Inverse Ninjas VS. The Public Domain

peak

Gotta be the first negative nancy in the review section, but as it is, I wouldn't really recommend the game. It's cheap, so I still think it's worth it for the novely, but as an interactive experience this still lacks something to kick it into gear, even as an early access title. I hope to change this review to a "yes" later in its lifespan. The intro title is funny and is a nice setup, and the splash art is very appealing. The in-match art is a little clunkier, but still decent. Since it's in early access, I'll write down some points I think the game can improve on, in no particular order. NOTE - I have played this game singleplayer, haven't tried multiplayer yet. The game seems to be balanced for a multiplayer enviroment, so this may explain some of the issues, but most are unrelated. [list] [*] Enemy SFX - The ninjas make no sounds when being summoned nor when dying, which makes it a little hard to track how many of them are still around at any given time. They just kind of puff into nonexistence. I had to constantly swipe my eyes down to see how many ninjas were left and mentally calculate how many are left in the wave. [*] Ammoless Sucks - Which, I know, is the intention. "You ran out of ammo without planning for it! How unthoughtful of you!" But this is just not fun from a player perspective to be left so utterly helpless when bullets are wasted in the dozens every second, making it so that every so often I just go "ah, ♥♥♥♥. Wait, time out, I gotta go grab my gun before we're enjoying ourselves again." Maybe instead make it so that if you have no bullets you instead use a really bad gun, so rather than not doing anything, you still have something to defend yourself with while still [i]gun[/i]ning for a better weapon? [*] Those Damn Ninja Stars - IMO they move way too fast. It's better to have more, slower projectiles onscreen to give the players a sense of control despite it being a total onslaught. Atleast that's my take, I don't play a lot of SHMUPs so it may just be an outsider perspective thing. [*] Wait that's it - The last ninja is just a very high health ninja that smacks you harder? I am assuming this'll be fixed later, but even right now it's just not... fun. It feels like a roadblock, not an actual challenge. [*] Aaaand there goes my gun - You run through guns so quick it barely feels like you got to enjoy your weapon. This may just be tied to the game's fast pace overall, but it was a sore point for me. [/list]

While it's basic at the moment, this is an excellent game that I want to see grow and change as time passes. However, I feel how it's being handled at the moment, it feels as if the developer isn't yet utilizing the full power of what a game based on using public domain characters could really do. As for the game itself, it's quite light on features at the moment, naturally. No proper single player mode (although the single player survival mode is still decent fun), only 5 characters and guns, poor balancing and gameplay variety, and the menus are kinda boring and uninspired. However I don't want to dwell on this too much as many of these issues are either things being worked on right now, or will likely be worked on in time, just something I thought I should point out. What I want to talk about more in this review is what I see as currently missed opportunities with what this game could be. To sum this up in one sentence: at the moment, it feels like you could replace the characters with any other characters, and the game would feel the exact same. It feels like a gimmick, but it could be so much more. Example: all of the weapons are juxtapositioned realistic weapons. Now while this is very funny and I would hate to see these weapons get removed (please god keep them in), I think it'd be great to throw in some weapons based on the public domain stories already being used. Maybe you could add a smoke gun with a damage-over-time effect to reference the hookah-smoking caterpillar from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or if you wanna get REAL interpretive a weapon that just transforms your character into a giant gun or something, referencing Sun Wukong's ability to transform into weapons (among other things). And on that, why are all of the stages so generic? I mean they're fine layout-wise, but you're working with public domain characters for crying out loud, there's SO many places you could add with that power! The hundred-acre woods, the S.S. Willie, Mount Huaguo/Mount Fruits and Flowers, literally ANYWHERE in Wonderland, the possibilities end only when you want them to! Giant missed opportunity that I hope to see amended in the future. TL;DR, while it has plenty of flaws and is missing lots of content that could make this game truly fantastic, I have faith in this developer. They seem active enough on the forums, and I want to see where this game goes going forward. It earns my recommendation.

Not played that much of it because I've not had a lot of time on my hands but this is a great little budget game. The controls and artstyle are perfect and the concept is solid. There are a few things I wish where included like an Online Mode but still.

this game has a lot of potential and with the campaign you get more bang for your buck if you asked me before they added the campaign i would not reccomend buying this

The new campaign that was added is a good foundation that I think will give the game alot of life for the future. It's brief and not very hard but the voice acting and well made Shmup gameplay is what makes the game for me and what makes me excited for the future of the campaign and the game overall :D I'm really hoping for some more enemy variety and locations in the cave, but what's there now in EP 1 is fun and charming dungeon crawler you can get through relatively fast. It has great potential to be something very special down the road! Hope it gets more attention with THAT Silksong tweet having like 5k likes now

******* THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ******* This review contains spoilers! First of all, i love the controller recommendation right before I started. I used an xbox wired controller to play on my PC. I appreciate being told to go grab it out of my dusty box. The controls are smooth, aiming is smooth. The screen shakes with some ammo, i love that. I love how the shotgun blows up on walls and does aoe, and the handgun goes through walls, or maybe that’s a bug, i like it though. I like how enemy projectiles can come from off screen. At first i was masking it happened, then i craved the challenge The settings don’t allow me to change the window to a full screen mode. How do I do that? When I go to play the game myself, i realize i must have 2 people. Then I attempt to defy my odds and i start pressing everything, and that’s when i discover the d pad is what changes my character from “not playing” to a character. Then I realize I can get past the character screen to level select with one player. The survival mode is cool for one player. It took me two rounds to experience certain the harpoon, uzi, webs, and black holes. I want to keep playing the survival mode. For now there are only a few waves. I’m typically killing 45/46 ninjas then it cuts to the end. I do love the character quips after each round. They are unique to the character you are playing! I would love to see ninjas in the practice area. Could I throw my harpoon/ other weapons once it has no more charges? In practice mode, id like to choose any in-game weapon to try at any time. Also in practice mode, it says there are 50 ninjas remaining, but there are no ninjas. New public domain characters New weapons: New stages: maybe a floating garden, high up in the sky? New items: Thanks for this! I want to play more!

I purchased this game back in 2024, loving the spirit of what was on display at the time. The music, the art, the gameplay, it screamed to me that this was made by somebody having a great time. That's why, after supporting the kick-starter campaign, I was saddened seeing that the project had failed to reach it's goal, figuring that meant the show was over. With that being said, I was overjoyed to see the update for episode one while browsing my library, and had a blast running through the content there was. The writing was consistently witty and making me laugh, (Queer doesn't mean what it used to, eh?), the voice actors slipped into the roles without resistance, and everything I liked about the multiplayer campaign was still there. I specifically think the little trivia cards were a wonderful addition. I loved finding and learning about each of the characters, specifically how some came to pass as Public Domain in the first place. Considering the whole thesis is "Man, these are some nifty ideas, let's spotlight them!", I think it ties things together nicely, Can't wait to see where else they pull from going forward. (I think NuSky would be funny to find if you can pull it off) With that being said, I did run into this odd bug near the end of 1-2 or 1-3 that made the game really choppy, and the white pixels between Felix's legs were a little distracting, so there's clearly some ironing that has to be done in places, but over all the game runs fine. All in all, while there's still plenty of work to be done here, I can't help but be excited for this game's future. I love what I'm seeing, and if this review helps spread the word, then so be it! Give it a try folks!

If i'm being honest, I didn't know if i would like this game when i first downloaded it, but after playing Episode 1 today, i found that this game was thoroughly enjoyable. it had great voice acting, an interesting story, and cool interpretations of the characters they are interpreting. I genuinely enjoyed this game, and if you got $5 (at least until all episodes are out), i highly recommend you get this game.

Absolutely crazy chaotic and mickey mouse and other public domain characters are in the game