I-Ninja | DJcube

He might be small, but he’s one angry ninja.

NA release: 4th December 2003
JP release: N/A
EU release: N/A
Developer: Argonaut Games
Publisher: Namco
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

A title screen is supposed to set the tone for a game, even by portraying a certain mood with simple graphics and music, or showing how the game looks or plays. The one for i-Ninja really undersells the game – it’s the main character attacking endless enemies in an empty grey room. It was a nice surprise when I booted up the game and discovered a colourful platformer.

That said, combat is still a big part of the game, as you’ll regularly be stopped in your tracks to dispatch a group of forest. You have a few different moves at your disposal and it’s all nice and smooth, but it does get repetitive fairly quickly, which the game makes up for with everything else.

The platforming is fun and, more importantly, varied. There’s plenty of grappling, interacting with the level such as using remote control missiles to clear the path, and even using your hookshot to speed around corners. The game loves throwing new mechanics at you – early on, you have to collect machine parts inside balls, when you get them, you then roll them around to reach the end of the level.

It also tries different gameplay types. Each boss plays differently, such as a first person robot fight or a shoot-em-up boss. These tend to drag on a bit, though. There’s also some turret sections which are horrendous and last forever – stationary turret sections in games are never good. It’s like they needed to pad the game even though there’s plenty to do. Still, for the most part, it’s enjoyable.

Fun

Given that this is fresh intellectual property for Argonaut, we’d expect to see another chapter in the I-Ninja tale before too long, and if it does produce a sequel then we should all hope for more of the Argonaut team’s own ideas and less of the admittedly well-presented ideas borrowed from elsewhere. It’s pretty clear from this that they’re worth keeping an eye on.
Tom Bramwell, Eurogamer

Remake or remaster?

A re-release would be good.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get I-Ninja.