N+
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N+: Unleash your Inner Ninja
Stylish concept, and amazingly fluid controls all wrapped up in one devilish little package.
Gameplay Basics
N+ is a simple platforming game, your objective on each level is to get to the exit while dodging bombs, missiles and drones. Been there, done that? The difficulty comes when you learn that this must be done within your Ninja’s lifespan of 1.5 seconds. Gold is littered throughout the level, and will add precious seconds to your timer, giving you a bit of breathing room. But not much.
If the threat of running out of time isn’t enough to make your head spin, the environment itself becomes one great big puzzle. How does one jump onto a platform that is too high to jump on to? The answer is elegant, yet devilishly difficult. As a Ninja, your character is able to perform great feats of agility and speed. A few presses of the X button, and your character will bunny hop up a wall. Press the D-Pad towards a wall, and your character will slide down, preventing you from going “splat” at the bottom. Some levels are designed in a way that will leave you scratching your head wondering how you can possibly get to where you need to be. Others will have you running around like, ahem, a ninja on fire trying to outrun all the enemies on screen. Others, you will laugh at their simplicity, only to die over 20 times, as you quickly realize that those developers are far more clever than you.
That’s it: no guns, no dodge, no shields no nothing. Just you, your ninja, over 200 amazingly designed levels and some fiendish puzzles all wrapped up in one stylish and fun little platformer.
Graphics and Sound:
I find that too often that poor gameplay is masked by flashy graphics. This game showcases the reverse: simple graphics highlight the gameplay. The whole game plays like a 1980’s platformer, and the style reflects this. This is not to say that the graphics are unsophisticated, because they are actually done quite well. When you complete the level your ninja does a victory dance, more dances are unlocked by completing various stages. When you dash, your character blurs. And best of all, when you get blown up by a mine, your ninja actually gets blown to bits, and those bits go flying into other mines, and then the bits blow up to bits, and so on and so forth. Very amusing. The sound is okay, digital, and it works. More music is available as an unlock.
Gameplay
N+ is a very stripped down platformer that could have been at home in the 80’s and I mean that as a huge compliment. This game is all about great levels, simple controls: in short the gameplay itself is the star. When you are killed (and you will die many, many times) you never feel like the controls were at fault or that the game is unfair. For those that know me, I hate platformers in general. I am bad at them, I get frustrated quickly, but not so with this game. The controls are intuitive, and I always got the feeling that I was learning from my many mistakes and getting better.
But to dismiss this game as a simple platformer would be incorrect. Yes, dodging the enemies while getting from point A to point B is difficult, but the designers have made the environment itself a puzzle. It’s not just hopping form place to place, it’s figuring out how to get there that is half the fun. On a few levels, frankly, I just couldn’t figure out how to get to where I needed to go. And I appreciate that in a puzzle game. I want to be challenged, and this game is definitely challenging. While it’s challenging, I always felt that if I played a different level, and with a little more practice I would be able to get through the levels that had me stumped. It’s a fine balance between being challenging and frustrating, and this game walks it very well.
The developers created one difficult game, but two design elements balance this high difficulty. The first is that you only need to defeat two stages of five levels each before more stages open up. You do not have to do the stages in order, you can choose to play any stage if they are unlocked. This ensures that you are never fully stuck in the game. The second design element is the quickness of the game. Each stage is meant to be played quickly, within 1.5 seconds or so. This means that when you die on a level, replaying the level is not a huge chore, you have not lost any significant amount of time.
Value
There are 200 levels and you can build your own levels if you get bored with all of that. For $20. Need I say more?
Another note, this game is great for the handheld market. The levels are short enough that you can knock off a few levels waiting in line at the bank or whatnot. You can feel accomplishment if you only have 5 minutes to play.
Bottom Line
This is a great, great little game. It’s fun.
Verdict
Buy it! Noobs beware: this ain’t an easy game.
Pros
*Gameplay before graphics - but the graphics are well done
*Very tough
*The level design is great: how to get from place to place is a puzzle on it’s own
Cons
* PSP version - so it has long load times
* If you are not a platformer fan, you may hit a wall
very tough
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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