Acute tNdonitis

Only two days ago, I happened to purchase N+ from off of XBLA marketplace in order to have something to play with my friends who were over for the afternoon. Since then, I’ve developed a painful muscle sprain in my lower right forearm which renders me incapable of pressing the A button on my Xbox controller – or most any other buttons that need me to do so with my thumb – without excruciating pain. That is the extent of how much I enjoyed this game; it was only painful physical injury that could tear me away from it.

Let’s not start with the multiplayer just yet. Seeing this cult classic freeware game gain its rightful place in the ranks of indie games such as flOw and EEtz is truly fantastic. I remember discovering this gem while scouring the internet for cheap thrills no less than three years ago, and in an instant I was hooked. The mechanics I so fondly remember, and still enjoy in the PC version are ever present in the XBLA edition, with only minor tweaks to the inertia and gravity that affect your hapless ninja. If you’ve been playing N a lot lately, switching to N+ will take a bit of coaxing but it’s not that hard.

Much to my surprise, a lot of the changes in the game are actually for the better. The level editor is back with a vengeance and it’s clear that they had plenty of time to polish the interface up properly this time around. To make things even better, new ground tiles and enemies have been introduced which add another element of variety to an already fantastic game.

The biggest plus with this game (groan) however is definitely the multiplayer. Working with your friends in the co-op missions is a joy, especially when the paths of either player are mutually exclusive to one another and require both to play their part in some way along the adventure. While doing so across all 10 chapters it was fantastic seeing how we all banded together to beat the game, towards the end of which things got very, very tedious as it usually does with N. Of course, that cameraderie all faded to nothing when we took to the race and survival missions.

My biggest qualm with this game, however, is the way downloading content is limited to getting stuff off of XBLA. That’s well and good seeing as every other game does the same thing, but part of N’s original charm was being able to share custom maps with one another. And please note: for free. Let’s face it, the only reason you’ll make a map in N is to have other people take a crack at it (and fail, with any luck), and no way in hell would you pay to be able to play maps of other people. So far, the only way I’ve found that you can share maps in N+ is either by finding a picture of it online and copying it manually into the level editor, or by using a memory card, but the latter choice is of course severely limited. I’m hoping that they sort out some kind of added feature in the future, but until then I’ll just have to settle for the 500 built in maps. Let’s not forget the DS and PSP versions that are due for release in the near future. Can’t wait to play those, too.

That is, of course, once my arm has healed.