Every now and then we as gamers need to take a step back and ask ourselves why
did we get into gaming? Hopefully most of us answer to have fun, as opposed to
saying something like “The Army won’t take me and I need to keep my aim sharp
for the revolution.” Those in the latter group scare me. But for those in the
“Gamers just want to have fun” group let me introduce you to a gaming offering
by Namco called I-Ninja…
I-Ninja is the story of a little ninja named Ninja. (I wonder if that trend will
catch on in other professions: “Hi my name is Banker and I’m a banker” or
“Hello, I’m Quarterback and I play quarterback.”) Ninja goes off at the
beginning of the story to rescue his master who we only know as Sensei. In the
process of the rescue Ninja accidentally beheads his sensei, Sensei, once he
takes hold of a Rage Stone. But all is not lost as Sensei can still communicate
with Ninja in an Obi-Wan Kenobi sort of way. Ninja learns that there are many
more of these Rage Stones and he needs to gather them before the evil Master O-Dor
and his army of Ranx can. While you play a ninja the gameplay leans a little
more toward a platformer than any sort of hard-core fighting game. So when you
go off to find the remaining Rage Stones you can expect to do some jumping, some
rolling, some rail grinding, and some other platform standards. Of course you
also get some ninja style action with swords, shurikens, and a Belt, as in
Yellow or Black, grading system.
First off you’ll notice that Ninja has an enormous melon on a tiny body. I’d
think that you would have to go through ninja training just to be able to
balance that sucker. This is part of the lightheartedness that I-Ninja is all
about. Although Ninja may be small in size he certainly makes up for it with
confidence. When attacking he will often be taunting his enemies with little
phrases like “You want more? I got more!” His vocabulary isn’t the strongest so
you’ll start to hear the same jaunts over fairly soon but luckily there are
enough variations where it won’t drive you insane and several of them will at
least warrant a smile.
The game is split into 4 main areas with an additional final showdown on the
moon. The areas are your fairly standard mix of jungles, beaches, mountains and
a somewhat original Bay. Within each of these areas you may or may not have
access to certain mission doors depending on your Belt Ranking. If Ninja is only
a Yellow belt Sensei will not allow him to enter into a green door. See even
though you cut his head off at the beginning of the game Sensei is still looking
out for you! In each of these areas you’ll need to complete several missions in
order to finally have a chance to recover one of the Rage Stones with a Boss
battle. For example on Robot Beach you’ll need to embark on missions in order to
assemble the pieces to the broken robot. Once you get all of the needed robot
parts together you repair the robot and then take him out to sea for a giant
robot boxing match!
I mentioned that I-Ninja at least part platformer and part fighter. What I’m
talking about is that while on any given mission you will be asked to perform
tasks of both types of genres. In the Bomb Bay area there is a part where you
will man the “Kiss Me Deadly Defense System”, basically a big gun turret, to
fend off several waves of attacking Ranx from storming the beach. You will also
have several times when you have to jump on a really big ball and roll it trough
some obstacles, along the lines of a Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness. These
are certainly not fighting elements and they can be thought of as mini-games if
you’d like. But truth is they are just part of the game and it was the little
breaks like those that really kept the game fun to me. This is a game that does
not take itself seriously but does so in a way that doesn’t take away from the
gameplay. I actually laughed at one cut scene where Ninja got into an elevator
and you could hear the cheesy elevator music in the background. Good times!
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