Game review: eyeSight's Ninja Strike

A few months back, I posted about eyeSight and their eyePlay Engine, aswell as their motion controlled Ninja Strike game. Since then, I've been desperately trying to get atleast Ninja Strike on my N95 8GB. Now that I have the game and I've been playing it for a while, I would like to share my opinions on the game with you in this brief review.

Ninja Strike is a game where the player becomes an apprentice travelling across Japan in an attempt to free their Sensei who has been captured by rival ninjas known as the Kurai. The player must engage in tense bouts, sometimes having to dispose of upto 20 enemies in battle.

When I opened Ninja Strike for the first time, one of the first things to hit me was the music. It sounded great on my N95 8GB and helped in creating a more enjoyable gaming experience from the beginning. It would be nice if the gap between the loop wasn't so noticeable, though.

From the main menu, it's possible to resume/start a new game, configure the game controls/sounds, view instructions in the form of text or a (rather poor) 3gp video demonstration, view the highscores and finally, view the credits.

Ninja Strike can be played in one of two ways; using the camera or simply using the buttons on the phone.

Graphics:




Well, the graphics on Ninja Strike aren't anything to sing praises about but this doesn't really affect the game. Animations are smooth and characters look crisp.

Controls:
This is what it all comes down to. The eyeplay integration is without a doubt the most unique thing about this game and I must say it works pretty well! Initially, I had trouble getting my character to fire off his Ninja Stars when I wanted them to be fired because when you're moving your hand back into standby position (by moving your hands down) it's sometimes misinterpreted as the throwing action. Once you get used to the game this becomes less and less of a problem and you'll really be able to appreciate the accuracy of eyePlay.

As I mentioned earlier, Ninja Strike can also be played using traditional methods of control. Of course this is a good addition to the game but I feel it makes it not as much fun to play.

Difficulty:
The initial levels aren't too difficult and are really there to help you to become well accustomed to the controls of the game. However, when you reach level 3 you have to start keeping a close eye on your enemies and one finger on the number 5 button to ensure that you don't die which sets the difficulty up a notch and adds to the addictiveness of the game.

Conclusion:
I'm not really into mobile gaming, I don't even have N Gage installed on my N95 8GB. Ninja Strike changes that for me though, it's something I can see myself playing when I'm bored, even after I've completed it. If there was a game like Ninja Strike available on N Gage that incorporated some sort of real time multi-player functionality, I would buy it without having to think twice.

Get this game, it's great!