Reviews

    I-Ninja is one of Namco's newest titles, and an excellent one at that.  The game starts when Sensei, Ninja's master is killed and he has to teach Ninja skills from beyond the grave.  Ninja must battle through numerous levels to earn grades, which eventually

 give him a new belt.  When Ninja gets a new belt, he can access more levels in the game or fight the boss of the current world.

    The graphics in I-Ninja are good, but not jaw-dropping.  The game runs at an impressive 60 frames per second,

giving it crisp animation and therefore no slowdown that would interfere with the gameplay.  Most of the textures are rather plain, still look very good.  They might not be as detailed as the textures in games such as Starfox Adventures, but by no means do they look bad at all. 

    The sound in I-Ninja is also well-done.  The game features Dolby Pro Logic II support, enabling gamers with a surround sound setup to experience the game in 3D audio.  The background music fits with the game well, with upbeat tunes that are great for an action game.  Ninja also tends to have some smart-alec remarks throughout the game, which can be humorous.

    The thing that makes I-Ninja an excellent game is the outstanding gameplay.  Think of it as Super Mario 64 with a sword.  The control scheme is set up so that it almost feels exactly like you are playing Mario 64 actually as the majority of Ninja's moves involve either jumping or using the sword, and one of his special moves is a sword attack in which Ninja jumps up, then comes down with the sword and strikes the enemy from above, similar to Mario's pound the ground attack.  Ninja also has some abilities that were not in Mario 64, which add to the gameplay experience.  For example, there are certain types of walls that Ninja can walk on as long as he keeps his speed up, which allows him to cross large gaps that would be impossible to jump across.  Each level has two objectives in most cases.  The primary objective is to find the grade, which completes the level and allows Ninja to earn a new belt when enough are collected, but another objective to kill as many enemies as possible (except in timed levels) and earn Ranx, which allow Ninja to earn a more powerful sword, making it easier to defeat enemies later on.  There are more grades required to finish the game than levels in the game, so levels must be played again with a different objective in order to collect enough grades, similar to Mario 64 when the player needed to play the same levels to collect stars.  Ninja can also use coins collected from defeated enemies to unlock levels and earn more grades there rather than playing some of the previous levels again.  At the end of each world, if Ninja has earned a high enough belt, he has to fight a boss.  These fights are fun, but in some cases can be rather tedious.  For example, at the end of the first world, Ninja takes command of a giant robot and gets into a boxing match with another robot.  This is a really fun battle, but the pace of the battle is really slow.  Ninja has to dodge the other robot's attacks and the other robot is only vulnerable to attack at certain times, and will often back off for a little bit.  Although the idea was great, the battle took a little longer than most boss battles should.

    The level design in I-Ninja is also good.  There are many different objectives to be completed in the various levels, so the player will not be bored with the same style of level over and over again.  One level might require the player to fight through a ton of enemies and get to the grade, while another might require Ninja to take over a cannon and stop ships from making it to shore.  There are also levels that require stealth, if Ninja is caught by any of the enemy sentinels, he is taken back to the last save point and some health is lost.  The levels provide a good challenge, but none of them are frustrating, which makes the game more fun.

    With I-Ninja, Namco succeeded in creating a new platformer franchise that most gamers will enjoy.  It borrows elements from Mario 64 that make it a lot of fun to play, but also has plenty of new ideas to keep it from being simply Mario 64 with new characters.  If you like a game with good gameplay, then I-Ninja is the game for you!

    For more information on I-Ninja, click here.