Ninjala is an upcoming Switch exclusive multiplayer action game, developed by the huge Japanese publisher GungHo, famously known for their worldwide mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons and who recently decided to focus some resources on the development of pure console games, starting with this brand-new IP that is a rather unique product in the current industry. It is designed by Takeshi Arakawa, recently co-producer on Dissidia: Final Fantasy at Square Enix (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/06/2...by-the-co-producer-of-dissidia-final-fantasy/).
The game was revealed at E3 2018 and was immediately received with more or less the same impression for everyone: it looks A LOT like Splatoon. And it'd be hard to not agree on some aspects, because Ninjala seems to be the first actual Splatoon-like game by a competent Japanese publisher, after the Nintendo title invaded the market three years ago. However, it is also pretty different in a lot of ways, and with the marketing around the game slowly ramping up since Tokyo Game Show (where it had one of the biggest booths, explaining the amount of impressions by Japanese gamers), it seems to be gathering attention and I figured it'd be a good moment to explain people what exactly is this title and why it could be an important Switch title in the future.
It is a multiplayer action game featuring up to eight players (like Splatoon, although here you can play even if you're not eight) where you play as Ninja kids that are fighting using bubblegum to forge huge weapons to smash at the face of their opponents. The core concept of the game is the bubblegum that you can create by pressing L. The longer you stay pressed, the bigger your bubble is with three levels: small, medium and large. Making your bubble pop yourself is going to create a weapon that is larger and stronger the bigger your bubble was. Weapons have a limited durability in time, and you'll have to pop another bubble once your weapon break. You can then use that weapon to smash your opponents, but it is not the only use of that bubble. You can also, instead of making it pop, spit it right in the face of an enemy (it works like a missile in that sense) in order to glue them to the ground and make them easy targets. That bubble can also be used as a way to dash away from your opponent, since making it explode below you will make you jump from the explosion – provided your bubble was big enough – but it can also be used like a planer in order to jump from higher positions or dive from a rooftop to another. Finally, you can also just make a somewhat hidden sticky trap to stun opponents. Much like the ink in Splatoon, here the gum has a lot of different properties that can be used both offensively or defensively.
You win the round by having the biggest score. You get points by smashing opponents, destroying little robots that are wandering all around the map and by getting some collectible bonus randomly scattered.
Another of the important aspect of the game is the free movement in battle. You're playing as Ninja, meaning that you can run on walls and even upside down on rooftops to keep fighting. The map may look a tad small from a standard perspective but taking into consideration that you can move freely on all walls and jump from one place to another, there's a lot more freedom that it may seem at first glance. You've got a dash and that kind of stuff too.
Why does Ninjala looks interesting? What looked like a Splatoon clone at first seems to be more of an interesting take on the multiplayer family-friendly TPS genre, with a unique mechanic at the center of its gameplay. Splatoon resonated with gamers for its novelty and I think that GungHo may be the first publisher to have found another good idea to make a shooter for everyone since 2015. It's easy to understand but could have some hidden depth in mastering the gameplay.
It's also a cool looking gameplay, clearly borrowing the trendy kids style of Splatoon and a very New Donk City-like map design, but still rather pleasing to look at. Character design is pretty cool too, although may be seen as kinda generic.
Now, there still are some aspects that I'm worried about:
- While GungHo is pretty big on the mobile sector, it's a rather unknown entity when it comes to console publishing. Who knows how the post-launch support will be, and that was a pretty big factor in Splatoon's success. Will it features enough content to make it enjoyable more than just a few hours? How will it be distributed? Will it features lootboxes like western multiplayer games or will stay more traditionally japanese in that matter? Unlike Splatoon, we can't be confident about those points yet.
- We're relatively far from the game's launch, so nothing definite can be said yet but it's the kind of game that will live or die based on if people will actually play it or not. It's a primarily multiplayer game, so Switch fans will have to resonate with it or it's going to be a waste of a purchase.
- All previews seems to agree that the game should have a lock-on that it currently does not have (except for when you spit a bubble).
There's also a bunch of things to know about it:
- It's going to feature a singleplayer campaign featuring one of the eight playable characters.
- Each character will have their background, personality etc.
- While only one weapon was playable in the demo (the bat), we know there's at least five or six in total based on the selection screen in the TGS demo.
- It's a worldwide release planned for next Spring.
- According to GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita, Ninjala was actually inspired by ninja and sports "chanbara," or sword-fighting
Here's a bunch of impressions from the TGS demo:
https://kotaku.com/ninjala-is-multiplayer-with-bubble-gum-1829220079
https://www.shacknews.com/article/107404/ninjala-hands-on-preview-bubblegum-pop
So, what do you think of Ninjala? Have you played it either at E3, PAX West or TGS? With Splatoon 2 soon ending its free post-launch support in wake of what's next, Ninjala may be the next big multiplayer thing on Switch, in-between two Smash rounds.
