Simple and casual. Yet buggy and broken. Notoriously overrated mainly due to its predecessor "N".
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Gameplay
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-- [Average] Basic escape 2D platformer game: normal gameplay, nothing revolutionary
This is a simple escape 2D platformer game. You goal is to go from start to end where the end is a door. There are multiple obstacles which will prevent you from doing so, namely mines, rockets, lasers etc. You are completely unarmed. No tool is available for you to attack the enemy. What you can only do is to dodge and escape. This game is not for you if don't like such a passive play style.
That's it! It's all the game is about. Such kinds of games are plentiful. I played one game whose goal is to climb to the top with obstacles and enemies in between. I have played this kind of games a lot so I find N+ nothing special or particularly addicting. Yes simple gameplay can be fun and a good time killer. But this alone doesn't warrant high ratings. If you like escape 2D platformer so much, there are plenty on the Internet. Go and play like crazy. After all they are absolutely FREE. ;-)
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Instructions
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-- [Bad] Instructions are scarce and horrible
I'm new to this game so I go straight to the tutorial first. But heck, the tutorial is awful.
When the tutorial starts, you are asked to press button "Y". Then it will play a demo. You will see the character is running to collect a few gold coins, reaching the green crystal and finally the door to exit. End of demo. Now it's your turn. What?! Hey you haven't told me a single thing about the control (what each button means, or whether I need to use the stylus etc.). The only thing that I understand from the demo is it seems my goal is to reach the door to exit.
And what about the items on the map, like the gold coins and the crystal? What are their uses? The tutorial is intended to guide me through all those stuff. How funny! The tutor simply plays the game for me once and nothing more! No explanation! He thinks this is how I can learn everything without a word of explanation! Granted it isn't a big issue since it isn't too hard to by trail and errors. But this tutorial shows how much heart developers put on this game.
The unlockable section is sort of confusion too. For the first time I managed to unlock some new characters (actually new colors of the same character, argh!). I wondered how I'm going to select a new character. I went to the unlockable menu to see if it leaves any message about it. Not at all! I tried to select the item "Purple Ninja" and press a button. No response! What's up? How am I supposed to use the new character? Finally I found out the game expects me to select the new character (or rather colour) in the option menu. This arrangement is a bit weird.
I manage to unlock a few other bells and whistles too in the unlockable section but I don't know where they have been added. It's confusing. If it cares to leave a message where the new contents are added, it would be much better.
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Control and Mechanics
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-- [Below Average] Control is okay but user-unfriendly in some areas. Some control mechanics are unclear to the player
In-game control is generally ok and smooth. However nowhere does the game tell you what button does what, so you can only try out to find the answer. That's user-*un*friendly!
Sometimes my character dies for no particular reasons. The place has no mines or other dangerous things. What's wrong? Sometimes I climb up and explode (die) when I reach the top. Sometimes I jump up and explode when I reach the bottom. This makes me mad when I first see it. I could only guess my character will somehow die if it moves too fast. How weird! This kind of unintended "uncertainty" really bugs me.
Another problem bugging me is the careless assignment of functions of the "X" button. "X" button is for self-destruction in the game. In other words, it's a quick way to restart at the same map. However you will exit and go back to the main menu if you mistakenly press it twice. Then you lose all unsaved data and have to play again. There should be a confirmation dialog before exit. They shouldn't assign "X" button to return to the main menu.
I'm stuck in some levels where it requires me to jump higher than the character can. There is no wall around. It's not a problem of reflex and all that. I just don't fully grasp the mechanics and the control.
That poor tutorial, as explained previously, is to blame. When I can't even get how this game works (I can't figure out all those advanced control like ways to jump higher than normal), how am I going to enjoy this game?
The level editor is clumsy and hard to use. I felt at sea when I first used it. There isn't much text to help explaining the controls and the stuff. The Help button doesn't help much either.
The heavy stylus usage with little button usage makes creating a level a pain. Here's one example to illustrate the problem. It takes plenty much time just to build some nice terrains. The whole process is "Hold L -> Select Tilt A -> Release L -> Put it on the map. Hold L -> Select Tilt B -> Release L -> Put it on the map..." There should be some buttons to do quick switch among different tilts. Here's another example. To delete something, "Hold L -> Select "Delete" Marker -> Select the item you want to delete". This kind of tedious process can be skipped with a delete button. But it doesn't provide one at all.
See! How clumsy the control is.
All the above, together with the lack of instructions, prove how sloppy the developers are. They don't even bother explaining anything. You are on your own.
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Content
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-- [Fairly short] Only 50 episodes for games like this!
It has 50 episodes (hidden/special episodes included) which are only okay for games like this. I expect to see 100 episodes or so. Each episode lasts for about 5-45 minutes, depending on the difficulty. If you get stuck on an episode, you may take much longer. Assuming you are capable of finishing all episodes, you may finish it quickly in a few days only.
There are 5 special episodes which can be unlocked by cheats only. I expect they will be unlocked automatically after I complete all episodes. What's more, it's so hidden for you to miss them completely (talking about bad interface/poor instructions again!). The 5 special episodes are located at the very top of the panel. Normally you should be able to push up when you are at the edge. However you must first select Episode 0 before you can push up to see them.
The richness of the content can be extended if the developers care to fix a few problems.
1. Gold Coin: Despite its name, gold coin is actually your life supplement. You start with 90 seconds of lifetime left. One life supplement increases your lifetime by 2 seconds. However hardly you will die because time is up. You can run all your way to exit without deliberately collecting gold.
2. High Score: Getting high score is a balance of using less time and collecting more gold coins. It requires skills and wisdom to get the highest score. If the developer cares to record high score (and put more meat to it), this game will be much more thrilling and long-lasting
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Bonuses
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The unlockables are mostly jokes, proofs that developers don't bother creating better bonuses. They decide that they can simply take out our rights to access some of the most basic stuff in the beginning and treat them as extra bonuses.
There are a few types of unlockables, namely characters, level pack, music and animations. New characters are merely the same stick thingy with 6 different colors only! How generous! I would expect they should at least spend some efforts to create some really worthy unlockables, like redesigning some new characters. A game called Taiko: Drum Master let you customize the color of face, body and 4 limbs. Luckily it "unlocks" 63 colors at the start of the game. They are far too generous.
I have unlocked some music and animations. But their presentation is so poor that I don't see what and where has been added. Later on I realize, by reading information on the net, the animations are the simple victory dance added upon each episode completion. The music additions (is it really music?) are those played in the game.
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Graphics and design
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-- [Bad] Simple and casual design, nothing flashy or impressive
I believe the artwork of this game is intended to be simple and pure. The backgrounds, the items and the characters are all very simple. We are back to the age of NES. Well simplicity isn't necessarily always bad. A well-thought-out simplicity can be endearing and charming. Unfortunately this game fails to do.
The background of this game is just dull wallpaper.
The terrains (walls) are patternless. They are just plain grey blocks.
The character you are controlling is just a black stick thingy. If you don't tell me I guess hardly anyone can tell it's a ninja. It's just look like an ordinary man.
The design of gold coin is weird. Instead of a collection to raise your score, it's actually a booster to lengthen the time limit. Initially I thought the number on the bar was a score, and gold coin is an item to raise the score. I was entirely misled. The presentation sucks.
It appears the simplicity of graphics is to hide the incompetence or laziness of the developers, rather than some fashion design. A ninja doesn't look like a ninja, nothing cute or endearing about the stick thingy. The locked/secret characters only changes in color (lazy again?). All these give me nothing but impression that they want to rush a game to make quick cash.
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Sound
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-- [Abysmal] Non-lively and kind of repetitive
Sound effect is simple but ok to me.
No music was played when I played the game for the first time. If my memory serves, it's because the music is locked until you manage to unlock it after completing a few episodes. Well it's really ridiculous if that is the case!
I'm pretty much satisfied about any music putting into my ears. It's the first time I comment music in a game as awful! The background music is so awful. Actually they are not real music. I would call them "extended sound effect". It's way too short and repeats way too fast. It loops every 9 seconds or so! The rhythm is really bad: sometimes dull, sometimes annoying, sometimes even broken!! It appears developers want to save money to hire some music composers.
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Replayability
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-- [Above average] This kind of games "built-in" replayability, so to speak
Fortunately it's an escape platformer game. Although it doesn't have many episodes to play with, you can always replay the same episode once in a while, without getting too bored. If you really feel too bored, you can create your own (although it takes quite some patience to create a good one due to the clumsiness of the level editor).
You can get custom maps created by others if you use WiFi. Users put much more thoughts than the developers when designing maps (eg funny laughable maps, theme maps, really challenging maps and so on). This is a good plus!
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Bugs/Flaws
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- [Bad] Non-critical bugs/flaws here and there
The production of this game seems to be rushed and is incomplete, leaving bugs/flaws here and there. Although no bugs/flaws are critical, some of them are unforgivable. I'll list a few so you can witness the sloppiness of this game production:
* Some game options don't save properly.
* "Death" (fake) replay (You win the game. You replay it but you die this time. Why? I believe this appears mostly in episodes with enemies like lasers/rockets which some randomness comes into play. The replay doesn't save everything you do. The replay is not a real replay!!)
* Ninja color doesn't change at the top screen. It's always black no matter what color you choose.
* When you select single player, it will present you with a few more options. "New game" is placed first, "Continue" next. If you start as a new game, it will erase all your previous data (including the unlockables). You may accidentally delete your data if you press "A" twice by mistake.
* When you choose to save a level from WiFi, it automatically picks slot 1 and asks to confirm overwrite. Again you may accidentally delete your data if you press quickly.
That's about it. I'm not going to list more. The few bugs/flaws stated above should give you the ideas how rushed and buggy this game is.
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Value
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-- [Bad] Not special or good enough to justify the price
You can't find a free game matching Castlevania or Final Fantasy series on the Internet, this kind of game has very rich and deep gameplay. The production of this game is high. No hobbyist game developer can manage to release one without charging you a penny.
But you can find a free game matching N+ on the Internet. Really the gameplay of N+ is nothing special. I highly doubt why the gaming media rate this game highly. Such kinds of games are plentiful everywhere on the Internet. What's more they are FREE. I even find some games which have unique and novel gameplay, with better characters, graphics and sounds. One example is Pillage the Village. The character is so funny, so does the gameplay. It made me laugh a lot. It has a good tutorial. The unlocked bonuses are interesting and great. More shocking is this game is absolutely FREE.
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Summary
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Pros:
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+ Even though gameplay is nothing unique or special, it can still be fun and is good time killer
+ Multiplayer mode
+ Level editor allows you to create your own custom level
+ Good for hardcore N/N+ fans
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Cons:
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- Gameplay is not particularly impressive or addicting
- Game introduction sucks. A tutorial is not a tutorial. No explanation about the control
- The game never explains anything about the game mechanics. You are on your own. If you can't figure out yourself (which isn't fun to do), you will be unable to pass some levels
- Unimpressive graphics and characters (eg one piece of dull wallpaper as the sole background for all episodes)
- Awful sound and music (eg music which is only 9 seconds long)
- Lazy work of unlockables (eg a differently color ninja is regarded as a secret character)
- Sloppy and poor presentation (eg some menus look like unresponsive).
- Instructions or help is scarce
- Careless design of in-game control (eg double "X" accidental exit problem)
- Clumsy control of level editor etc.
- Bugs/flaws here and there (eg replay bugs)
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Conclusion
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If you have read through everything I write, you will see developers look really sloppy and lazy. The game is not ready. They rush it anyway for the sake of quick cash. :-(
When I see people still complain anything about the character design, graphics and sound of some of the most serious games, it's interesting to see so much forgiving players are when it comes to this game. I hear reviews like "Although graphics is so plain it serves the purpose well", "Music is nothing noteworthy but playing without music is actually enjoyable." Ironically to say, this implies you actually draw more complaints if you put more resources to better graphics/sound. ;-P
N+ is only a simple escape platformer game with basic graphics and sound. Despite it's full of non-critical bugs/flaws and is nothing revolutionary, it's rated so high. Why are they so forgiving? I believe I figured it out eventually.
The game is originally called N and is created by Metanet as a free Flash game (website: http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/ ). This game is refined and ported to the console platforms as N+ after its success. The Nintendo DS game is done by Silverbirch Studios, with Metanet as a "consultant". Silverbirch Studios has never developed a handheld video game before, let alone a console one. So they lack the experience.
I haven't played "N" before. To me N+ is way overrated on the media. It's a big let-down to me. It can score 5/10 judging the gameplay alone. However, if we consider the "bads" about sloppy graphics/sound and all sorts of bugs (which are actually worse than some free games produced by hobbyist game developers), it fails miserably in my eyes. Even though the game can be fun at times, I expect a more serious game production when I'm paying a product. So I gave a low score.
I know I'm very harsh when it comes to scoring. Definitely you are going to disagree with me. Well I have list clearly why I come up with that and offer opposite opinions. Hopefully this review is useful to potential buyers, especially those who doubt why such a simple game can score so highly.