Today I got the opportunity to head to Venan Entertainment, to check out their new game, Ninjatown. Venan are the guys who brought us Space Miner, which we at TouchGen gave a perfect 5 star review, so the pedigree is definitely there. Once I made the connection, my hopes were pretty high.
Let me start by saying, this game is NOTHING like Space Miner… Not even in the slightest. It is much more of a “casual” game. The closest game I could compare it to is Doodle Jump. That said, there is much more to Ninja Town then Dooble Jump. Basically, you are Wee Ninja, who is a cute little guy from the Shawnimals family of characters. You objective is to climb as high as you can without dieing. The method of moving up is where Ninjatown differentiates itself from other platformers of the type. In most of these games you are constantly jumping, but Ninjatown is more methodical. You make your jumps from one side of the screen to the other, and between your jumps you can stop and plan how you are going to jump next. As with most games of this type, there is only one level, but of course, it’s an endless level. The real value in a game like this competing with your friends for high scores, and with Plus+ implemented, you will be able to quickly see all your friends scores and achievements.
The controls are simple and intuitive. To jump you simply tap the side of the screen. If you tap it quickly you will make a short jump, and if you hold down on the screen you will jump higher. As you progress the Wee Ninja will hit tree branches, and when you do you simply touch Wee Ninja and slide down to launch him off the tree branch. There is an arrow that tells you where you will land if you’re launching off a tree branch. This is helpful, because figuring out the trajectory without an arrow would be hard.
There are ton of obstacles all over the level trying to bring Wee Ninja to his demise. There are parts of the levels that will kill Wee Ninja if he touches them, as well as slippery parts that force you to rush your next jump. There are also enemies in the game, and they are really funny and clever. Some enemies will shoot you, and some just move around and hit you if you touch them. There are also other friendly ninjas from the Shawnimals universe dispersed in the background as you climb up, and they are just as clever as the enemies. Speaking of funny, the power ups are hilarious. There is Moustachio, which is a giant mustache that propels you up the level, as well as a bunch of other awesome items.
To give you a real sense of time; as you climb higher up the level, the background turns from night to day. This also effects the enemies, because as it gets dark, their eyes become lit up, and it really lets you get a feel for evil they are. It’s a nice little touch, that gives you a good gauge of how far you are; that, and the ninja consultant who advises you of how far you at certain intervals.
Ninjatown is a pretty awesome platformer with a lot of character. It takes the endless platformer genre to a new level of depth. It has been submitted to Apple, so it should hit the app store for $1.99 any time now.As a somewhat unrelated aside, it was great to go to see a developer in my home state of Connecticut, since we are not exactly known for game development. It made me happy knowing there’s a developer here making great games!
