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10 Second Ninja is far from a complicated game. The 2D stages are extremely short, and the main story levels can easily be ‘beaten’ in under an hour. However, to truly finish 10 Second Ninja, you must play again and again, mastering each level. This is not a game for the impatient, unlike the XTgamer review.
You see, every level in 10 Second Ninja is extremely short, with the 10 second time limit being more than generous enough. Just beating a level won’t be enough though, since your time is graded with 1 to 3 stars. These stars are needed to unlock the boss of each world, but you can usually progress without 3-starring every level. Since nearly every level is small, finding the optimal path through it shouldn’t take too long. The real test is when you actually try to use this path, with mistimed jumps or shurikens preventing you from gaining those ever-elusive stars.
The unnamed ninja in the title has a few moves at his disposal. He can double jump, slash with his sword and throw a limited number of shuriken. It doesn’t take long to grasp some of the quirks of these moves, like the fact that your sword can destroy enemies even when it seems like your out of range. It’s using these moves effectively that’s the real challenge. Since regular enemies don’t attack you, the only way you can die is from spikes littered around the various levels. Naturally, you also fail a level if you run out of time, but nothing actually seems to happen to the ninja himself.
As for the reason you’re running around killing defenceless robots? The Mecha version of a dictator decided that defeating a ninja would be the best way to start his invasion of the earth. The story and cutscenes are relatively short, though they can be skipped.
Conclusion
And… that’s about it. Most of the fun this game can offer comes from shaving a few more hundredths of a second off your time each run, and seeing your rank slowly climb up on the online leaderboards. For those that don’t like to play through a game more than once, 10 Second Ninja is definitely not worth the asking price. If you don’t mind repeating levels many times over just to get the perfect run, then this will definitely satisfy.
Competition!
We have 10 copies of 10 Second Ninja up for grabs. All you have to do to win is draw us your best ninja and send it to ninja@xtgamer.de (please don’t cheat). The competition ends Saturday March 16th, 6PM GMT. If you like to spread this XTgamer competition, feel free to use the hashtag #10days10ninjas.
10 Second Ninja
Genre: Action
System: PC/Mac
Price: from €5.99/$7.49 (Steam, GetGamesGo etc.)
Developer: GameDesignDan
Publisher: Mastertronic