Anyone that has played Splatoon might just be interested in this new rival game, Ninjala. Created by GungHo Online and coming to the Switch in 2019, some bubblegum popping fun is to be had.
Featured at E3 2018 with a ninja show and neat prizes for the top two winners in each of their demo, there was little not to be excited about. Ninjala is a multiplayer action game with melee weapons and an interesting perspective on in-world play. These ninjas are urban styled and use bubblegum to create their weapons in order to win.
Your main weapon is created by blowing a very large bubble. The larger the bubble, the bigger the weapon you get to use against your opponents. Other weapons that might make an appearance in the game are yo-yos. Luckily for now, the bubbles you blow can be launched at other players like a bomb and can be used to trap your enemies long enough to get some hits in.
Sadly, the demo at E3 wasn’t very long which didn’t leave enough time for players to become fully immersed in this new world. Just becoming familiar with the controls on the Switch controller was difficult (since usually I play on the Joy Cons). Rounds were only three minutes long against two other players and all of us were figuring the mechanics out. Some players picked up very quickly on what needed to be done. So as instructed, my character took off to try and get points provided by drones and lanterns. In order to win I needed to have the highest score.
Running around in the game seemed pretty normal for a city. That was until I was instructed to just walk in to walls, much like Harry Potter, I had my reservations. Walking to the wall of a building however, allowed the character to climb straight up and over the building. This changed the perspective of the game but there were a lot of hidden items to be found and made for a great escape too.
Overall Ninjala looks like it will be entertaining. There is still a lot of room to add melee weapons and possibly create new worlds. So far, there hasn’t been much to see that would need an adjustment. If players currently like Splatoon, this game will give players another way to approach strategies during battle.
7/10
Coming to the Switch in 2019
