Ninjin: Clash of Carrots is being reviewed by my 8-year-old son. He is an exceptional Mario gamer. He loves everything Mario. So when we got the chance to try a new game for the Nintendo Switch we jumped on it!
Everything about this game reminded me of a typical 1980’s style game, with 8-bit style graphics and colors, and even down to the midi synthesizer music. This game was engaging enough for my Mario-obsessed 8-year-old and kept him busy for a good time, and it was fun to watch him play and enjoy the game like I did with many of the games I played.
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots is a side scroll game that is reminiscent of old school Excite Bike. It moves from left to right with repeating graphics and different colors and sounds. My son, as I stated earlier is an avid Mario gamer, gives this game an overall score of 3.5 out of 5. He played it through until the second to last boss from there it was too complicated for him to finish.
Sound:
Kenny, my son, states, “The music was good, but not really great… It was kinda like old music (8bit),” But when I press him about it more he does not seem to care for the overall sound of it because he continues, “It wasn’t anything I really remember about.” To put into context his musical skills are amazing (not just saying that because he is my son, he’s actually very good with music)! He liked the sound effects of the swords slashing and cutting. It was more realistic than the typical midi synthesizer music. Putting a modern sound to it, with a good mix of retro.
Graphics:
The graphics were good! Kenny states, “The graphics are really awesome! They were really nice!” The game had a plethora of colors and was very similar to vector graphics that make graphic designers think about making their own game, until the remember they have no idea how to do video…
Story:
The game was about a, “bad guy trying to take all of the carrots from a village that all the people [in the game] lived in… The two main characters were fighting bad guys and they found a doggy that was in a cage and they destroyed the bad guy! Then the bad guy wen to his daddy. And then he said some things.” When pressed what it was that was said, “I don’t really remember.”
From my observation, the games story came secondary to the graphics and overall feel of the game. The games gameplay was great and it made it fun.
Gameplay:
Nijin: Clash of Carrots’ gameplay according to my son: “It was good.” And as we are talking about this review, he is playing it again, and he says that the gameplay is: “really fun, and it is easy, but hard, but easy…” I mean he is 8 and he is a better video game player than an old school gamer of a father.
Up-down-left-right was the play and you have to make every choice just right to make sure that you weren’t killed in the game and having to start over! But even if you had to start the level over it was not an overwhelming feeling, rather you didn’t mind it.
Replay Value:
The games replay value is nil. You will be able to take the game or leave it, but it isn’t the game that you are going to play over and over and over. It loses its appeal after you beat it, but it is fun to watch others play after you beat it. This game’s biggest strength would be fantastic if it was a quarter game. This game would make people pump the quarters into the game just to make it to the final boss round.
Overall:
This is a fun game, but replay value is short and would not be something that I would play over and over and over, rather, let others try to beat it faster than my son.
