Star Ninja – An XBOX Indie Game Review

Developer: Bounding Box Games LLC
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Price: 80 Microsoft Points
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Languages: English
Players: 1 offline

Developer Summary

Star Ninja is a physics based puzzle/shooter where you bounce throwing stars around a level to knock all the pirates into flying ragdolls.

What We Think

The bitter rivalry between ancient shadow warriors and salty sea dogs gets the Angry Birds treatment. Hilarity ensues.

Bringing scurvy dogs to heel

Avast, Ye…Where’d He Go?

Star Ninja is essentially a puzzle game that pits a lone ninja against swarms of pirates. Each stage requires that the ninja successfully eliminate all targets. This can be done by hitting them directly with thrown shurikens, or by causing chain reactions that launch other items into the pirates.

To toss a star, aim the reticule using the directional keys and hit the A button. The throwing stars will fly straight, can ricochet off anything they contact, though they will fly right through enemies. One star can take out multiple pirates, and will continue to fly until it has run out of inertia. There is only a finite amount of stars to be had, and some stages will require the player to place shots carefully.

Silent Assassination in the Time of Scurvy

Though pirates and ninjas are both known for their dark dealings, Star Ninja is bright and colorful. Sadly, there isn’t any variety in the enemy: all pirates look exactly the same. At least they remain stationary, making it easier to line up the perfect shot. The targets will banter back and forth amongst each other with canned pirate speak while the stars fly around them.

They’ll start to repeat themselves a few a few levels, but there are enough phrases to keep it from getting tiresome. The music is suitably jaunty, and players may find themselves shimmying and jigging while hanging sea-dogs from the rigging.

The physics engine is fairly basic, but with so many objects available to manipulate, there is no real limit to the number of ways a stage can be played. Struck pirates will flail about the screen rag-doll style, making for some hilarious random collisions and deaths.

Whatever sinks your boat

Peg Legs

On more than one occasion, the game falsely indicated that a level was failed, simply because the last star had been thrown and there were still standing enemies. Waiting a few seconds to allow a chain of falling objects to complete their actions resulted in the few remaining pirates being wiped out, bringing up the “Level Clear” screen. The developers might consider tying the “Try Again” screen to a complete halt in motion for all items in a stage, rather than the on the flight of the final ninja star.

There are several levels to play though, and four different game modes. For 80 Microsoft points, Star Ninja makes for a fine chest of booty.

Rating:  

Star Ninja is available on Xbox Live Indie Marketplace for 80 Microsoft points.