This is first in a series of retrospectives of old and relatively unheard of indie games I have found over the years that I can never be bothered to write about because I’m a lazy git.
What does a professional beatboxer, 4000 hours in development time and watching too much Naruto get you? The side scrolling metroidvania adventure epic Ninja Strike, of course- a labour of love by a Aaron Heaton, released way back in 2009 initially on… physical media?
Yeah so, Heaton apparently bundled this game as a little extra content to his musical release System, which he seemed to distribute after beatboxing gigs (a crazy thought for only 7 years ago). This original version actually requires you at some point in the game to place his music CD in your desktops optical drive, kindly sliding it open for you. A cute little puzzle or just a pretentious nuisance, I can’t say (only that it’s as pretentious as Jon Blow and a bottle of piss), but fortunately a “no-cd” edition was released on YoYoGames soon after for general consumption.
Anyway, ninjas! Such an original concept, I know. This ain’t some deep Twine narrative extravaganza, but the concept is cool and simple enough- you’re some legendary mystical Ninja dude summoned by a group of bandana-wearing mortal wussies who needs you to banish the hideous 2-mouthed warted demon monstrosity Balgator.
And damn, the dev must of been pretty messed up designing this guy.
But because we’re Gamers™ we don’t care about that story nonsense now. Nah, it’s about that sweet responsive control scheme that would otherwise give TotalBiscuit a, well, fantasy for bedtime after he spends 20 minutes evaluating the unnecessary and very retro “32-bit Color” option in the UI.
This is a 2D platformer, mind, and it uses WASD and the mouse for movement and combat respectively. You’d of thought every attack was some cheap “swing” of a weapon (think Terraria), but no, you’re actually pinpointing exactly where your sword will strike. I just find it interesting how 2D indies haven’t innovated out that much using 360° crosshairs, with Ninja Strike’s deal being pretty innovative even now.
You don’t really fight much though, just a few enemies here and there and some strangely spectacular boss fights. A lot of the game is exploring the grounds, solving puzzles and jumping accross difficult platforms to progress further inside the castle and enter it’s depths. Along the way you’ll be finding gurus who grant you new special abilities to past certain obstacles, adding new game mechanics to play around with, in true look-at-me-I’m-a-hip-new-metroidvania-game fashion.
Oh, did I not mention all the sound effects are made with Heaton’s vocal chords? Yes, the time of Bfxr is no more, for what beatboxing was before as a useless party trick*, it is now a sound effects producer en masse. To get real though, sound design is an under-appreciated art in this medium, and to listen to such alien noises that just work is a real joy.
*To be fair, I think Aaaron Heaton has given me a new-founded respect for acapella of the heavy-throated variety. I mean, just check his Tetris remix out.
And well, that’s really it; I don’t know how I can sex up these type of visually-unimpressive, meme-absent, not-thought-provoking games. It’s the kind of limbo that indie developers have always been in, and the mechanically-impressive ventures of bright minds require some kind of nostalgic or artistic touch to really inspire a gaming public bombarded with choice.
But trust me, there is something fascinating about such an expansive game made in a seemingly bygone era of the indie scene that throbs the heart- and if you’re like me who has a special place for 2D action platforming in your gaming ventures, Ninja Strike gives a lot of food for thought in just the tiny but innovative ideas that really give it a unique identity and not just make it a shitty pre-cursor to Trine.
Now, the game was originally released on YoYoGame’s sandbox, but they dun goofed didn’t they. Fortunately, the game is available on Heaton’s website- Download Here (Windows only, sorry *nixkids).
With a NES power glove in hand and a bright red beanie on head, Aaron Heaton (shown above) is now working on a new game, Robots in the Wild, which from what I’ve played has that psychedelic and energized World of Goo vibe in building and defending a space base thingy as a jigsaw ala Space Truckers. I’m definitely excited to see this shape up. Go check the trailer here!
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