I brought him inside and fed him cookies!
 

Talk about a pleasant surprise. Well apart from that last boss, he was pretty shitty. But yeah, hello y'all. I beat Mini Ninjas yesterday and it's pretty darn lovely.
 
Mini Ninjas is essentially one of those strange type of games that nobody seems to care about at all. Perhaps it's because it's new IP, or cute and cuddly or just had bad marketing. I don't really know. I can say it bopped me on the head Itchy & Scratchy style though.
 
There's nothing particularly all that endearing about Mini Ninjas' gameplay. It falls under a number of cliches to be perfectly honest. There's basic platforming, basic combat, basic exploration. It doesn't really do anything badly, that's the type of game it is. Solid. But there are some lovely ideas that elevate it above that. Take protagonist Hiro's hat for instance -- it's not just a hat; it's a boat too. It's also a tobaggon. Simple, but charming, and Mini Ninjas is packed with stuff like that. It also does the thing that all kids entertainment should - be juvenile and simple on the surface, yet have many layers. Mini Ninjas is a bit like that.
 
But what most brings it to life are the graphics. They're beautiful. There are some surprisingly rough textures here and there, and the environments look a little flat, but get above that and what you have are some lovely environments. Most refreshingly, the game is extremely varied too, so while you might have only seen the lush plains from the demo, there's actually a lot more to Mini Ninja's design including a snow-top mountain and some film-noir elements.
 
In fact, despite being such an overlooked title, when trying to think up bad things about Mini Ninjas I can only rest on the dodgy QTE boss battles which are painfully simple.
 
It all goes to show really; you can release new IP, make a kiddy looking game and have it completely overlooked -- but it doesn't make it bad. Because honestly Mini Ninjas is rather good and certainly deserving of a trickle more attention.

AMIRIGHT!?

Sorry about the crappy webcam. I've never had a good camera. You get the idea though...






Please, I'd appreciate no questions on the game. I'm scared of breaking embargo. Thought this was worth showing you guys though. There's a missive pullout inside with an Abraham Lincoln quote and a render of the city scape too.

Growing up through high-school, one thing always managed to piss me off.

"Hello. I'm a teenager. Popular culture told me drinking was 'cool' so let's all go and get drunk. We don't really enjoy alcohol, we don't really know why we're bothering, but we're doing it because we're cool."

Let's be clear here - no one adheres to drinking 'rules'. That's cool. I haven't a problem with 16 year olds drinking - going by my own experience I was mature enough to drink then. If I wanted to.

I simply can't stand this culture that we should drink because we have to. Myself and a majority of my peers are closing in on 21 now, we've been legal drinkers for 3 years, and still they (read: not I) "get pissed" because they have to. We as a society of young adults must spend our childhood getting pissed because that's what our friends do. A lovely vicious circle unnoticed by those within it.

I never did. Great, let's all be a statistic because it's what we're supposed to do. It's what my friend does, it's what I have to do. I have to get pissed for the "lolz". It's so funny. I'm so cool.

Let's go get pissed. There's nothing social about it. There's nothing cool about it. Still -- our peers are watching us. We gotta adhere to the "rules".

Let's go get pissed.