Simply looking at this game was enough to know that it would be an intense, fun, and fairly addictive game. It’s like a randomly generated Ninja Gaiden in a lot of ways. It’s very easy to die, but also very easy to kill your enemies too. You go from floor to floor going all the way to the bottom in order to defeat the evil minions of Abarghus, all while doing it in typical Ninja fashion. The game is very fast paced, with a timer always counting down till the reaper tries to kill you, but if you are able to out run the reaper you will be safe from death itself! There are various ways to defend yourself, like using bombs or throwing projectiles such as kunai or bullets. And if you kill enough enemies you are able to enter rage mode. Rage mode basically makes you invincible while you continue to rake up kills to fuel this mode, so in order to master this game, its vital to learn how to keep rage mode going. Thus all your items and abilities come into play as you will dodge, jump, and kill enemies as fast as you can to avoid the clock and keep rage mode going.The game also has old school graphics and a soundtrack that will get you pumped.
Unfortunately the game is fairly short and really requires multiple plays to really get to the meat of it all. It’s a game that gets the majority of its play through mastery, and going through the same types of levels over and over again eventually learning all the regenerated rooms that would appear throughout the game. Because the game is also fairly hard, simple mistakes will mean a lot for score attacks and getting through certain parts of the floors. Dying at just the right moment can completely ruin a run simply because the randomly generated rooms didn’t work as well as they should have. It’s not a common problem, but something that happens with a lot of randomly generated games, sometimes there good, sometimes bad. Overall you really just have to roll with a lot of the punches and adapted as much as possible. It still has a lot of pattern memorization to it, but your reflexes are often in more demand. It’s also a free game on Adult Swim, but the steam version has a few more bells and whistles to it too, including a level editor and controller support.
Final Thoughts:
Super House of Dead Ninjas is a very fast paced game full of a lot of intense action and platforming. It’s a game that requires your full attention because if you mess up even once, you’ll be dead. This game doesn’t pull any punches, but it gives you enough tools in your arsenal to really stick it to the enemy. Although the randomly regenerating maps don’t always lend themselves well, this game is a blast to play in short bursts.