Ninja Striker!

Ninja Striker! is a bit of what I would call a casual platformer. I hesitate to fully commit to that statement because it can be read as a lack of challenge – and that’s not the case here. But if game mechanics can be meant to make you feel something (they can, of course), then Ninja Striker! is meant to make you feel powerful. There are three buttons that make up your movement and attack options: A for jump, B for dash and X for homing attack. Each of the playable characters have a unique flavor for these actions: the default ninja can double jump and the dash is a 360-degree attack. Conversely, the robot ninja can hold jump for a thruster effect but the dash only attacks in the direction he’s facing. These generous movement and attack options mean that you can glide around the level homing in on bad guys as you see them to rack up combos while never touching the floor. This makes level completions fairly straightforward but of course there are score bonuses. I was surprised to complete the first few levels and not get one star in any the initial tries. These score challenges are enough to keep me coming back but there’s also the clever boss fights and the delectable Mystical Nin…

[h1]Beautiful visuals and music, but some frustrating issues[/h1] I really like the art style and the music, and the overal presentation is charming. The core gameplay mechanics felt OK, but I wasn’t entirely sure how my techniques worked. Some things confused me, like how to finish the dojo level with the kunoichi. The menu sound effects were a bit sharp, so I had to lower the SFX volume manually. The biggest issue for me was that pressing the Esc key instantly closed the entire game instead of bringing up a pause menu. This happened 2–3 times by accident, and eventually I decided not to continue playing because of it. All in all, it was not a bad game. It's reasonably priced too (3.29€).

A simple, cute retro platformer to spend some time with.