Ninja Senki DX is the latest game to come out of the independent games company, Tribute. You might know them from other run-of-the-mill action brawler and platformer titles such as Mercenary Kings and Curses & Chaos. I did too. Tribute for me was a weird developer in my gaming catalog, because while I bought and later enjoyed some facets of their titles, I always felt the main gameplay loops to be too repetitive, complicated, and not straight to the point. That’s why I had lowered my expectations for Ninja Senki DX, yet another platformer coming out of the Canadian studio. But turns out, I was wrong, because Tribute made a left-field move that quite literally changed the game completely.

Gameplay:

The game can be almost bullet-hell like at points

Ninja Senki DX’s gameplay is layered with a coat of 80’s memory fueled practices and traditions, such as curved jumps and side-scrolling enemies. It’s rather simple, and is the most condensed game Tribute’s made. While this could be seen as a bad thing, compared to their previous work, it’s a personal godsend. Every title from theirs for me was too frustrating due to improper platforming controls and or loftiness. In Ninja Senki DX, those feelings are gone. The game is still hard and mildly infuriating, but mesmerizing and addictive at the same time, something I hadn’t seen before coming from the studio. Because of this, I feel many players will make a game out of Ninja Senki DX. The more you know the levels and it’s certain traits, the more enveloped you become when you succeed, or screw up.

Design:

Some of the more enjoyable parts involve striking down chains of enemies

As stated previously, the gameplay loop and semblance of Ninja Senki DX is like no other. This is supplemented even more by fantastic level-design, that seems like something that would be akin to a more chaotic side-scroller. This sense of tension along with a ticking clock, brings more stress upon the player, but in a positive way. Sooner or later, you learn your own mistakes and master things you didn’t think were possible prior. It’s all rather boisterously fun, and unbelievably compelling.

Presentation/ Visuals & Audio:

The game has some sparse, yet fantastic cover/concept art.

While every Tribute game has had a well-designed and preposterously impressive artistic flair preceding, Ninja Senki DX does not accomplish this as thoroughly. It’s not bad (far from it!) but just less self-centered in order to focus on the gameplay. While this isn’t a bad move, the game could have done better to distance itself from the seemingly thousands of nostalgic indie platformers on the market, besides for it’s gameplay.

Conclusion:

Ninja Senki DX is one of the more pleasent platforming surprises I’ve had this year. It’s clean-cut like most aren’t, and manages to get rid of nearly all platforming problems that are familiar. Best of all, the bad parts of the game aren’t even that atrocious, they just pale in comparison to what else is being offered.

Ninja Senki DX gets an 8/10. (Very Good)

We’d like to thank Tribute Games for sending us a code for this one!

For more reviews and features like this one, please check out The Cube on Medium.com, or our twitter account @TheCubeMedium