Ninja Noah's Zombie Planets: A Review

[Gizmog]

This is some kid's newbie game, so I'm not gonna be going too hard on this one. Fortunately, I don't have to go too hard on it because it's actually a pretty cool game, especially for a kid-newb. The plot is that a monster has dragged you, an idiot kid, off to another planet where zombies are all over the place. To get home, you'll have to utilize all the skills of your ninja mentors to fight, dodge and trick the zombie hordes.

The combat is generally boring, but the chapter two boss is a very balanced challenge. The dude knew how to do poison attacks so points for that, even though every enemy uses them and it's not very tactical. He also makes pretty good use of Chase You-Touch NPCs for the zombies, so you have a chance of dodging combat. You have to find colored switches that knock down colored walls, and the maps wrap around in a way that makes this exploration a lot of fun. The second level is a bit too big, and I eventually broke down and used the F1 key to look at a map and figure out what I was doing. Adding the "Map" option to the menu wouldn't have hurt the fun and would've made it feel less cheaty.

I died almost instantly in Chapter 3 and didn't feel like fighting the Chapter 2 boss for the fourth time to get back, so I can't say how long the game goes. A save point at the start of Chapter 3 would've been nice. Music is ripped but sets a nice tone, graphics are the kind of stuff a kid would draw and weirdest of all the backdrop is a photo of some grass. Maybe I'm just sleepy, maybe I'm just soft 'cause it's a newbie game, but I'd call this a decent game to check out. Definitely not the greatest game in the world, but it might give you some ideas to steal for one of your own projects.