Killer Ninja competition review by Rincewind
Judgment day has come
Unholy War: Rincewind’s review, TheMI3’s review, Woody’s review
Glowing Ninja: Rincewind’s review, TheMI3’s review, Woody’s review
Killer Ninja: Rincewind’s review, TheMI3’s review, Woody’s review
General
While others have worked on their game from the start of the competition, Linkernel decided to join in on the competition less than a month before the deadline. He already showed off his game called “Killer Ninja” in his worklog, and he absolutely attracted my attention with his 3D dll for fenix which is looking very interesting. The readme of the game speaks of this game being the first 3D FPS in Fenix, which might just be true (if we don’t count DTM’s unfinished 3D game).
Unsurprisingly, the theme of Killer Ninja is “Pirates and/or Ninjas”. With the sole emphasis on ninjas, of course.
Now let us see.
Graphics
When you start the game, you’re presented with a neat 3D introduction: some of the game’s characters doing several moves with their sword in slow motion. All this looks pretty cool. When the intro ends a full screen and good looking title image appears, reading “Killer Ninja: The kohimas return”. Press c to continue! And so I did.
The level designs in Killer Ninja are a lot more interesting than the levels in for example Wolfenstein 3D (which is comparable), simply because the levels in this game are less monotonous. While most (or all) of the level parts are still rectangular, an obvious creativity speaks from how there is alternated between small and large spaces / courses, light and dark places, and some random interesting objects I discovered like a room with pits, water leaking from water walls, a fontain, ivy. Texturing could’ve done better though, as most room textures are obviously repititive although the lighting does make up for it a bit. The first level is rather green and nature-like, second level has a lot of wood everywhere, the third level is full of stone, the fourth level is black with white stripes etc. A funny thing about the textures is that they seem to ‘bend’ when you walk along a wall closely, must be a slight problem of the 3D dll.
The weapons in this game are obviously stolen from other games. The knife and the shotgun are from Doom, and the AK47 and rocket launcher are certainly ripped from somewhere too, with the last one slightly editted. This is against the competition rules: everything had to be created from scratch. I can imagine Linkernel not having enough time to make graphics himself having started so late, but still even ugly self drawn graphics would’ve been better than ripping stuff! Ripping stuff is simply a shame, so be ashamed and keep it in mind for next competiton!
The enemies in this game range from characters like those in the 3D intro movie to a big blue water enemy. Most have a running animation, while strangely remaining stationary all the time. (news just in: Ecko informs me they do move towards you in levels near the end of the game!) Some fire (rather enormous) bullets while others just hurt you when you touch them. The enemies look good, but I can’t be sure if they were genuinely made by Linkernel. The blue water enemy that was the boss of level 1, appeared multiple times in the levels after as normal enemies.
Gameplay
The gameplay of this game is actually rather good because of the good level designs, although there are some obvious flaws as well.
Some keys used to play this game aren’t very logical, especially the ‘look up’ and ‘look down’ key, which are d and f (which are located next to each other – above each other would’ve made more sense). Also s for jumping wouldn’t have been my choice. Most other keys make perfect sense though: the arrow keys for movement and the control key for using your weapon. Now one might complain for having no mouse control or strafe keys – but then again this is a RETRO like game and no retro game has these things.
You move rather fast through the levels, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. This might be computer dependent in case Linkernel didn’t limit the framerate. On your way running through the levels you can pick up new weapons and armor, which are spread around ithe levels. Then when you discover an enemy, you’ll have to be careful sticking them with your knife – coming too close means you touch them and lose life. It’s entirely possible though to stab them in their face with your knife without getting hurt, although this might require some practise. As said earlier all enemies remain stationary while having a run animation, so unless they’re shooting things at you it isn’t hard to kill them. Especially if you have a gun, then you can simply take all the time you need to choose a good spot to shoot them in their throats. Aiming is pretty hard because of the lack of mouse control, so you’ll need that time when you use the shotgun or rocket launcher. The AK47 makes life easier though.
When an enemy dies he drops to the ground, where he remains for several seconds before disappearing. While being dead enemies can still hurt you, so don’t be too enthousastic running over their dead bodies. This is a bug obviously, and it requires fixing.
Dodging enemy fire is a bit hard without strafing, but that makes it fun too as you have to turn your head away from them to dodge the bullets which requires a bit of skill.
In the first level I got stuck in some hole after beating the first boss – there were these fancy pits in the ground and curious as I was I jumped in to find out. There wasn’t much beyond the pit, and I had to restart the game as I couldn’t get out.
While playing the game I some times had a feeling of being lost – not knowing which way I came from again. This is perfect for a game, and the reason I couldn’t remember is because I ran through the levels with the speed of light. It’s better than going through a level systematically remembering everything (which is boring).
One important aspect about the gameplay is the completeness of the levels – I’ve come to level 4, which means there are at least 4 levels. Ecko has informed me there are 8 levels! That’s more than the other competition entries. Also a notably good thing is that the hard enemies from the lower levels return as regular enemies in the higher levels.
Music & Sound
While the intro movie of the game plays, some nice music blasts from your speakers. This music however, is stolen. It’s just a tune that can be found on multiple sites on the internet, one of them being the mod archive. Once again – this is totally against the competition rules, everything had to be created from scratch. Even shitty music would’ve been better than stolen pretty music.
In-game there is no music, just an owl that howls every once in a while. As for sounds there are shooting sounds, a ‘game over laugh’, a knife stick sound and a sound dying enemies make. I don’t think any of these were made by Linkernel.
Conclusion
While this is absolutely a nice and very playable game due to the completeness of the levels, the fact that the biggest part of the sprites, the music and the sounds are stolen ruins the value of it as a competition entry. The gameplay is good and quick, and won’t bore you out. The game has some obvious bugs that need fixing, but this won’t be too hard. Moving enemies earlier on in the game could certainly add value to this game, just as mouse aiming and some other add-ons.
So, apart from the stolen stuff, it’s a playable game. Don’t forget this for next time please, stolen stuff never benefits you!