In our last review, we talked about arcade games with platforming and puzzle elements with the game Spectra. This time we're leaving the arcade but holding on to the puzzle platformer while talking about Ninjaboy by indie developer 2 Ton Studios. Similar to games like Exit but without the time limit, you play as the ninja Tadeo and your objective in each level is to reach the exit. However, the difficulty rises as you go with objectives, enemies, and lasers...yeah lasers. Find out after the jump if we thought Ninjaboy was worth the leap.
In order to control Tadeo, the game uses the phone's accelerometer so moving your character side-to-side is the same as tilting your phone right or left. He basically has two speed settings: slowly walking and walking. While this may sound rudimentary to some (according to 2 Ton Studios, those people have made their discontent known) in our experience we found the speed to be just right. However, in case your mileage varies 2 Ton is planning to add an optional speed setting in order to give everyone their own personal level of control over Tadeo. Besides moving, Tadeo usually has to jump onto and through platforms and this is done by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. The combination of tilting and tapping makes Ninjaboy's controls simple yet extremely intuitive as well as offering a fullscreen view of the game without your hands getting in the way. While you may find yourself making mistakes a bit more often by using an accelerometer, one can make the same argument for the game trying to be challenging so it's just a matter of personal preference, and in our case we quite enjoyed it.
So what kind of levels will you be tilting and tapping in order to complete? The game currently offers two Areas, Dojo and Hito's Yard. Each area consists of 25 levels, so as of right now you're getting 50 levels out-of-the-box, with more on the way in future updates. Each level is fairly brief but as you go on it absorbs more and more of your time. In order to unlock the next area, you must first gain a specific number of stars from beating levels; for example to unlock Hito's Yard you must first have 70 stars from the Dojo levels. In Dojo, the first few levels are introductory but don't be fooled -- over time the difficulty slowly but surely ramps up as the game introduces more gameplay mechanics like keys, robots and, yes, lasers. Once you get past Dojo's nicely paced levels, Hito's Yard is where the gloves come off and Ninjaboy really shines. All of the levels offer deep complexion thanks to new enemies with different actions, new objectives, and precise timing. The second area also unlocks a new ability for Tadeo, the Kung Fu Chop, which make him do exactly that when you approach an enemy and tap directly on them. Ninjaboy changes from simply getting to the exit to figuring out what you need to do in order to get there, and the result is an amazingly addictive experience.
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Once you get a feel for the game, you step back and realize just how wonderful Ninjaboy looks. 2 Ton Studios has created some fantastic original art for the game as you can see in the splash page in our photo above. It's not just great art either--Ninjaboy's in-game graphics are excellent too. The game offers a very distinctive style similar to cell-shading animation but somehow different. The levels are all clean and easily visible, but contain plenty of small flourishes like lamps, stone patterns, etc. Plus it doesn't hurt that the game never fails to hesitate once, running perfectly smooth while we're jumping and kung fu chopping to our heart's content.
Now for some of the things we didn't especially like about Ninjaboy. For one, we would have really liked to see a Help section added to the game somewhere. When we first entered Hito's Yard we accidentally skipped past the Kung Fu Chop instructions page and for a few days we couldn't figure out how to do it before lucking upon it. So the benefit of adding some kind of quick 'How To Play' section would probably be worth the time. Another thing working against Ninjaboy is the option to run under the lock screen. When we reached the more complex levels of Hito's Yard, being able to quickly resume where we left off in a level would've been a nicely appreciated feature.
That's mostly it. Besides those minor qualms, Ninjaboy is an incredibly high quality game that would put many Xbox Live-certified games to shame. 2 Ton Studios has crafted a marvelous game that features a unique visual style, a challenging control layout, and addictive gameplay. In order to get Ninjaboy for yourself, you have two options: the paid version for $3.99 or the ad-supported Ninjaboy+ for free. When we asked 2 Ton Studios about the $3.99 price, they said the decision behind the price was mostly due to what other games like ilomilo and Fruit Ninja were asking from consumers. The reasoning behind their free version was a simple truth about the Windows Phone Marketplace today: ad-supported apps generate more money than paid ones. Whichever way you decide to get your platforming fix, Ninjaboy is definitely worth your while.
 | Ninjaboy 2 Ton Studios $3.99 Version 1.2 |
| | Ninjaboy+ 2 Ton Studios FREE Version 1.2 |
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