Marvelous Europe has launched what undoubtedly looks like one of the most stylish retro games on the Switch with Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun.
Boasting slick animation with some seriously flashy visuals, Ninja or Die is unique in that everything can be accomplished with one button press - you jump to move and jump to attack. You can charge up your jump attacks for a more devastating blow, and you'll briefly become invincible when jumping, meaning you dodge incoming attacks while landing brutal counterattacks.
We love how fast and frantic the gameplay looks in the launch trailer above, and developer Nao Games has seemingly nailed the satisfying and addictive nature of classic roguelikes. We dare say the gameplay might be a touch too high-octane for some (the camera certainly looks like it jumps around quite a bit), but if you're keen on the likes of Katana ZERO or Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, this definitely looks to scratch an itch.
Available on the eShop with a 10% discount introductory discount (until November 8th), here's a look at the synopsis from Marvelous Europe:
"In Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun you are a common pickpocket, transformed by the cataclysm into a lethal Ninja with lightning mobility. The Ramen Seller becomes a Samurai. The Maiko becomes a killer Geisha. Your domain of petty crime becomes a frenzied neon world of shogun castles, magic traps and parachuting assassins. Someone has ensnared you in a loop of chaos… if not to kill you, then to protect you from something worse."
Will you be picking this one up? What do you make of the launch trailer? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.
Comments 29
i'm feelin the double bass pedal in the song but i been burnt out on roguelikes since 2020
yes! this kind of thing is totally my bag, baby.
Maybe too fast and flashy for me and would've preferred if it weren't a roguelike (at most a roguelite, but unfortunately there's still confusion between the two terms so you can't be sure if it's one or the other at first glance) but still, looks pretty cool so I hope others will enjoy it!
people that dont like roguelit/kes: how do you feel about an arcade or arcade style game with essentially the same gameplay?
looks too hard and fast for me. shrug
Not feeling the roguelike part but I may take a chance on this and just buy it.
They absolutely lost me at 0.37 "A hard as nails roguelike"
The visuals made me feel a little sick.
What is up with that arc-ed dotted line constantly there?
That kind of bothers me.
@Kiwi_Unlimited I assume it's showing you your jump trajectory, since you don't actually 'move'.
What's so great about using only one button for both jumps and attacks? Isn't that just an express ticket down the boring button-mashing route? What are the other buttons for then? Definitely not touching this if there's no demo for it. Sounds downright uninteresting and lazy.
@-wc- I cant speak for others, by my personal hang-up comes from expecting a linear experience with a steady flow, and "roguelike/lite" means the challenge is gonna come from RNG and/or replaying the same levels until the game gives you the kit that finally lets you progress. And this assumes it's not throwing any arbitrary curveballs to pad out the playthrough.
Becoming an arcade game wouldnt exactly fix that unless I was expecting or desiring an arcade game. And I'm sometimes down for both arcade games and rogues, but I far prefer a curated expetience that gives me an excuse to replay, rather than being forced to replay to progress.
@DTFaux
in my experience, the good ones are a little of column a and a lot of column b. my favorite so far (besides the incredible Shattered Pixel Dungeon on mobile 🤌) is probably Gungeon, and though ive put alot of hours into replaying and unlocking weapon drops and things, and yes sometimes i have a "bad run" due to crap RNG, mostly my relative success depends on my slowly progressing skills. its basically a twitch arcade experience in the sense that if you die, its your fault, every time. RNG has little to do with that.
i have played some bad ones and like anything in games, the ratio is something like 100:1. but even in the old days, there were 100 bubsies to every mario, right?
(edit - hey PS thanks for humouring me with your well considered reply! ✌️)
Yes, I'll be having that please.
@-wc- I Don't think people actually dislike roguelikes, but it's this thing where people use it as artificial game design space. I play Cave Noire, Dragon Crystal, Downwell, Shovel Knight Dig, etc all the time, but they play more like tetris. They take up a lot of time, which makes them perfect for a waiting room or bus ride, and gives them longevity and replayability. A good roguelike has to be about the journey, not the goal.
Games like this ninja one, eh, there's nothing rpg ish about them. It's mostly just an excuse to pad out the games with procedural design, and create an artificial sense of replayability. You could just randomly generate a Zelda game for infinite replayability. Would it be fun? Sure, but you'd lose everything that made it special. Games like this and any number of other games with "roguelike elements" don't feel special to me.
Incidentally, I am working on designing a roguelike/sokobahn/action puzzler, partly inspired by my general dislike of roguelikes and sokobahn games, not because they're inherently bad, but because they feel like they've become so pointless and shallow.
Roguelike? Hard pass lol.
@-wc-
Honestly a good question, arcade and rogue like might have similar appeal when you think about it. But the same thing goes for me: I do not like the repetition of it all. Difficulty is fine when it comes with progression, but the progression in rogues often feels unrewarding because you’ll be doing the same thing you were doing ten hours ago, just hopefully better and in some games on progressively harder difficulties. Without a story to pull me along or anything to give me a reason to play besides just wanting to beat something because then I can say I did… eh, I dunno. Just doesn’t give me much satisfaction if it takes so long plus it’s the same thing over and over with ‘constantly changing level design’ that doesn’t feel all that different. Same thing goes with arcade: if it’s just to get a high score, I’m out.
I think a big part of it might be that intentional level design and difficulty that ramps up along with you making progression just feels way more satisfying than beating one random generation just to try the same thing again with a different load-out or higher difficulty. It’s just the repetition of it that grows stale super fast.
@Poodlestargenerica After playing Hades, Dead Cells, and ScourgeBringer, there's no way I'd underestimate roguelikes as I've managed to spend lots of truly fun hours in them. One of the reasons I consider to be a plus about Roguelikes is that the nature of the game design makes it harder for it to become too story-focused.
@Lightsiyd I don't want to dictate what others enjoy. I haven't played any of the three games you mentioned, obviously I know them all, I'd probably even enjoy them, but I just prefer a different structure.
@DTFaux My thoughts as well. My usual frustration with rouge-like/lite is that RNG can be a little too brutal in a row. That just ruins the experience because there's nothing you can do. Skill might be able to get around a string of nasty RNG, and that is basically what these game hope will happen, but it also raises the barrier of enjoyment for me. Arcade-like titles are usually more about pattern recognition and memorization of enemy placement/movement. Usually a linear path of progression to learn how to beat the game.
The existing reviews for the PC version of this game aren’t super hot, which is a shame because it does present well.
"one of the most stylish retro games". This game came out last year. That does not make it retro in any possible sense of the term. You could call it "retro inspired" because it runs at a low resolution, but that's it.
@JohnnyMind Please elaborate on the difference. Sorry, I'm old and don't pay attention much!
@Scollurio Roguelites have meta-progression, that is you gain currency and/or upgrades which you keep between runs while roguelikes don't.
@JohnnyMind Ah thank you! So I probably enjoy roguelites more. I do get the origin of "roguelike", that old text-based game and all, but "roguelite"? How did that happen?
@Scollurio I don't know, my guess is that when games of that kind started showing up someone created the term simply by changing "like" to the similar "lite" because in a sense they are simpler Roguelikes... which is exactly why I prefer them!
“Tough as nails” and “rogue-like” tend to turn me off a little because of the hours I’m expected to put into it to progress, granted I’ve played some likable ones. I stopped playing Dead Cells rather quickly, as well as Hades. Little Noah was cute and wasn’t difficult, and I managed to beat it. And I’d say that was worth the short experience. The last game I put tons of hours into was Monster Hunter though.
This indeed does present well. Had it been something akin to The Messenger in progression (not mechanics or concept), I’d definitely be more likely to pick it up immediately. But maybe I’m just saying that because graphically and the speediness of gameplay remind me of The Messenger.
@JohnnyMind Makes sense! Thanks for that!
@Scollurio You're welcome!
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