This toy is, simply put, a masterpiece.

I say “toy” because it isn’t really a “game” and I think it was coldly received on the internet because of this different focus and appeal. People now expect games with an high production values, movie-like narratives and screenplays, big and cohesive worlds. This one is completely different. It’s a toy for aged kids. It’s a little, pretty sandbox.

It’s surely not one of those games that will monopolize your interest for a long time, but it is the most fun digression I’ve had in a *long* while and it got me completely hooked up and… delighted.

It is really prefect in its own potential, with a lot of polish in all the smaller details. There is nifty stuff everywhere. The fully animated and “naif” scenery, the “film” graphic filter, the sleek camera movement, the chirping voices of the characters, the moody music… Despite the narrow scope, the game shows so much love and care from the one developer who built it. Maybe it seems not worth the price at a superficial glance but this game is pure ART and it really show all the meticulous work that was put onto it if you have the sensibility to notice this.

It’s a divertissement. But within this category you’ll hardly find something better. I won’t explain roughly how the game works because you can find those kind of informations pretty much everywhere. This isn’t some sort of review, either. Just some comments bundled together as I often do when something draws my interest. It’s also sort of impossible to give it a numeric vote and compare it with other games because it’s something entirely on its own. This is also why I find hard to dismiss it based on its (definitely accessible) price as others have done.

If anything it reminds me the fighter games on the C64 and Amiga like International Karate+. This time played with stylized, pretty dolls and some sort of “freeform” controls that allow you to move the body of your character and plan out strategies and attacks the way you want instead of sticking to already codified moves. This is why it feels like a sandbox. It’s freeform and you can explore what’s within in the way you like, creating your own patters. This is why IT IS FUN. This is also why IT IS ART. And, sadly, this is why it will get boring once you have explored thoroughly all it has to offer, despite, I’m sure, you’ll always enjoy to spend some time toying with it.

The single player starts as a fun and really well done “training/story mode” and consequent chapters that you have to progressively unlock. By playing these chapters and finding secrets you can also enable a “single player” mode that has another eight subgames. I only unlocked the first called “Ninja Onslaught” that basically consists in a sequence of turns where you have to fight an increasing number of opponents. It goes on till you succumb. Form what I heard from others the single player part, excluding the sandbox game, will keep you busy from one to four hours, so don’t expect a long lasting campaign.

Then there’s the “sandbox” in the form of multiplayers games or custom games with AI driven opponents (but also the single player games are a sandbox on their own since you can play them over and over and still have tons of fun). Even in the case of the multiplayer you can select different games. For the online part you can choose between the deathmatch, soccer (with a huge ball) and an athletic mode that is flagged as “coming soon”. While for the local machine you have another four modes to unlock (but I only have the deatmatch ulocked for now). Between the “coming soon” stuff there’s also a “world editor”.

The options for deathmatch are:
– Select location (8 arenas in total)
– Mushrooms options (Four options with a slider. -never grow, grow rarely, grow very often- -small pickings, plenty for everyone- -low potency, medium potency, very potent- -small in size, medium sized, huge-)
– Pot options (break pots to find fruit to eat for energy and *weapons*. One option -never fall, fall rarely, fall very often- Then you can select which types: fruit, bendy pole, nunchukas, ball and chain, shuriken, HEAD CANNON, dog on a leash, bomb, short sword)
– Rounds to win (from 1 to 16)
– AI players (from 0 to 7)
– AI skill level (6 levels: weak, average, good, advanced, very hard, insane)

At the bottom of this menu you can also see your character and move it on eight colored bars (white, blue, red, green, purple, yellow, orange, aqua). If you click on the head of the character you can switch between the eight “presets” models (that you can edit and combine from the proper menu -name, import skin, head, neck, torso, arms, hands, legs, feet, mouse cursor -a bit bugged for me-, voice) and by moving on the colored bars you select the color of your “chi glow” around your character.

While in the game:
– Camera mode (auto zoom, manual zoom)
– Music (on/off)
– Film Grain Filter (It’s a graphic filter, very pretty. on/off)
– Mouse sensitivity
– Game speed (from 0.25 to 1, “1” is normal real time, and you can slow down for some sort of “matrix” feel even if the controls are slowed down as well)

On the preferences you can set the connection speed that makes the game move super fluid or more stuttering but making it playable on slow connections.

The weapons are a BLAST and maybe even too fun and easy to use (the game has also stones that you can shatter and then pick the pieces to throw at people). In the game you have three bars. The first is your energy that you can replenish by breaking pots and finding fruit to eat (you move the hand on fruit to take it and them bring it to the mouth to make it eat), the second builds up by taking mushrooms and eating them (but if you eat too many you puke). This second bar has some psychedelic effect that practically allows you to keep pressing the left mouse button (consuming the mushrooms energy you built up) and fling precisely the character in the air, slowing down its movements matrix-like for a precise control (and even the music and character voices slow down with a funny effect). While the third builds up by grabbing butterflies, till the bar starts to glow. At that point you can set your character in the “butterfly stance” and make it shoot fireballs at people :)

So between so many game modes, large and multi-platform arenas, butterflies, mushrooms, fruit and weapons you really have many toys to fiddle with and have fun. And then it’s pretty. So absolutely charming and fascinating and so easily capturing an unique mood. I don’t know what else you could expect.

Btw, between pirates, ninjas, monkeys and zombies I choose ninjas. This is definitely my game.

I love it.

NOTE: The slides linked are from Raph as always, not mine.