Ninza has quite a bit going for it, most being positive. Its take on combat is refreshing, albeit requiring some mental burdens in relearning PvP that requires solely utilizing the environment to smoosh an enemy into smithereens. While I might have some reservations over how its cast of characters are implemented in-game, the UI, and its future content, one thing is clear: Ninza is quite the fun and addicting platform battler.
This past week, we got an early peek of Ninza, a multiplayer platform fighter from Klakmioch that can be played online, offline, and with up to four players. While we weren’t able to test it online against random players, we spent a bit of time getting used to its combat in local matches to see just how well it plays prior to its full release. Don’t worry, though, it’s free to play. Try it out TOMORROW (08/28) once you’ve read through my thoughts!
The overall gist of Ninza is highly unlike any other platforming fighter I’ve come across in the past few decades. The only way to defeat an opponent is by hitting a block towards them in hopes that they’re crushed by the blocks. That’s it. You can’t walk up and hit an enemy – you can only attack blocks and hope that they come in contact with someone else. The level is procedurally generated, meaning that every time you play the block designs are different and the fighting is chaotic. At the same time, there’s a puzzle element of being mindful of your surroundings to attempt to find a smidgen of safety.
There is nothing like playing Ninza. To its credit, it’s carved out a unique area that is mostly untouched (to my knowledge) in the 2D-platforming fighter space. It just took me far longer than I would care to admit to fully grasp. I had to relearn my typical rushdown habits (which, admittedly, aren’t always the best thing to execute in a fighting game) and instead focus on utilizing every inch of the procedurally generated levels. It is so satisfying to send a block hurtling through the ceiling and looping up through the floor; it makes me feel like I am playing a 4D chess game when I’m figuring out how to crush an opponent on the other end of the screen.
At launch, there are a handful of blocks that can smoosh enemies. Blue blocks grant the attacker a shield, purple blocks change the level’s scrolling direction, and red blocks explode once they reach their destination. The default green blocks can turn into brown rocks if hit hard enough, too. The block designs are straightforward in that they don’t have nuance, but it would be nice for some additional variety. For instance, it would be cool if a fire block could cause green blocks to catch fire and disintegrate, opening up paths that players could utilize against opponents who are attempting to hide behind cover.
All of Ninza’s hand-drawn characters are appropriately goofy and given a unique flair spanning beyond their designs. While I preferred to play as Tobias (the closest thing to a ninja in Ninza’s cast), I also tested out Juan (a banjo-carrying, fully mustached hippo), Ifgwym (a ninja riding a gun shaped like a donkey), and Kaitlyn (a snowperson smoking a suspicious cigarette). The character designs were eerily reminiscent of Visual Concepts and Interplay’s ClayFighter games, both of which are near and dear to my heart.
I love it when games avoid taking themselves too seriously. Ninza avoids the serious route with its silly character designs, hand-drawn levels, and special effects that skew more toward 2D comic-book instead of high-fidelity 3D-models. I encountered no issue with finding myself on the screen, nor were the levels too visually busy to the point of distraction. On the competitive side, I don’t foresee players struggling to survive via being distracted by the effects happening on screen.
My only concern about Ninza is its implementation of unique characters. That is – every character is unique almost to a fault. Fighting games excel when there are threads of consistency that make their way across characters, despite them being visually different. Here, Ninza has made it so that picking up a new character requires the player to relearn the basics of the game. Here’s what I mean by that.
Tobias, the first character that I unlocked, played as expected. Press a button to jump, press another button to attack or execute a charged attack. Juan, on the other hand, floated like Kirby, but his auto attack functioned similar to a charged attack while the charged attack would spin him around so long as you were holding left/right. If you used a charge attack while holding up or down, your spin attack rotated and was unable to initiate a hit against a block. Ifgwym couldn’t traditionally jump, instead being propelled in short bursts.
On paper, you might think that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. “Sure, Will,” you might be thinking, “Smash has similar differences across characters. What’s the big deal?” My response to that is Smash’s implementation (along with similar platform fighters) applies a degree of consistency across the cast with minor differences. Ninza’s approach utilizes stark differences across the entire cast.
When you encounter differences in movement and attacks alongside Ninza’s learning curve, it makes for a steeper than preferable learning curve. It’s worth sticking with, however, as playing Ninza is highly unlike anything I’ve played before.
I love Ninza’s method of onboarding players. To get access to more than one character, trials, multiplayer content, and single player content, I was to simply complete the tutorials. Given that it requires a larger-than-expected learning curve (larger than I personally expected), it was great for me to spend 15 minutes learning the ropes of how to succeed in Ninza along with getting rewards along the way in the form of additional characters and new modes for completing simple tutorial levels. Too many fighting games treat onboarding players as an afterthought, assuming that players will figure things out as they go.
That said, Ninza’s UI and menu organization could use some streamlining. In order to play the game, I was required to select challenges and assign them to a character of my choosing. These challenges were mostly simple, ranging from executing a hyper attack, killing an enemy, and/or completing a local/online battle. Once I completed these challenges and claimed the rewards, I couldn’t leave the challenge screen until I had selected new challenges; this felt odd. I can understand that Klakmioch wants players to feel rewarded with additional content for simply playing the game, but there should be a passive way for obtaining these rewards instead of being forced into visiting the challenge tab in order to gain access to the rest of the game.
On the topic of rewards, most felt self-explanatory, save for the “power level” and gems. Most challenges gave me blue stars that I could use to purchase new characters (and eventually balloons that served as the game’s emote system), but I had no idea what the gems were used for. Completing challenges with the same character over and over increased their “power,” but…I didn’t know what that meant. Are there innate stats that are improved each time I level up? Are there additional cosmetic content that unlocks once a certain power level is met? Is power level Ninza’s version of character mastery? I wasn’t sure – hopefully that’s made clear after the full release.
Ninza is available now for the low, low cost of…free! Yep, it’s free to play, folks. As such, optional aesthetic content is going to be included as a part of the monetization model – a lifetime membership that will cost $5! We’ve been informed that this membership will include all future cosmetic content (~25% of all exclusive cosmetics going forward). We’ve also been informed that there are no p2w elements, no microtransactions, and each season going forward will introduce additional unlockable cosmetics. New characters are slated to be introduced during each new season, priced under $5.
I appreciate the developers’ transparency about the future of Ninza, especially as it pertains to the future DLC and cosmetics. I love the character designs, so I’ll be on the lookout to see who else is added to the zany roster. Hopefully, future cosmetic content will be rewarding for those who choose to stick with the game.
Ninza has quite a bit going for it, most being positive. Its take on combat is refreshing, albeit requiring some mental burdens in relearning PvP that requires solely utilizing the environment to smoosh an enemy into smithereens. While I might have some reservations over how its cast of characters are implemented in-game, the UI, and its future content, one thing is clear: Ninza is quite the fun and addicting platform battler.
