I-Ninja
December 31, 2003 by Scott Parrino
by Scott - December 31, 2003 He's small. He wears sandals. And he wears pajamas. But don't tell him that as he will unleash his rage and chop you into pieces! I-Ninja is action packed platformer that doesn't fail to bring you solid gameplay.
The Gameplay
Warning: Putting in I-Ninja in your Gamecube may result in hours of fun.
I-Ninja is the lastest platformer from Namco and Argonaut for the Nintendo Gamecube and let me tell ya, this sucker is well worth a purchase.
First of all, who can resist being a ninja with a large sword and an anger complex? Toss in some robotic ninja enemies and wonderful controls and you're set to be a part of this wild adventure.
It's just you and I-Ninja against O-Dor and his army of Ranx soldiers. With the aid of your dead Sensei (in the beginning, you accidentally charged into him while infused with a rage stone and beheaded him. Nobody's perfect.) who communicates to you via spirit form, you take on the evil forces in five different areas around the lands. From there you can roam about and enter in through doors to complete missions to earn points, get a grade on your belt, and upgrade your sword.
Some doors are blocked until you gain enough grades to move on from white belt, to yellow, green etc. Killing the bad guys also gets marks on your sword and once you reach a certain number, your sword is upgraded to a more powerful blade. Finally, breaking objects, boxes, and destroying the baddies gets you points to gain more lives.
Now this may seem like a lot to face, with baddies varying from small to gigantoriffically hugeamongic (you'll find out in one level). To assist you, you are able to use shurikens, blowguns, even rocket launchers from the enemy's own arsenal. Along the way you learn techniques such as beserker (more powerful attacks), revive (gain health), shuriken (ride a giant shuriken), and finally I-NINJA! (Basically you are invincible and an all around unstoppable force).
Throughout the levels you'll need to do some puzzle solving, which can get somewhat tedious. Some require wall-walking to get to certain areas which can be fun, but when you miss and fall down a level or two, and have to start all over again it can get tiresome. There are also ball levels where you either control a ball or ride it. Of course, you need a steady thumb to control this sphere when you're goiing through jets of fire, or really narrow bridges. More than once a sensitive movement has sent me off the edge, doomed to start over again. But don't let that keep you down, there are some missions where you can hack and slash through and have fun with it.
Eye Candy
The graphics on I-Ninja are very well done and bring the overall feeling of a ninja world to your screen. Along with the ninja sense comes the whole anime/manga feeling of wide-eyed characters, flashy attack graphics, mecha-styled robots, and the fancy bosses.
While I-Ninja runs smooth, there can be some slowdowns when there is too much going on on the screen. These moments are far and few between. Overall the levels are nicely designed and detailed, especially the forest missions and Bomb Bay.
Ears get a treat too
The sound for I-Ninja is well placed and the sound your sword makes depending on what it is hitting it is right on. There is also well done ambient sound throughout the levels, with the roar of lions in the jungle area or the sound of waves on the beach in Robot Beach.
Ninja has an anger problem. He will go into a rage and generally flip-out. So of course he's going to have a slew of one-liners. While some may seem just plain cheesy, there are some that will make you laugh. The voice talent is very good, as the cockiness in Ninja's tone is very apparent. You'll also hear your enemy yell out "Get him!" or "There he is!". Thats just expected. Of course there he is, he's the guy with the huge sword!
Not too difficult, not too easy
I-Ninja is the type of game that doesn't require a lot of thinking skill. You're not expected to read stats, use magic at certain times, or even pay attention to a grand storyline. However, it is also not just a game you can expect to be a milk run either.
The bosses give you a run for your money as they require a lot of hand-eye cordination and skill to outwit their attacks.
Ninjas + Platform Genre = Sweetness
We've all seen those ninja movies when we were kids. Bruce Lee. Jackie Chan. The Ninja Turtles. We all wanted to control a lean, mean, ninja machine and generally cause chaos on the enemy. With I-Ninja you can do that along with some platform fun thrown in.
It doesn't bore you, it doesn't make you go "this will be easy" either. You might be expected to take hold of defense gun to mow down waves of enemy seaships, or timing your shots to land giant containers to clog up exhaust ports. The variety of the levels and the ninja theme will keep your hands glued to your controller for a while.
Theres always more!
Great controls, great action, and wonderful graphics bring this wild and energetic platform to life on the Gamecube. There is always something to do in I-Ninja, from the main missions to side-missions to get more points and skill. This is one game that is recommended to any platformer or ninja fanatic!
