N+

By Chris Dahlen  |  March 13, 2008 | 7:33pm
Games Reviews Games

The played-out mythos of the ninja entails many
clichés, from their silent, philosophical killing style to their real, ultimate
power. The way of the ninja would seem to have nothing to do with leaping
through austere high-tech fortresses, scaling steel walls, and avoiding robotic
enemies—not one of whom you can kill—while grabbing armfuls of
gold. But in another sense, N+ is a perfectly
Zen game. A minimalist platformer first released as an addictive Flash game, it
has spare graphics and no narrative distractions. It offers nothing but
challenge: Players have to accomplish such platforming staples as making
precise jumps, timing a dash past missiles and electrified robots, and jumping
all the way up a wall with perfect grace.

And nothing less than perfect grace will get you
through the game. A series of simpler maps warms you up for the
knuckle-bending, expletive-urging controller-breakers, where the failures add
up and the frustration feels insurmountable. When that happens, the developers
recommend you take a walk in the woods, have a beer, and try again. If you can
relax enough to forget your hands, release your tension, and just let the
wall-jumps flow, you can conquer the greatest obstacle of all: yourself.

Beyond the game: While N+ has a more fluid control
system (try the triggers instead of the "A" button) and more elegant maps than
the original N,
plus head-to-head and co-op games, you can still get the first game free, for
PC, Mac, or Linux, at thewayoftheninja.org/n.html.

Worth playing for: You'll win an achievement
after you die 1,000 times. This may easily be one of the first achievements you
pick up.

Frustration sets in when: You're always running
against the clock, and the only way to buy more time is by picking up gold
around the map. But the mechanism is poorly tuned: Usually, you can skip the
extra gold unless you're shooting for a high score, and then you may be surprised
when you suddenly run out of time.

 
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