www.ninjadoodle.com
This is one of those games where you will spend at most an hour completing it. It is a visual puzzle game, where, as the captions on the splash screen aptly puts it, the objective of the game is to 'point, click & drag to find the PLAY button!', 'Once you got it, click it to move on to the next level!'. There are a couple dozen levels that
the player will encounter, and have to solve.
The game is simple. There is a 'play' button, similar to the icon in any VCR/CD/DVD players, and you have to find it. The first thing that struck me was the simple rules of the game. In every level, there is an element that can be interacted with: the sun, the clouds, buttons, even inconspicuous looking screws. Once you have found the first asset that can be clicked on, the rest of the game should be relatively simple to solve. There is no clue for each level, and so players have to guess how the level works. For instance, there is a level where 3 ropes are presented. When the player drags the rope, he will find that the rope is tied to an item. Of course, the 'play' button is tied to one of the three ropes. I like how the game designer makes use of real life knowledge to design the levels. For instance, the 4th level called 'Mikado' is basically a version of 'pick up sticks'. The clue to each level, is then the player's daily observations and experiences in real life. However, there is the drawback of the user not having been exposed to a particular set of experiences, be it cultural or economic reasons, and thus may not fully appreciate the level design, may not get the 'clue', and be stuck in a level.
Art style and presentation of the game is really really interesting. I like minimal design, and some levels rank pretty high in that aspect, as can be seen in the screenshots. The lack of other assets allow the game designer to direct the player's attention to the stuff which are most important. The entire game is in black-and-white as well, and adds to the effect. The entire game is presented in simple geometric shapes, but with a cartoony feel to it. I like it that way.
Music is interesting, has a jumpy jazzy feel to it. It is professionally done, with proper real instruments layered over each other, unlike some games which uses synthesized tracks. The music is looped over the entire game, which is a drawback, but I guess it would be too much to ask for multiple soundtracks in that game.
One of the major drawbacks of the game is that the user HAS to use a proper mouse to play the game, instead of using the trackpad. Although most levels can be solved with the trackpad, there are a couple time-based levels which are horribly difficult to pass unless a proper mouse is used. I was unable to pass those levels when I played it with my laptop and had to frustratingly find my mouse so that I could complete the game. I managed to beat those horrendous levels with my mouse on the 2nd try.
Rating: 8/10
Tim.
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