Review: I-Ninja

I-Ninja (2003), is an action platformer for PS2. You play a ninja who, after finding a mystical "rage stone", kills his master. Your master comes back as a ghost and sends you after the rest of the rage stones.

Gameplay
I-Ninja's gameplay is largely forgettable. Your attack is a basic sword slash. You have a couple special moves, but nothing particularly fun or more effective than standard slashing. You can upgrade your sword a few times, but it maxes out fairly quickly. You also gain special powers after every hub world that you charge by hitting enemies and breakables. Outside of being the only way of regaining health, the special powers are... nothing special. They're especially lame because you get no combo bonus when you kill with them, which means they hurt your score. You can probably sum up the combat by saying you will never have a fight as cool as the one that plays behind the opening menu.

Your means of locomotion include the aforementioned running and jumping, but also include double jumping, sword hovering / gliding, wall jumping, wall running, rail grinding, chain swinging, and a combo of those last two where you run down a path really fast, using your chain swing to make tight corners. And finally there are a couple levels that have you steering a giant rolling ball. Sounds like platformer heaven, no? Sadly the execution makes them less fun. You have very little to do while using them. You can jump from rail to rail once in a while, but you generally don't need to. Most wall jumping sections feel like they're just there to pad the length of the level (especially when your trying to complete a time trial). Combat and fun movement almost never interact.

Early on you have some interesting change-ups with vehicle fights. You pilot a giant robot in the first hub and a submarine in the second. The fights aren't bad, but they aren't good either. There's also a gun emplacement mission. By the end you're back to standard boss fights, which are okay, but never that exciting. Also, once you clear a level, you can go back to do various challenges. Doing some of these challenges are mandatory to level up so you can open subsequent doors. I started out trying for 100% completion, but got so bored with the game I gave up. There are only so many "kill every bad guy" or "find every coin" challenges you can do before you want your life back. Additionally, because I had gotten so many grades from earlier challenges, I completely skipped many later levels. Who knows? Maybe they were actually good? I'll take my chances.

Theatrics
Your character is a jerk. You can tell because he says mean things to the ghost of his master who's death he was responsible for. Your master is a moron. You can tell because he mixes up his clichés. That is the extent of the character development in the game. The voice acting for the main characters is performed by seasoned professionals (Billy West and Michael Bell) who have played some of my favorite characters in animation and gaming, so I can confidently say it's the (lack of) writing that make me completely apathetic to the characters and story.

Aesthetics
The art and special effects are competent, but generally unimpressive. They remind me of the Ape Escape sequels.

Final Score
Two out of five.