat isn't spectacular but it is playable. Think I will rent this on release.
 
I just played the demo on the PS3 and enjoyed it tremendously. Cute art style with excellent animation, lots of things to do (magic, fighting, finding ingredients to make potions, fishing, traversing a river in your hat, shaking trees, etc), plenty of upgrades. There aren't too many games like Mini Ninjas around these days and this one is done with style and love. I'm not too sure about Mini Ninjas as a full price game but I will certainly pick it up once the price goes down. This is a lot better than crap like the last few Crash Bandicoot and Sonic games. I hope more people will try the demo.
 
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the demo. It's simple, but there's also a lot more to the game than I expected. The charm was also great.
 
Played a bit of the Steam demo. I love how it reminds me of Goemon on the 64, but I don't see myself ever playing this to completion.
 
Just bought it from Zavvi, with that deal and I'm looking forward to it. I'm probably going to get some shit for this, but the concept reminded me a lot of old 2D Zelda games et al, that I grew up on. Hoping it will make a nice break from all the Anno1404 and various ps360 I've been playing recently.

Crucially, my anti-gamer gf likes it too, so thats pretty much a win on its own :lol
 
Sorry to bump, but I can't make threads yet. (How many posts do you need?)

Anywho, tried the demo for this and found it fairly decent. Reviews are split and from having read some there's nothing that's really putting me off so I thought I'd ask you guys what you think?

Thanks.
 
Picked this up for like 10€ randomly and loved it. The art direction is pretty good and even though it isn't exactly some platformer, it reminded me of these N64/PS2 games that are missing today.
 
I played the game on Wii and I actually really enjoyed it. In my opinion Mini Ninjas is a great action adventure with an adorable art style. Give it a shot.
 
Oh man, I remember being a bit hyped for that game, as it gave me a Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon-Vibe. Looking at it now, it's not quite like that, but the Battle System seems to be very Zelda-like including these sounds when you hit something like Wind Waker. I still haven't bought it, but if I find it used for a few bucks I definitely will buy it.
 
This is actually one of my favourite games. I've almost platinumed! It's pretty simplistic but I love simple stealth (reminded me of the great stealth moments in Beyond Good and Evil) and I love the art style! Super clean and smooth on PS3.

Just make sure you play it on hard for a small amount of challenge.
 
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