Narcotics Ninja

Narcotics Ninja is short, sweet, and salaciously violent. it's a neon-lit crucible where you - in the shoes of the eponymous 'Runner' - must blaze through nine levels, packed to the brim with hyper-lethal assailants, bottomless pits, and sparkling piles of space drugs. split-second reflexes dominate the flow of combat, and even a minor slip-up between strokes of the katana or bursts of the minigun can result in the Runner's untimely demise. a triple-stage health bar allows for risky plays and less experienced players to have a chance of beating the levels, but don't get cocky: play too recklessly, and you'll be down to your last battery before you know it. even if its combat system stands up to Hotline Miami in terms of versatility and challenge, the way its presented makes it so much better. synthetic rock fuels your carnage-ridden romp through the slums, while the vivid purples-and-blues of the city's techno-underbelly illuminates the Runner and his opponents in an aesthetically pleasing glow. and as you emerge from the alleyways and begin minigun-jumping through the skyline, you're graced with some of the most beautiful - almost ethereal - backgrounds that such a game could conjure. seriously, the spritework's worth the admission alone. the game's campaign is fairly short, and a competent player can finish it within an hour or so. given that this is Misfire's first game, though, that can easily be excused - not to mention that the price for this experience is only [i]two[/i] bucks. for the price of a cup of coffee, you've got a guaranteed hour of hyper-violent entertainment, packed to the brim with [b]SOVLFVL[/b] combat and chimage. i've seen bottom-of-the-barrel games not even [i]close[/i] to this one's quality, being sold for triple the price. seriously, it's insane. contrary to their name, Misfire's hit the bullseye with this game. it's absolutely worth the price, and i whole-heartily recommend it to both skilled and unskilled players alike.

Phenomenal music and level design, reminiscent of Hotline Miami. Great mechanics that work well with the challenging platforming.

Narcotics Ninja is the debut release for Misfire Studios, and the team is off to a strong start. Pros: - Dynamic, challenging and fun gameplay - Easy to learn, hard to master. - Good technical performance - Cool 8-bit 2D Cyberpunk aesthetic - Great soundtrack and sound design - Fairly polished Neutral: - Harsh difficulty in later levels - Somewhat short at about 90 mins for completion (but doesn't really matter, given the asking price) Cons: - No controller support (Yet!) - No options menu - Could have used an extra checkpoint or two in some levels Overall, I recommend Narcotics Ninja, and I'm looking forward to what the team at Misfire does next.

cool game, gameplay is fun but the momentum coming to a complete stop when touching the ground is a bit annoying trying to run around at mach 5 just to hit the ground on accident and come to a complete stop sucks

While I'm not really that great with fast-paced, 2d side scrollers, this was one of the better ones I played. Currently writing this after just my first playthrough and overall its pretty fun. My main gripe lies with the massive parkour section towards the end of the game but after enough tries I managed to nail it pretty well. The music is great, the scenery / backdrop is mesmerizing, and the parry mechanic is quite fun when you learn the timing. I didn't end up using the overdrive mechanic all too much, mostly because at current if you flub it and restart at your last checkpoint, you don't get that overdrive back. So I usually just hold onto it until I reach a difficult section. I do not recommend using it in the parkour sections. Adjusting to the slow down and enhanced knockback while navigating sawblades can be a pain. Overall I recommend the game. Its cheap, a couple hours worth of fun if you take your time with it, and has excellent sprite work.

Honestly for what im assuming is this studios first game its genuinely pretty good, there are OBVIOUS inspirations from games like hotline miami and katana zero and thats chill, the game definitely does feel unpolished at times with gameplay still occurring during a cutscene, after a death, ir when you finish a level but im going to attribute that to the fact that I used to minigun to get really high speeds, on that note the minigun is the best part of this game thats where most of the cool movement comes from and yeah kinda makes the sword redundant at times, tbf i havent played the full game tho so maybe it becomes prevalant later on but from what Im seeing you just can speed through the levels and thats definitely hella fun. I fully recommend this game cause of the 2 dollar price tag and im curious to see what the studio comes up with next, hoping they develop their own identity more.

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