I-Ninja
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 Ninja did accidently and he now had to defeat O-Dor to save his sensei.
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I-Ninja is an action video game developed by Argonaut Games and published by Namco Hometek for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.
Plot
The game starts with a Ninja in training (simply named Ninja), who comes to rescue his Sensei (simply named Sensei) from the Ranx sent by Ninja's nemesis, Emperor O-Dor. Ninja saves Sensei by defeating the Ranx. Then, a creature comes to attack Ninja which he deals with easily. The creature then spits out a Rage Stone which Ninja touches and goes into a fit of rage and accidentally kills Sensei. Sensei comes back as a ghost and tells Ninja that there are more Rage Stones and with their power, he can defeat O-Dor. Sensei then sends Ninja to find the second Rage Stone in Robot Beach. Ninja then arrives at Robot Beach.
Why It's A Ninja
- The story of this game is pretty good and unique since it involve a ninja who accidently killed his master by touching a rage stone, and he had to defeat O-Dor to save him, it also manage to be dark and edgy without being way too dark, though there's one little problem with it (see BQ#2).
- The gameplay is really amazing for it's time and is obviously extremely fun to the point of never being repetitive at all and each time you will probably keep playing due to how good the game is, and it even goes as far as being one of the most fun beat em up game of 2003.
- There's so many things that stand out from other hack and slash, such as many different moves and being very fast-paced.
- There's a lot of acrobatic moves in this game and they will be used a lot, especially when you had to do it, such as double jump, walls where Ninja can run on it and he can also use a grappling hook to swing across a gap.
- Awesome cutscenes that are decently animated for it's time, it help that the cutscenes we're directed by Don Bluth, who was responsible for some Disney movies and Dragon's Lair on the Arcade.
- The game had some humors in which it work well, this especially is the case with the character of Ninja who is somewhat funny.
- Great graphics for it's time that still hold up really well and look better than even some of the games released after this, as in a similar way to Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2, the graphics are really detailled and had lot of details that make the game look almost like an early Xbox 360 game and this isn't even a joke.
- The characters models in particular are impressive and doesn't even look like they aged a bit, which is impressive considering that most games in the early 2000s had graphics that didn't aged too well or at least not as well as other games of it's time.
- The environnements also looks awesome and fit the ninja theme of the game, and they are very detailled for it's time, and they consist of many different style such as forest, base and even beach (in a dark tone way howewer).
- Excellent soundtrack even by Argonaut Games standards, as the soundtrack is fast-paced, and it range from being catchy to downright epic, especially the title screen theme that sound really awesome, you might even want to stay on a stage longer just to listen to it or downloading the soundtrack on your phone.
- In fact even the demos contain some awesome tunes that you might want to listen to them, although they are quite different than the final version.
- Solid controls, as they are incredibly tight and responsive and never feel unresponsive at all, it even is probably the best controls seen in an Argonaut game, yes that how good this game is.
- Decent voice acting, as Ninja and Sensei sound like they should be and it overall a good performance even for it's time.
- The French dub is also decent for it's time, since most games at the time had poor french voices performance but here along with games such as MediEvil, Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 and the Crash Bandicoot games, they are rather good and maybe even better than in the english version since the voices fit even more the characters than the english dub, especially Ninja himself.
- Another awesome thing to note about it is that Billy West (know for voicing Ren and Stimpy, Rayman from Rayman: The Animated Series and other roles of cartoons) had voiced Ninja, which is incredible and is one of the few games where he worked on voice acting for a video game.
- The combat is absolutely fun and fast paced and despite being a little repetitive after a while, the combat still remain fun and it also feel satistying to pull off, maybe even more than other beat em up games of it's time.
- The characters themself are really good characters and likable, especially Ninja and Sensei and they get major character development over the game progress.
- Ninja has a reputation for being rash, short tempered, and even cocky. Ninja is a white belt at the beginning of the game, but throughout gameplay, his belts, strength, and weaponry increase, but he's still fairly likable despite his anger problem.
- Sensei is of course a wise master who tell Ninja what he should do to win his fight and is very likable, even being as far as not being angry to Ninja for accidently killing him, also he tell what Ninja should do to defeat O-Dor and face him.
- Great characters designs that took inspiration from the Bomberman franchise, especially Ninja and it show that your character can still look great despite having simple designs.
- Even the enemies themself had awesome designs that look menacing and the bosses themself had amazing designs too, speaking of the bosses...
- The bosses are amazing since they offer lot of challenge and they are huge, much like one of the bosses in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 game) also released the same year as this game that was also just as awesome as I-Ninja.
- The game offer so many levels to the point of being one of the longest 3D platformer on the 7th gen consoles, since you will probably take like 20 hours to beat it, and it help that there's a lot of replay values despite not having that much unlocked contents.
- The cancelled GBA port even manage to be cool since it is a 3D game (in a similar vein to Asterix & Obelix XXL), and it is very impressive for a Game Boy Advance game, though it had some issues with the framerate and the controls, but still remain finished for the most parts.
Bad Qualities
- Some of the levels can be frustrating for some people, though at least as stated before, the game difficulty is balanced and will never really feel unbalanced despite being really hard at times.
- While the story is good, the game ending end on a huge cliffhanger and considering that the sequel was cancelled because of the fact that Argonaut Games shut down, it is likely that the game will probably never had it's cliffhanger resolved but there's still a little bit of hopes because Argonaut are back in 2024 with a remake of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and they finally didn't got shut down anymore.
- The game can end up being pretty repetitive due to not having that much variaty to offer, doesn't helping that the game is very long, although it still fun to play and there's way more repetitive than this game, due to how fun this game is overall.
- Ninja can be a bit unlikable at times due to being selfish, although he is still likable for the most parts.
Reception
I-Ninja received acclaim from critics and players and is considered to be one of, if not the best game Argonaut ever released, on Metacritic the game had a score of 77 for the GameCube version[1], 75 for the Xbox version[2] and a 73 for the PS2 version.[3]
Trivia
- A Game Boy Advance version was planned to be released, but it was cancelled, though a build of the game was released in March 2024.[4]
- A sequel titled I-Ninja 2 was also going to be released but was cancelled and thus the cliffhanger of the first game will probably never be resolved, and unlike the GBA port, there isn't any chances of getting a rom to play because it was barely even started developpement.[5]
References
- ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/i-ninja/critic-reviews/?platform=gamecube
- ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/i-ninja/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox
- ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/i-ninja/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-2
- ↑ https://hiddenpalace.org/I-Ninja_(GBA_prototype)
- ↑ https://cancelled-games.fandom.com/wiki/I-Ninja_2
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