10 Second Ninja X Preview

<p>Upon its release&comma; <em>10 Second Ninja<&sol;em> provided players with plenty of fast-paced robot-Nazi-killing fun across 40 levels&comma; all completed within 10 seconds&period; If you’ve played <em>10 Second Ninja<&sol;em>&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll understand that it leaves you questioning as to whether your desire to be a speedy ninja has been sated or not&period; If it hasn’t&comma; then rejoice&excl; The creators at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;fourcircleinteractive&period;co&period;uk&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Four Circle Interactive<&sol;a> have crafted a sequel called <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em>&comma; featuring 60 levels of 10 second ninja action&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The premise of <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> is the same as its predecessor&colon; destroy all enemies within 10 seconds to complete each level&period; <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> contains 60 levels spread across 6 different worlds&comma; where the player can repeat levels to get a better time or simply try to complete all levels&period; In either case&comma; the developers state that every failure is designed to be entirely the player’s fault&comma; without any unfair losses or bugs to prevent progress&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> is a stand-alone sequel to <em>10 Second Ninja<&sol;em>&comma; where every level contains some sort of puzzle to solve in order to complete the level in the fastest time&period; The levels are by no means easy&comma; and the three-star ratings are only to be completed by those with the greatest level of skill and reflexes&period; Players of precision platformers will find themselves right at home as the highest scoring is only obtained by completing each level with as few errors as possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the leaderboards and achievements were not accessible in the preview copy received for the purpose of this review&comma; here is the run-down on what players can expect when <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> releases on July 19th&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first thing that should be noted is that the in-game cutscenes have hilarious dialogue&comma; carrying on the humor from the original and even adding a humorous side to the overarching plot around the game&period; You are put into the role of a Ninja&comma; who has the capability to strike with his sword or throw shurikens at his enemies&period; The Ninja is attempting to save his animal friends who were kidnapped by a mysterious pirate&comma; a fellow named Greybeard&comma; who sports a ginger beard and has enslaved the animals and turned them into his robot army&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;107884" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-107884" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-107884 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03151357&sol;10SecondNinjaX&lowbar;Screenshot06&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;10 Second Ninja X&comma; Curve Digital&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-107884" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em>&comma; Curve Digital&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>By killing the robots&comma; the Ninja’s animal friends are freed &lpar;much like the original <em>Sonic the Hedgehog <&sol;em>games&rpar;&comma; and freeing all the animals in each level ultimately lets you complete it&period; Depending on your performance in each level&comma; you can earn stars which unlock new levels&period; This encourages you to go back and replay levels you have completed in order to get higher star ratings and ultimately unlock new levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As previously stated&comma; there are 60 levels&comma; or 6 worlds each consisting of 10 levels&period; This provides ample opportunity to collect the required stars needed to unlock the other worlds&period; That does not mean that collecting the stars will be easy by any means&comma; however&comma; as you will need to have fast reflexes and quick thinking in order to succeed in completing the various levels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In order to get a lay of the land&comma; at the beginning of each level &lpar;before you move and start the timer&rpar; you can utilize camera mode in order to get a good look at how each level is laid out before you work to complete it&period; I cannot express ENOUGH how frustratingly punishing the difficulty of <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> is&period; There are no controls to change the difficulty&comma; and just the slightest hesitation or error in movement can cheat you out of two stars&period; Three-star ratings are even worse&comma; requiring pixel perfect movement&comma; the likes of which I am not NEARLY skilled enough to pull off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The difficulty seems to have carried on from its predecessor&comma; as many of the Steam reviews for <em>10 Second Ninja <&sol;em>commented on the punishing difficulty&comma; something that <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> shares in large amounts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;107885" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-107885" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-107885 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03151332&sol;10SecondNinjaX&lowbar;Screenshot01&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;10 Second Ninja X&comma; Curve Digital&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-107885" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em>&comma; Curve Digital&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Despite this&comma; the game looks fantastic&comma; the enemies and obstacles are interesting&comma; the few in-game cutscenes are humorous and witty&comma; and the controls are solid and easy to learn&period; The lack of difficulty options is a problem&comma; but I find that the overall 10 second time limit for each level is a very limiting factor that contributes to a large portion of the difficulty here&period; An inability to restart levels means that if you mess up early on&comma; you have to wait for time to run out completely before you can start over&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> is fun&comma; but only for those who really like precision platforming and games with steep difficulty curves&period; If those are your thing&comma; then <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> will be absolutely perfect for you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ultimately&comma; I hope that Four Circle Interactive tweaks the difficulty and the time requirements a bit before launch&comma; as this was only a preview and things are subject to change upon release&period; I look forward to seeing what changes at the time of release&comma; though&comma; despite how hard it is&comma; I can easily see <em>10 Second Ninja X<&sol;em> being an addictive adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC preview code for 10 Second Ninja X was provided by Curve Digital for the purpose of this Preview<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;