Mini Ninjas for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

It is hard to hate on a game that is just so pick up and play fun. True, the challenge is low, and some will label it a kids game mostly from the cartoonish visuals, but there is a charming little game here. The visuals are cartoony, and the enemies don't really die. Once defeated, enemies will vanish in a puff of smoke, and revert to the cute animals that had been transformed. A lot of the fun comes from your (the players) willingness to experiment with the weapons and tools at your disposal. At its best, Mini Ninjas has the feel of the first Tenchu. Sneaking atop buildings, hiding in tall grass waiting to ambush patrols, a quick flash of a smoke bomb to disappear with ease if you're spotted, shirken, caltrops, magic, all these tools of the ninja way are present if you care to use them.
I say if you care to because really the game can just be beaten by running up and laying the hurt on fools with your sword. Mini Ninjas tasks you with the usual ninja goal of stop the ancient evil, but along the way you also save four of your ninja friends. Once saved, each ninja can be switched to on the fly, and their unique talents can be applied however you wish. See, it was really the varying ways of dispatching the "evil guards" that kept me the most interested. I never grew tired of sneaking about, laying out traps, and keeping the AI tripping all over itself trying to figure out what i was up too.
The levels are each mini open worlds, most haveing multiple routes to the exit gate.
The weakest point for me, was the boss battles. All except the final boss has a set pattern you need to expose, then active time button prompts walk you through the rest. Wash, rinse, repeat three times, and another one bites the dust. I am also sick of collectibles in games, and this one tasks you to find quite a few if you want all the achievements.
I gave this game a nine out of ten because in the end fun won over frustration. A solid rent.