Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

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Alex79
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Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Alex79 »



Ninjala, a new (free to play) multiplayer battle game, launched yesterday on Nintendo Switch. Anyone played it yet, or planning on playing it? I've just played two matches, and it seems fun. I'd say though it's either quite confusing, or extremely basic - I'm undecided! On the surface it appears very straightforward, you play as a gun-chewing ninja kid who builds up a gum meter to unleash various attacks, but there's an initially confusing parry system when two players collide which I've not really figured out yet.

It's primarily melee based, and the standard mode is an 8 person 'all against all' type affair. There's wall running, double jumping, dashing and other stuff. It all looks very bubblegum-pop pleasing to the eye, a bit Splatoon, a bit Fortnite maybe. Anyway, it seems like it might be a fun game, depends how deep it gets and if there's much more to do aside from smacking the shit out of each other with sticks.

Worth having a look, at least.

EDIT: Probably should have mentioned: the game is free.


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dezm0nd
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by dezm0nd »

They've certainly done a good job at making it look like a modern Nintendo game. It looks a bit Splatoon, a bit ARMs and a bit New Donk City.

I don't think i'll be checking it out but good luck to 'em with their game
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Stanshall
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Stanshall »

I'll defo give it a whirl but I'm not excited by the melee combat, to be honest. I don't think melee works very well with PvP, in my experience, but I'll look forward to being proven wrong! The aesthetic is spot on as Dez says.
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Flabyo
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Flabyo »

Played it a bit, really nice aesthetic but just like Bleeding Edge I don’t think third person melee combat really works for rapid multiplayer action. It’s just too imprecise compared to shooters.

It felt random. It clearly isn’t, because there were players doing consistently well compared to me, but that leap I need to make to get past the feeling of random chaos wasn’t apparent to me.
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Scrustle
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Scrustle »

I'm not hugely familiar with multiplayer competitive melee combat games, since I also don't really think the idea works very well, so I don't tend to play much of them. But from what I have played, and just from how this sort of combat works in general, I think I know why it doesn't really work. These sorts of combat systems work in such a way that the player is basically trying to immobilise the opponent. Find a window of opportunity, and try to exploit it as much as possible, or even extending it by using your abilities efficiently. In a single player game that works fine, because enemies are designed to give predictable windows, and they usually can't stun-lock the player in the same way, so being on the receiving end isn't much of a worry.

But if you throw a bunch of player characters together with combat systems like that, then stun-locking happens all the time, and having that done to you so frequently is just not fun. And the window of opportunity to have that done to you is huge as well, if it's a game with a large number of players. You can just be minding your own business, or engaging some other player, and someone can just ambush you and there's little you can do about it. Even at the best of times, this sort of system only works on one-on-one encounters if characters have an equal level of ability. Trying to add more on top of that usually doesn't go well.

Although of course that brings up fighting games, which are sort of the same thing, but one-on-one focused. Personally, I've never been able to even scratch the surface of that genre, so I don't really know how to compare them in this situation. Although one of the main reasons I haven't been able to get in to them is because of how easy it is to just get completely obliterated as a beginner by basically any combo. Maybe someone who is more in to the genre can elaborate.

Also, on the randomness thing of this game, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that about the game. I've yet to try it out myself, but from what I've heard, clashes between players often end up in a parry minigame which is literally decided by a rock-paper-scissors system. So it sounds like a lot of confrontations do come down to just the luck of whether you happened to pick the right direction.
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Alex79
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah I must be honest, I've not gone back to it after the first initial couple of days. It's not the same, but if I'm playing an online F2P fighting game, it's always Brawlhalla. That game deserves a much better reputation, I prefer it to Smash!
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Re: Ninjala (Nintendo Switch)

Post by Flabyo »

In comparison to fighting games the difference is that extra axis of movement. You have far more freedom of positioning.

Even in a 3d fighting game like Tekken or Soul Calibur, the characters are always facing each other and moving off the line between the two players is minimal, more a case of avoiding an attack than running off. You always know where your opponent is relative to you.
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