Legend of Fat Ninja Review
PROS
- It is kind of fun bouncing around the small stages like a loon.
- Striking art style.
CONS
- Everything's way too small on the iPhone screen.
- Too much reliance on luck.
VERDICT
Fun without too much substance. If you like chefs bouncing around rural Japan like loons, you'll get your money's worth from this title.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
Developers, if you call your game Legend of Fat Ninja, I expect to see a fat ninja. Not just a hearty ninja which is what we have in this offering. The main reason is after graduating from the Iron Skillet Academy, Fat Ninja is on a quest to find the best ingredients possible, but also to crush the competition with his nin-jitsu. This is accomplished by pinballing around the level like a loon, and would be a lot more amusing if our character was just a little heavier. If wishes were horses, right?
The controls take a little while to get used to, but that is more due to the random nature of the gameplay rather than any failing of the controls themselves. You start by sling-shotting Fat Ninja into the level, and after this, anything he makes contact with will not only propel him around, but will refill the dash meter. You get three dashes before having to refill. What this means is you can tap the screen in any direction and Fat Ninja will use his aerial acrobatics to adjust his mid-air trajectory... kind of. He won't make a direct B-line for the direction you've tapped unless it's directly up, down or to the sides. Everything else will cause more unique arcing moves like the spin kick which drops as it travels sideways. These dashes not only need to be regulated but timed well, as the last thing you want is to run out and face plant into the hard concrete, sacrificing a life in the process.
The goal is to ram yourself into the lackey ninjas that are heading to shut down your noodle hut, and then when they have been dealt with, the main chef opens for business and you need to reign supreme down upon him to finish the level. All your adversaries are represented off-screen by small directional bubbles with their faces on them, and this leads into one of the issues of the game, how small everything is.
It's hard to make out the enemies let alone everything you're bouncing off of, and this can really affect gameplay when trying to pinpoint attack the enemy chefs. It's also a shame because the art style used is very striking, but you don't really get to appreciate it because of its size, and also the random flying around you'll be engaging in.
Those who dislike large bouts of luck based gameplay might initially be turned off by Legend of Fat Ninja, but there is actually a learning curve, and after a while, despite all the random bouncing, you'll become quite adept at dashing in the right directions at the right times, and chasing that high score as well as parading your culinary dominance.
Screenshots
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