
Much has already been made of the fact that Ninjala so closely resembles Nintendo’s very own Splatoon and yes, the similarities on an artistic level are pretty striking and plain for all to see. However, spend more than a few cursory moments with GungHo’s free-to-play effort and you’ll find a game that works very differently to the paint-splattered turf wars of the Inklings and Octarians. This is a unique, vibrant and surprisingly strategic multiplayer arena fighter that packs in plenty worth recommending – whilst also making a handful of questionable decisions along the way.
In Ninjala, eight pint-sized bubble-gum pugilists duke it out in a tournament organised by the World Ninja Association – inventors of the magical ninja gum which drives the game’s action – in order to search for the next generation of mighty ninja warriors. Battles take place in large arenas – of which there are currently only two available – and can be played in either a free-for-all Battle Royale mode or 4v4 Team Battles.

After blasting through a quick bit of colourful character customisation, players are introduced to the basics of the game's traversal and combat. Your ninja warrior is a surprisingly agile tween who can run up walls, dodge attacks, blow ninja-gum shields, fire sticky bubbles at opponents to slow them down, perform a gum boost that propels them through the air on neon ribbons and even craft a giant version of whatever weapon they happen to be wielding in order to pound their opponents into submission.
The game's introductory tutorial, which is split between a two-minute YouTube video and a handful of screens of text, does a reasonable enough job of covering these very basic manoeuvres but then, inexplicably, fails to explain the more intricate and important gameplay wrinkles at the heart of combat, hiding that information in its menus instead of presenting it front and centre.
As well as the basic moves that are initially covered, your character can perform break attacks in order to destroy embiggened enemy weapons and engage an S-Burst mode to auto-parry incoming assaults. You can pull off combinations of front, back and wide attacks, and when two fighters confront each other and pull off the same move, they clash, with the action entering a rock-paper-scissors style mini-game in order to determine who comes out on top. This chance-based resolution of face-offs definitely feels like a pretty controversial decision – and it’s bound to be one that some players bounce off pretty hard – but for us, it actually suits the knockabout nature of the action well.

In order to avoid getting into a situation where the resolution of a battle is left to chance too often, however, there are things you can do and it's here you'll probably want to start thinking like an actual bubble-gum ninja. At its heart, Ninjala is all about choosing the best moment to attack your foes, and instead of running headlong into battles, you’ll have much more success if you take advantage of the traversal options afforded to you.
You'll want to run up walls to get yourself above the action in order to observe and then attack unsuspecting enemies, transform into a bit of background scenery by pressing A in order to surprise passing foes or – a tactic which is already proving most popular – stand back and watch as other players soften each other up then jump in to finish them off. It’s playing dirty, for sure, but it’s the best way to ensure you don’t end up playing rock-paper-scissors more often than you need to.
The unifying element to all of the various sneaky moves that you can deploy during battle is your ninja’s S-Energy gauge. Displayed in the bottom left corner of your screen, this is the source that powers all of your bubble-gum-based tricks and, upon entering a round, the first thing you’ll want to do is make a beeline for the large drones which pop up around arenas as destroying these increases your S-Energy capacity, strengthening your defensive and attacking options and eventually giving you access to that super-sized variant of your equipped weapon.

This gives the short four-minute rounds a really nice and busy ebb and flow; starting out, you’ll want to focus on smashing up drones and stay out of the way of battles in the short term in order to max out your S-Energy before focusing your attention on the multitude of options the game's various weapons bestow upon you to take out your opponents.
In this respect, there’s an impressive array of delightfully colourful gum weapons to choose from and the various katanas, scroll blades, corn bats, hammers, yo-yos, shinobi spinners and so on each come with their own attributes and skills, opening up different special moves, abilities, perks and ninjutsu attacks for you to wield in battle. As an example, our preferred weapon so far is the Drill Beast, a gum-drill which gives access to gum grenades as well as allowing you to dive under the ground in a very Splatoon-esque fashion, morphing into a splodge of colour that traverses the floor at speed before re-emerging in a barrelling attack towards your foe.

Other weapons allow you to materialise great big bubble-gum dragons, teleport into attacks and tangle your foes up in sticky webs and, overall, there's a surprising amount of tactical choice during battles which, when combined with that short time-limit, means that proceedings have a real urgency to them. There's not a second to lose as you bulk up your S-Gauge and get stuck into your opponents in order to come out on top. As far as modes go, the free-for-all battle royale mode is the most successful of the two currently on offer, giving you the freedom to strike out alone and think tactically instead of getting tangled up in the rather mindless and messy slaughter that currently comprises the bulk of the 4v4 side of things.
Away from the battles themselves, Ninjala has a short story mode locked behind a DLC paywall that gives players a little more background into the world and characters while fleshing out some of the game's mechanics. Overall, this mode is a pretty lacklustre offering; we blasted through it in around an hour, composed of a handful of bog-standard encounters bookended by pretty boring – and tediously slow – comic book story screens.
However, it is currently available for a discount and is perhaps worth a look at the knockdown price for those who want to dive a little deeper into the background and lore of the Ninjala tournament and some of the characters that make up the game's roster. As expected with a free-to-play game, there's also a ton of customisation options with a shop offering ridiculously expensive special outfits and various other goodies which are, thankfully, entirely cosmetic in nature; you can choose to totally ignore this side of things if you wish.

One aspect of the cosmetics side of Ninjala that we do take umbrage with, however, is that Ninja-gums – the game's weapon skins – are single-use items that disappear forever after you've used them in a match. This is really pretty inexcusable given that gums are primarily gained through a gumball machine mechanic which requires Jala, the in-game currency, that you'll need to spend real-world money to acquire if you haven't invested in the Ninjala battle pass. Considering the vast majority of skins players acquire will need to be purchased with their own money, it seems an indefensible choice to have them limited in this way.
In terms of performance, it's also all pretty much great news for Ninjala. This is an extremely pretty game, with that vibrant Splatoon-esque style (there really is no better way to describe it), some wonderfully animated menus and rock-solid performance in both handheld and docked modes. We're surprised, too, that after some teething problems on launch day, the servers are holding up pretty well; getting into matches can incur a few minutes of waiting initially, but once you're in, everything is pretty smooth and downtime between battles is minimal. Gyro control is also available, which will please those into that kind of thing.

Overall, aside from an opening tutorial that obfuscates the game's mechanics unnecessarily – burying important gameplay details in its menus – and a parrying minigame that is absolutely going to be divisive in how it leaves certain duel outcomes entirely to chance, we reckon Ninjala is off to a pretty strong start. This is a fun and vibrant free-to-play effort set in a world we want to see much, much more of. There's a lack of modes right now and a serious shortage of maps to play on, but this is all stuff that will be remedied in future updates; for now, we're having a blast running up walls and sticking our opponents with ippons left, right and centre.
Conclusion
Ninjala is a good-looking and impressively tactical free-to-play arena fighter. It's currently lacking in modes and maps, there are problems with how the lacklustre opening tutorial goes about onboarding new players and the rock-paper-scissors aspect of proceedings is sure to be controversial but, overall, the game is off to a pretty strong start. We can't wait to see where GungHo takes its cast of pint-sized bubblegum protagonists in the coming months.
Comments 47
I might try it out at some point! Splatoon didn't really grab me, and although the gameplay is really different, it gives me a similar vibe. Good thing the multiplayer is free to play! I might give it a go at some point. And that issue with the weapon skins is just baffling.
This game unfortunately didn’t stick with me. There’s too much button mashing and luck for my liking.
The game is surprisingly fun, there's just a few things holding it back, like what they mentioned in the review.
The parry system being random was a bad move.
Actually wondering if they will release this in EU territories.. as it’s not available in English speaking countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands
Wondering if they did not know most games in those regions are English and did not want to release in a non native language
@RickD Would you like your Reddit Gold sir?
How big are the maps in the game and how many are there
Games fun but the luck based parry fights let it down. Still fun
Downloaded this days ago yet I haven't tried it yet. Luck based parries tempt me into just deleting it.
@Kalmaro - It's Rock, Paper, Scissors with the other player. Blue beats Green, Green beats Red, etc. It loses its RNG when you notice the moves each player is spamming when fighting, becomes almost abusive against them.
@StevenH - It's visual stuff updated daily, like Fortnite.
I still haven't tried it but need to. The trailer made me think more of Kid Icarus 3DS's multiplayer than Splatoon, which I loved. Maybe that's wishful thinking though.
I probably would have bought it and given it a go if it was like $30 with both the single player and multiplayer included and no microtransations of any sort but as soon as they announced it was free-to-play, I lost all interest and steered well clear. Nothing I've seen about it since has tempted me.
"onboarding" is a new one on me. I'll mull it over.
I agree with this review. It's a pretty fun game in multiplayer and the parrying is luck based. Can't speak on SP mode, though.
@Paraka I never notice what they are spamming, I don't see how you're supposed to. Maybe I'm just missing something.
@Kalmaro - The color of their effects when they attack. Blue is frontal, green is wide (pushing the control stick to either side on attack) and Red is back attacks (holding the control stick back). This also can be done against before parties and function the same way.
I don't know if it's just me being thick - but I can't wrap my head around the parry/close quarters battle system. I just don't understand it and I feel like most encounters for me are purely luck based. I love the graphics, but the gameplay isn't hooking me
@Paraka Wait, they change colors before the attacks? I didn't even know that, this sounds like some the they should have mentioned, lol.
That kinda changes a lot. The article writer should know about this.
@Kalmaro - There is a LOT of things they don't mention how things function even in their manual, I have been experimenting and losing trying to learn everything and test theories.
Like the assist cards can be upgraded, the bonus gum only changes your gum color you see in battle royale (team battle opponents see it), and you can use in game currency on the gatcha machine.
@StevenH i think you can download it changin6the eshop region
@Paraka Maybe I've been too harsh on this game, though they really should advertise their mechanics more, unless this is their way of separating casuals from higher tier gamers who look up this stuff.
@Kalmaro - No they definitely need to advertise and make it more known. That is a huge barrier of knowledge that shouldn't be excused to elite types.
Imagine being the people finding more than I have? Surely there is more to it than this.
@IronMan30 SP is short and runs you through some very repetitive scenarios over a couple of episodes. It's fine for a bit more story and you get a few items of clothing when you're done but gameplay-wise it's nothing worth talking about.
@Paraka I just dipped into the Ninjala reddit (I always go to reddit to get game tips)
There's so many mechanics in this game that almost no reviews are accurate since not everyone knows everything.
Fantastic art style? To be honest it reminds me of those awful Wii shovelware, what with the plasticky, bland character design, and the borderline amateurish fonts.
@Adam Haven't heard of Uprising's gameplay in ages! Hope there's not a Daybreaker Mode...
@Kalmaro - Kind of figured, it's pretty easy to trump people now when there isn't much people have access to. Sometimes the "Quick Battle" mode is simply pubstomps.
I think I might give it a go.
The description of a lackluster story mode has me bummed about this. The FTP model pretty much guarantees that I'll be getting decimated in online battles. I had hoped that a fully developed story mode would make up for that (and I would have gladly paid for one; the game looks cool).
It's a free game, what did you expect? A free story mode included?
@PJOReilly That wasn't a slight against you, if anything, I'm frustrated with the game for not giving out all the info so reviewers can have everything they need.
It looks like you were absolutely correct about partying being random though, so that's still a gripe on my part.
@BenAV, @StevenH
The microtransactions aren't too aggressive, it's like Fortnite microtransactions.
The Microtransactions are...
Getting More Jala (500 Jala = $1, it's a 1-Time Purchase though) (1000 Jala = $9.99, etc.)
Story Mode ($9.99, on sale for $4.49 currently)
Ninjala Pass (950 Jala = $ 9.50) You can earn Jala in-game, though.
@ACNHislit I still don't like the free-to-play model at all, even when it's just cosmetic stuff. I want to be able to just buy a full game outright and unlock everything naturally as I go or I'm not interested.
@BenAV
Okay. 👍
That makes sense. 👍
I hope you try it out at some point.
I will say the parry system has some guessing that comes with it. Like playing rock, paper, scissors however some guessing based on how people play helps. For instance, there's a chance that players have a consistent 1st option when they first parry before they make another guess, if you remember who beat you and you parry them again try choosing what would have worked against them the first time. Also it helps to remember you don't have to parry until someone dies, opportunities to run or break sometimes open. "L" & "R" buttons are your friends.
The game does require some strategy, it's not always a good idea to fight head on.
Also one complaint that wasnt brought up because it doesn't show until later, the tier grind slows down after tier 31.
Missions give more points, but their increment is a fraction and not proportionate to the requirements of the missions. Not a bad thing if you like playing the game, a bummer if you want to spend your time doing other things and really like the game.
I bought the story and then finished it out of spite. i wanted to like this one and i think the could improve the game if they take the feedback from reviews and patch the game. A budokai style button combination when clashing will add more skill to the game.
I got the story mode and was pretty disappointed. Also agree the parry system being luck based is truly no fun. The whole experience has made me just want to play splatoon 2
Here is hoping that Ninjala and Ring Fit Trainer come to Smash.
I haven't tried it yet but my son has & he really enjoyed it, but not as much as the Splatoon series. The review makes it sound like a solid addition to the Switch library if slightly flawed here and there.
@Kalmaro Yeah, no worries, the tutorial needs a refresh for sure.
For someone who barely played splatoon , not sure if i'll enjoy this
@Ultrasmiles This game literally has nothing to do with Splatoon, tbh. Plus, Splatoon is wayyy better!
im really enjoying my time with the game, its a strong start with a lot of long term potential. tho they gotta work on managing the constant errors and explaining its mechanics better
adjusting the parry system too. i heard an idea where the game chooses 1 of 4 directions to select instead, and the person who chooses the correct direction first wins the exchange. seems way more strategic and tests your reflexes better
and the initial $10 story mode (on a $5 discount rn) could be a good deal if you take the outfits and medals you earn into account, since full outfits already cost much more in the regular store. they also need to let us go through dialogue faster, as the review says its way more slow than it needs to be
I’m turned off by it being “free”.
I started excited about it, it was fun at launch, and even pitched in to the devs by getting the battle pass or whatever, but the more time I've spent with it, the game is turning out to be or turning into kinda doodoo.
Defense is non-existent once in a battle — if you get hit once and don't have s-gauge or whatnot to initiate a parry (to either parry OR dash away, your only real kind of defense once in a battle), you're pretty much dead. And if you use your parry and they delay their attack and you run out of s-gauge, too bad. Once hit you're stunned for longer than it takes your opponent to do their next attack, leaving you stuck in a combo with zero opportunity to break out of it, or blow a bubble for defense, or dash, or do absolutely anything to defend yourself, at all. Just wait until you're KOd. The time you're stunned after a single hit is kind of ridiculous. Your only chance to survive typically is if they miss a hit or they get attacked by someone else. Your choices for defense if you're attacked is either s-parry if you can and either dash away (and have them chase you, rinse and repeat with less s-gauge this time) or risk the RPS game, or just deal with being stuck in a combo. Cool.
Players are already finding spammable attacks, and will spam stun attacks for example (one of the hammers), then finish you off. Also cool.
Weapons are not that varied. There's swords, hammers, and yo-yos. There's 4 combinations of specials for each weapon type.
Matchmaking is terrible. I just reached level 15 before I started getting a little fed up, but up until now, I've been in more matches than not where I've been the only one that's not level 25-30.
Played a team match, and somehow the opposing team had 12k points before I even saw a single opponent. It was my first team match and didn't understand how the score bar worked — it was such a high number so early I thought maybe it was a cumulative score. Once I saw my first opponent and Ipponed them, I was the first player to put ANY points up for my team, yet they had 12k already. That doesn't seem right. We ended up losing 1200 to 22000 or something completely stupid.
The Eagle City stage (I think..? The only other stage, the one that's not the arena) is not good. I've spent entire matches just trying to find opponents or drones, seeing maybe one or two opponents in the entire 4 minutes.
I'm no slouch, I've gotten my fair share of wins. The game can be fun at times, but it is or has become more frustrating than fun, IMO.
Nah, a 4 minute time limit is way too short for this kind of game. They need to provide at least a 10 minute option before I'll try it.
Game seems kinda random and controls feel sloppy.
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