Review: Ninja Senki DX (PS4).
As a rule, I do not like retro games, but I never try to delete them from the very beginning. Graphics are not always the most important and there are a lot of great, polished productions that defend themselves with good gameplay or a captivating story. Ninja Senki DX (PS4) is unfortunately not one of them.
The plot of Ninja Senka DX (PS4) is very poor and was inserted only as an excuse to complete the next stages. We play the role of a warrior named Hayate, who loses his beloved and sets out for bloody revenge on the demons responsible for her death. So it’s weird that instead of the messengers of hell, we’ll be fighting frogs, ghosts, plants, and stone statues for most of the game. Well, who cares about something like consistency in a platformer, right? However, it cannot be denied that the variety of locations and enemies is one of the few advantages of this production.
The gameplay has very simple assumptions – go right and jump with one button, and throw the shuriken with the other button. Sounds like fun and easy fun? Nothing could be more wrong. Ninja Senki DX (PS4) is a terribly difficult and unfair game. Most of the stages are designed in such a way that when you go through them for the first time, you have no chance to react to the danger. It is not about reflexes or lack of luck – there are simply places where the threat comes from beyond our line of sight, and without knowing it, we are doomed to failure. In contrast, bosses are ridiculously easy and predictable, with just a few attack patterns that we’ll easily figure out.
The game has several modes: classic, in which our task is simply to complete sixteen levels prepared by the developers, and its variation called Hardcore, which does not allow you to save between stages, as well as completing challenges such as collecting all coins or completing a level within a certain time. In addition, after completing the game, we will unlock the “boss rush”, i.e. defeating the bosses one after another. Combining all of this with a gameplay system that requires us to repeat the same patterns over and over again, it really gives a lot of hours of fun … of course only if you’re a .
I do not know how to approach the visual setting, because although the graphic style itself, similar to the 8-bit productions of the last century, is not a bad idea and it looks quite good on Vita, you cannot look at it on a large TV. The soundtrack is not very varied, which makes it boring after several minutes of play. This is especially annoying if you get stuck on one stage and the music won’t change.
Don’t get me wrong, I love demanding titles, and I cut my teeth on the Souls series, and I understand that not every production will lead me by the hand. Ninja Senki DX (PS4) is a simply unfair game that punishes not only for mistakes but also (more often) for no reason whatsoever.
