Ninja Arashi (Android)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): March 15, 2017
- Release Date (EU): March 25, 2017
- Release Date (JP): March 25, 2017
- Publisher: Black Panther Games
- Developer: Black Panther Games
- Genres: Adventure
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
Ninja Arashi is hands down, possibly the best 2-D platformer I have ever played, I picked it up a week ago, and have yet to put it down.
Created by the studio Black Panther games, this is their first attempt at make a video game.
About a week ago, while browsing the play store on my android, I stumbled across this game, at 60 megabytes and with no price tag in sight, I decided to try it, and it blew me away, the beautiful art, the fluid controls, the fitting music and the dangerous world all meshes perfectly together to create on of the best Android games I've played for a LONG time.
The plot
The game itself has almost nothing in the way of a story, other than the intro, where the main villain breaks free from his prison, kills Arashi's wife, kidnaps his son, the taunt's him to pursue him, there is nothing else I've seen plotwise, if you came here expecting a story, you'll be disappointed.
Gameplay
Now THIS is where Ninja Arashi shines, the gameplay in the game is platformer perfection, long, fluid jumps, responsive controls, danger around every corner, everything that I think a good platformer should have. first, lets start off with the controls, on the left side of the screen are 2 arrows, used for moving either left and right, on the right side are 4 other buttons, used to preform a variety of commands, the jump button lets arashi preform jumps and double jumps, the shruiken button fires a shruiken to attack enemies, break crates and vases and uncover secret rooms in certain walls. basically, Arashi's all-purpose tool, the Camo button, as I call it, transforms Arashi into an object or person, depending on what you equipped, and lets him hide in plain sight, while the sword button unleashes a dash attack instantly killing any enemies within range and shattering any breakable objects. the sword and camo buttons have cooldown times after using them, so you spam them over and over, however, cooldown can be reduced by upgrading these skills.
Arashi needs all his tools to survive however, since he can only sustain one hit from enemies and traps, which, believe me, are numerous, and very creative, ranging from clumps of bloodstained spears, to moving, rotating wheels, falling spears, acid fountains, hidden soldiers with rifles, shielded enemies and MANY more, the game has a very creative way of bunching them together and mixing them up so it always feels challenging, yet never blatently unfair. more than once I found myself out of lives because I made a dumb choice or didn't pay attention where I should have, yet I always came back for more.
Graphics
The graphics in Ninja Arashi are in one word, beautiful. the main color is black, dark enemies lurking about, tall cliffs, and knife sticking out of a wall, a bear trap lying on the ground, are all completely black and stand out vividly from the mix of colors in the backround, traps are marked and easy to see by the bloodstains on them, which stand out from the surrounding black.the spites and model are VERY well done, looking amazing for an android game, the dark streamers that trail behind Arashi as he moves, it made me fall in love with this game....you know what, i'm gonna shut up let you see for yourself.
Presentation
The game's presentation is simple, yet beautiful, the menus take you straight to the level selection with the option to head to the game's shop to spend money and jewels you find in-game to upgrade Arashi's skill, there isn't much to it, but it gets the job done.
Other
There are several more things worth mentioning about this game, namely the currency system, the upgrades and so on, in-game you find gold by killing enemies you can either spend it in the shop to increase the number of lives Arashi has, lower cooldown times for skills, or purchase various transformations, or if you want to, keep some on hand so you can revive if you run out of lives during a level, 3000 gold for 2 extra tries seems like a pretty good bargain to me, and has saved me from restarting a level more than once. the Upgrades are fairly simple, straightforward and all in all, effective. you can lower the cooldown time for the sword skill, increase Shield duration, give Arashi more lives when starting a level or give his shruikens a higher chance of killing enemies in a single hit. also....NO IAP's, the only ads in the game is an option to revive by watching a video ad when you die, and nothing else. so far, the game has 30 levels, which took me around 7-8 hours to play, with 15 more on the way, one thing of note however, is levels have a high replay value, going back to collect, coins, maps or honing your skills.
another thing to compliment is Arashi's voice acting, whenever he respawns or uses a sword attack, he sprouts off a line like " Ninja's never die", "this time....it will be different" and " like cutting melons", the voice actor did a great job here and it really adds to the game's dark atmosphere.
Closing
If you own and android device and want a game to blow some time on, then pick up Ninja Arashi, at only 60 megabytes and no price tag attached, this is one hell of a package for Android owners. I Thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you like platforming with a mix of RPG elements, so will you.
The plot
The game itself has almost nothing in the way of a story, other than the intro, where the main villain breaks free from his prison, kills Arashi's wife, kidnaps his son, the taunt's him to pursue him, there is nothing else I've seen plotwise, if you came here expecting a story, you'll be disappointed.
Gameplay
Now THIS is where Ninja Arashi shines, the gameplay in the game is platformer perfection, long, fluid jumps, responsive controls, danger around every corner, everything that I think a good platformer should have. first, lets start off with the controls, on the left side of the screen are 2 arrows, used for moving either left and right, on the right side are 4 other buttons, used to preform a variety of commands, the jump button lets arashi preform jumps and double jumps, the shruiken button fires a shruiken to attack enemies, break crates and vases and uncover secret rooms in certain walls. basically, Arashi's all-purpose tool, the Camo button, as I call it, transforms Arashi into an object or person, depending on what you equipped, and lets him hide in plain sight, while the sword button unleashes a dash attack instantly killing any enemies within range and shattering any breakable objects. the sword and camo buttons have cooldown times after using them, so you spam them over and over, however, cooldown can be reduced by upgrading these skills.
Arashi needs all his tools to survive however, since he can only sustain one hit from enemies and traps, which, believe me, are numerous, and very creative, ranging from clumps of bloodstained spears, to moving, rotating wheels, falling spears, acid fountains, hidden soldiers with rifles, shielded enemies and MANY more, the game has a very creative way of bunching them together and mixing them up so it always feels challenging, yet never blatently unfair. more than once I found myself out of lives because I made a dumb choice or didn't pay attention where I should have, yet I always came back for more.
Graphics
The graphics in Ninja Arashi are in one word, beautiful. the main color is black, dark enemies lurking about, tall cliffs, and knife sticking out of a wall, a bear trap lying on the ground, are all completely black and stand out vividly from the mix of colors in the backround, traps are marked and easy to see by the bloodstains on them, which stand out from the surrounding black.the spites and model are VERY well done, looking amazing for an android game, the dark streamers that trail behind Arashi as he moves, it made me fall in love with this game....you know what, i'm gonna shut up let you see for yourself.
Presentation
The game's presentation is simple, yet beautiful, the menus take you straight to the level selection with the option to head to the game's shop to spend money and jewels you find in-game to upgrade Arashi's skill, there isn't much to it, but it gets the job done.
Other
There are several more things worth mentioning about this game, namely the currency system, the upgrades and so on, in-game you find gold by killing enemies you can either spend it in the shop to increase the number of lives Arashi has, lower cooldown times for skills, or purchase various transformations, or if you want to, keep some on hand so you can revive if you run out of lives during a level, 3000 gold for 2 extra tries seems like a pretty good bargain to me, and has saved me from restarting a level more than once. the Upgrades are fairly simple, straightforward and all in all, effective. you can lower the cooldown time for the sword skill, increase Shield duration, give Arashi more lives when starting a level or give his shruikens a higher chance of killing enemies in a single hit. also....NO IAP's, the only ads in the game is an option to revive by watching a video ad when you die, and nothing else. so far, the game has 30 levels, which took me around 7-8 hours to play, with 15 more on the way, one thing of note however, is levels have a high replay value, going back to collect, coins, maps or honing your skills.
another thing to compliment is Arashi's voice acting, whenever he respawns or uses a sword attack, he sprouts off a line like " Ninja's never die", "this time....it will be different" and " like cutting melons", the voice actor did a great job here and it really adds to the game's dark atmosphere.
Closing
If you own and android device and want a game to blow some time on, then pick up Ninja Arashi, at only 60 megabytes and no price tag attached, this is one hell of a package for Android owners. I Thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you like platforming with a mix of RPG elements, so will you.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Fluid Gameplay
- Amazing graphics for a game this small
- Great voices
- highly addicting
- responsive controls
What I Didn't Like ...
- .......I cant think of any besides no story.
- though some people will find it a little too difficult.
10
Gameplay
Amazing
difficulty is some where between " just right" and "harsh"
possibly some of the most fluid i've ever seen
8
Presentation
simple, yet beautiful.
a bit lacking compared to some gams, but it doesn't waste any space getting you where you want to go
8
Lasting Appeal
Around 7-8 hous if you blast from level, tolevel, more if you replay old level to finds hidden treasures and hone tour skills.
9.1
out of 10
