Be Excellent To Each Other

Cor, N+ is a lot of fun isn't it? I had a quick go at a flash version of N a while ago and didn't really get into it, but on the DS it works really well for a quick play on the daily commute. I believe it's available for the PSP too. I love the simplicity of it, but the trickiness of some of the levels. Dying (very) often has never been so, well, not-frustrating (although the much later levels may change this opinion )

What's it like on XBLAH? I'm tempted to get it for some big screen jumpy fun - but if it's just the same as the DS version there's little point. I wonder if it is one of those games that works best on a handheld.

Hard.

I've completed the DS version except for the bonus Atari levels you have to unlock with a code. They are stupidly hard - much worse than anything in the main game.

Can you link to the flash version? I've been watching the Rev's efforts via his blog, and it seems to be one of those games that brings a lot of joy.

I'm not sure if I love it or hate it, to be honest.

It's certainly compulsive, but it feels like a fight. The moments when you win a hard level are great, but only because you feel like you've kicked the game in the balls and bitten its nose off in one quick move.

Original game here -

http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/n_downloads.html

I was throughly underwhelmed by the demo... I was struggling to find the compulsion to even keep playing to the end of the sample levels.

And again, too much money for what it is. (on XBLA)

in fairness to the xbla version you can buy add on packs for 200 points, and one has 200 and another has 350 levels I believe which is great value.

N+ was easily my favourite purchase from the XBLAH. I've spent hours playing with myself , a weekend playing it with my pal and her nephew and a couple of lazy Saturdays drinking beer and playing it with my mates and I still play it, so I'd say I got my money out it.

The only things I don't like about it are the lack of level sharing, online's extremely sensitive to lag and the slaggings you get when you successfully navigate your way through a labyrinth of psychopathic machines while a rocket tries to fly up your backside only to get an inch away from the exit and land on a bloody mine.

N+ is really great.

I would probably recommend the XBLA version over the DS version just because it is so much cheaper, but the DS version has slightly easier levels (and sleep makes getting through 5 in a row easier - which shows how strange that idea is).

The 'easy' level pack of N+ was worth every penny/point too.

I enjoyed Owen's blog posts about it too.

Have you tried the new "hard" map pack? I've only done the first few levels but it's pretty rad, so far the levels aren't ridiculously hard, more like cleverly designed puzzles with an obvious solution, in other words more of the same and in my opinion that can only be a good thing.

Thing is I reached the 'hard' levels of N+ standard levels, and kinda stalled, so the easy pack was great, but buying more levels I won't be able to doesn't seem very clever. Have you managed all of the standard levels?

Saying that I've managed the first 38 episodes of N+ DS so I'll be itching for more levels soon, so I guess I'll pick it up at some point. Let me know hoe hard it gets.

Quite enjoying the DS version (though it's WAY easier than the PC flash version), but I was wondering this (I asked on WOS but no-one seemed to know) :

What's the point of going out of your way to collect all the gold on each level ?

I know that getting gold adds to your timer, but most of the time it seems that totally ignoring the gold that's not on your most direct route through the level is preferable (ie. If you go out of your way to collect as much gold as possible, you are likely to end up with less time to complete a chapter than if you just ignore it in favour of activating and getting to the exit as quickly as possible).
This means that many levels (at least out of the 40 or so I've played so far) are piss-easy and many can be completed in under a minute.

If it unlocks something decent like exclusive levels then fair enough. I'm guessing it doesn't though, in which case, what's the incentive ?

The stats section lists your total gold count, I think at certain points you unlock new ninjas (?) but I'm not sure.

To behonest, just completing the levels is challenging enough for me. But yeah the DS version is much easier than the XBLA version. Never got on with the Flash version.

Though 29-0 was a bugger till I worked out the secret.

"The stats section lists your total gold count, I think at certain points you unlock new ninjas (?) but I'm not sure."

Yeah, a bit more research seems to support that theory.

However, I think all we're talking about here is different COLOURED ninjas. Whoopee-do !
No ninjas with different abilities or anything interesting like that....(correct me if I'm wrong).

Based on this I think the game is seriously un-balanced and that trying to collect all the gold is a total waste of time.

Still quite enjoying it though and I'm still in the early stages. I just hope it gets MUCH more challenging and interesting in the later stages.