Minor annoyances pop up every once in a while, but not enough to seriously disrupt gameplay. The camera is finicky at times, and the stealth mechanics and quick-time-event-centric boss fights are underdeveloped. If you can look past these mechanical issues, it's entirely possible to be sufficiently entertained by the characters and charm of Mini Ninjas.
Mini Ninjas
IO Interactive · Sep 8, 2009
About
Join Hiro, the smallest hero on the biggest adventure, as he embarks on an epic and electrifying quest to restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos. Use your skills and mighty Ninja training to battle a magical army of evil Samurai. Harness the power of your Kuji magic and utilise the special skills of your Mini Ninja friends as you travel through a perilous world to reach the final confrontation with the Evil Samurai Warlord in his Fortress of Doom.
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Critic reviews
- 8.0Although the combat is fun and grows as the game progresses, Mini Ninjas is still a little on the simple side and that will throw some gamers off (also, the boss fights are giant quick time events/button prompts, which is disappointing). With that said, this is the perfect game to introduce younger siblings or your own children to the classic Japanese tales and ninja quests so many of us love. I consider Mini Ninjas to be an extremely pleasant surprise.
- 7.5Mini Ninjas is a great start to what could well become a staple franchise for Eidos and IO. If you're hunting for collectibles, you'll easily spend eight to 10 hours on your journey. Even on the hardest setting, the game is never unbearably difficult. The bosses all follow predictable patterns, and fighting enemies is often optional, so most of your frustrations will come at the hands of the poor camera. But Mini Ninjas makes it easy to see past these issues and have a great time.
- 7.0Ironically all the bosses in Mini Ninjas are deviously simplistic. Basic QTE patterns. Except the last one, who is not particularly difficult but can cause some headaches working out exactly what you have to do!
- 7.0That said, there is a good deal of fun to be had here, if you play stealthily, and there are plenty of lovely little touches that do make you smile - you'd have to be the grinchiest of grinches not to at some points fall for Mini Ninjas' charm. The cutscenes are lovely, the dialogue and voice over work stereotypical but fitting, and the soundtrack is a wistful traditional Japanese score that rekindles memories of The Karate Kid. Still, Mini Ninjas will do nothing to quell the growing call from core gamers for IO's "next-gen" Hitman game.
- 7.2However, besides this slight issue Mini Ninjas is a fun and enjoyable game. The visual style is fairly cartoony but is perfect for the audience it is targeting and has nice cuteness at every turn. Although you'll spend much of your time in the game swinging weapons at enemies, the violence is very tame, especially considering that most of the enemies you'll face look like enlarged Jawas wearing samurai outfits that once defeated turn into a harmless little animals, similar to the enemies in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
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