Yay, I finally made a retro 8bit-style ninja game!

[RETROMAN]

Hello guys and gals,

I recently completed my first game and I thought it'd be a good idea to post it here, since there are quite a few retrogaming fans in this community.

It's an 8bit-style arcade action game without any gimmicks; just oldschool running,jumping and throwing ninja stars at robotic alien freaks.

There are 3 levels in total and it can theoretically be completed in about 10 minutes, but due to the (reasonably) high difficulty it could take quite a bit longer.

Click on the link below to play it. Thanks!

NINJA RUSH

Here's a few screenshots:

[DarkeSword]

Pretty good.

[Geeky Stoner]

I Love this, I wish i had a pc controller so i could get a little further.

So far I've only made it past the enemy level up in the first level.

I'm pretty sure you know this already but this needs some kind of music.

This is so fun and addicting, Nice work

[Wolt]

The graphical style and game concept could work pretty well on an Atari Lynx.

However, fire button needs a turbo switch.

Still, pretty nice.

[Geeky Stoner]

The graphical style and game concept could work pretty well on an Atari Lynx.

However, fire button needs a turbo switch.

Still, pretty nice.

yeah agreed needs a the fire button sometimes hinders the action not often though.

[Sinewav]

This is pretty great... I keep dying at the parts where you have to jump over the bombs though. Love the 8-bit art.

[Sir_Snooze]

I endorse this product or service. The two complaints (turbo and music) I have have already been aired, so all I can do is say awesome job!

[Geeky Stoner]

Actually after a few plays the fire button can go faster than expected. (given that you can actually press it that fast (Thank you galaga )

So I take back my initial complaint about the fire button turbo.

Oh by the way have made it to the first boss but haven't beat it yet :\

[RETROMAN]

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it.

Yeah, my game could really benefit from some nice energetic music to get the adrenalin flowing. Alas, I have no musical skills whatsoever, but a few friends of mine might create some tunes for my next game.

One thing I'd really like to hear your opinions about, is the difficulty.

I've playtested the game close to a bazillion times now, so I've come to the point where I blaze through the game without knowing exactly how someone who's new to the game experiences it.

To me, it feels quite balanced and fair, but that's easy for me to say because I know all the enemy patterns and obstacle positions.

So...Has anybody here reached level 3 yet?

Or better yet, beat the last boss?

[Geeky Stoner]

I feel the game is pretty balanced, it has a very nice learning curve to it.

I still haven't gotten past the first boss, but I've only tried a few casual plays.

Edit:OK made it past the first boss.

Area 2 is going to be impossible for me,I'm never going to get through those switching panel obstacles because all of my coordination goes to shit when I have to use a keyboard

[suzumebachi]

gameplay is actually pretty good. turbo would be nice, yes. so would music (dude, you realize where you're posting this, right?).

i can't really get into the graphics though. they just don't feel... authentic. they feel less like a classic 8-bit game and more like a newer game with a super low budget and intentionally bad graphics. i dunno how else to really explain it, or what it is about it that makes it feel that way. maybe it's the colors, or the lack of detail (NES games had more detail than this) or maybe just the weird pixel shading that looks like low resolution photoshop anti-aliasing.

[friendlyHunter]

Got to the crazy mine jumping part in level 3 once, died twice. I like the difficulty so far, but I agree a turbo button would be really nice. Then again, I wouldn't want to be holding the button down all the time. What if holding down the button shoots 2 or 3 stars as fast as possible, but shooting so many stars in such little time forces a "recharge" period where you can't shoot? Similar to how Megaman can't have more than 3 bullets on the screen at a time (only, it wouldn't matter what's on the screen; instead it's all time-based).

i can't really get into the graphics though. they just don't feel... authentic. they feel less like a classic 8-bit game and more like a newer game with a super low budget and intentionally bad graphics.

I agree it doesn't look authentic old-school 8-bit, but I like it. It looks indie, and modern, but still pretty cute.

[FR]

I can't get the quick play to work for some reason

any chance this is uploaded to another site like kongregate or something

[RETROMAN]

If you can't get the Gamejolt-version to work, you can download the game here in .zip-format: http://romeomazzei.com/

Again, thanks for the feedback folks!

I'll keep the turbo button suggestion in mind for the next game of mine that features rapid button bashing. Generally I'm not that keen on the use of turbo buttons (I think it's more satisfying to pound on a key to fire), but I can understand that repetetive button mashing is not everyone's cup of tea.

I'm also glad that at least someone managed to reach level 3! That mine jumping part is probably the most difficult part of the game, so kudos for getting that far!

You've almost completed the game

[friendlyHunter]

Yesterday I managed to SOMEHOW survive through level 3's mine jumping part, and then was quickly shot twice by the boss and died.

Today I figured out a simple strategy to get through the mines pretty nicely, and after getting to the boss a couple times, learned how to beat its first form very very VERY easily. Took me a few more gameovers before I actually beat the game. Nice game, but now I think I know all the tricks and could beat the whole thing no problem on the first try... I can already plow through the first and second levels without dying

I love the parts where you have to shoot the red things on the wall to make them turn yellow. And the second boss was crazy intense on my first play through it, all those surprise attacks from every direction! Those purple bats confuse me though... it's the easiest thing in the world to just NOT shoot them, and if you're bored and try killing them, you just end up getting hurt. Same with the dragon/snake things. Those UFOs-in-a-line things were kind of boringly easy too, but that just makes it a much bigger slap in the face in the rare occasions when you get hurt by them =P

[RETROMAN]

Yesterday I managed to SOMEHOW survive through level 3's mine jumping part, and then was quickly shot twice by the boss and died.

Today I figured out a simple strategy to get through the mines pretty nicely, and after getting to the boss a couple times, learned how to beat its first form very very VERY easily. Took me a few more gameovers before I actually beat the game. Nice game, but now I think I know all the tricks and could beat the whole thing no problem on the first try... I can already plow through the first and second levels without dying

I love the parts where you have to shoot the red things on the wall to make them turn yellow. And the second boss was crazy intense on my first play through it, all those surprise attacks from every direction! Those purple bats confuse me though... it's the easiest thing in the world to just NOT shoot them, and if you're bored and try killing them, you just end up getting hurt. Same with the dragon/snake things. Those UFOs-in-a-line things were kind of boringly easy too, but that just makes it a much bigger slap in the face in the rare occasions when you get hurt by them =P

Awesome, nice work! You're the first person I heard of who's completed the game! Now I'm quite relieved I didn't decide to lower the difficulty level

As for the bats: In an earlier build of the game, the player had a life bar that diminished over time (like in the old Adventure Island/Wonder Boy games) and you had to defeat enemies just to stay alive. Nearing the completion of the game, it became clear to me that this approach didn't really fit the game, so I dropped the life bar and added more conventional energy 'orbs'.

In the earlier version of my game it was essential to defeat some bats in order to regain energy, but now that that isn't necessary anymore, I guess it would've been better if I had changed their behaviour (like making them home in on you or something).

You know what? I'm gonna check if I can improve that today.

Thanks for the feedback!

[RETROMAN]

Alright, I updated the behaviour of the bats. Instead of just moving from right to left they'll try to home in on you now