Samurai Ninja Wars

Agility and precision platformer that keeps everything simple and doesn’t blow you away with presentation. There’s no story in the game, just stages you unlock in a linear order. Each stage is an obstacle course with enemies and traps that you must tackle with your skills. Your moves are pretty standard for a ninja. There’s the jump and unlimited wall jump, dash that can be used in all directions, a basic attack, and a shuriken that recharges after a while. One common move used through the game is bouncing, which is performed by holding down and attacking with the sword. Fortunately, the difficulty is not extreme because you can virtually get hit unlimited times. The only exception is when you receive two quick hits or when you fall into a pit with hazards. The mechanic is that you lose your sword when you receive damage. You can pick it up right away and immediately take another hit. Or you can wait for a few seconds for the sword to magically respawn in your hands. You’ll also have to wait when the sword breaks in half. This is a lot more dangerous because it also causes the spawning of random enemies. This is a frustrating design choice. Although they aren't particularly deadly in normal stages, they ruin boss fights and make them extremely frustrating. Nothing is worse than avoiding dangerous boss attacks and then dying because an enemy decides to fly across the screen. One very useful move is the block. You don’t have to time it perfectly, but it’s still a good idea to get comfortable with it. However, it only works on attacks and not on contact damage. When you perform a perfect block, the next normal attack gains a special wave that sends it flying across the screen. Due to precision-based gameplay, this might not be for everyone. Although stages vary in length, it’s still an unusual feeling when you die close to the end by a stupid mistake. Strange lag is the game’s biggest problem. This occurs every time you kill someone. It ruins the flow of the game. The same lag also occurs during death animations that makes them longer than they actually are. The number of times you die is not tied to any extras or achievements.

This game hearkens back to the likes of Super Meat Boy with how fast paced and precise the action is. When it comes to the mobility and action you are really put through your paces with it. It kicks my ass but even still I keep pushing forward! I say if you love those kind of platformers get this game.

Do you remember playing Super Meat Boy with your friends and asking them to wait just a few more turns because you knew in your bones that you could beat the level you were on? Do you remember that feeling of determination you would get with each death? Do you remember how rewarding it felt when you finally reached the end of the level, and how ready you felt to start the cycle all over again on the next level? That's the vibe this game cultivates. It's the sort of challenge back to which you'll keep coming, because you know you've got the skills to master the current level, and you'll be damned if this game gets the better of you. If this is the sort of experience you crave from a game, definitely give this a shot.

Mechanically this game is really strong, I found it extremely satisfying to chain moves together and get through levels as quick as possible. As a point of constructive criticism, I do feel as though the default controls weren't very intuitive, but otherwise this is an easy recommend for me! [b]FULL VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kxw8qx-Vpo[/b]

Fun Ninja Game!

Similar to Super Meat Boy with a bit of Towerfall and with a Samurai aesthetic.

My favorite part is when you beat a level and the game compels strut down your hallway screaming the melody to ghost busters.

For the price, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. It's a solid simple game with good controls made by a one man developer. You have a tutorial in the beginning explaining all the commands and that's the only time you'll be handhold before you're let loose against the demons. I highly recommend you use a gamepad for this game as it's fits in the same style as any 2D side scroller. If you're a fan of games like The Messenger, Super Meat Boy, etc.. this is definitely a nice filler if you're trying to find that scratch for your itch of a tough 2D game. Plenty of levels, tough boss fights, and extra features if you want to play with friends in the same room. I played all the way through, but you can level select if need to continue where you last left off. It can get frustrating. :)

Samurai Ninja wars is a combination of Super Meat Boy and Ninja Gaiden with a little bit of celeste thrown in. In short this is a fun, little diversion that is a little undercooked but for a game that was developed by one person it is solid. The game has full controller support or mouse and keyboard. It launches in a window and You have to hit ALT + Enter to switch to full screen. I recommend you do this or else you can have some frame rate issues. The game is relatively simple but has a few interesting mechanics. It is stage based like Super Meat boy and a death will send you back to the start of the stage. You get a nice tutorial stage that does a great job showing you everything. You can spring off walls and dash around on ground or in the air. You attack with your sword in 4 directions and can bounce off obstacles with it as well. It all works even though it can feel sluggish due to a slight push forward when attacking and the slight delay after a dash, but it feels good to control. You lose your sword when damaged but you can get under it and retrieve it quickly. If it hits the ground you can pick it up, but if it shatters, you will have to wait only a few seconds before it respawn's with a bolt of lightning. Be warned that if you lose your sword sometimes a monster will be summoned that will fly around until you can defeat it. I like this feature because it allows you to get a second chance if you get hit or miss a parry. The parry system works surprisingly well and is the one addition to this game that sets it apart from other games in this genre. The parry timing is generous as long as you hold down the button longer than you think. After you parry a projectile you will store a ranged sword attack. This is really useful against the Ninjas who use ranged attacks. The goal of the stages is to get to the end and there are a variety of obstacles to avoid. It can be tough but after a little practice you will feel like an agile Samurai or Ninja. There's only one issue with the design that I'd like to mention. Every kill of an enemy makes the frame rate dip just and little and this is on purpose for dramatic effect. If you move too fast after killing an enemy it can cause you to miss a jump or dash cause of the slowdown. This is the one issue that can tank the forward propulsion of the game a bit. This is a solid game for a one man indie title. With AAA gaming today being as bloated as it is, little games like this are always welcome as an antidote to giant over-hyped mainstream slop. I give Samurai Ninja Wars, 3.5 "LETF" spelling mistakes in the options menu out of 5.