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Holiday weekend giveaway: Ninja pack!
Memorial Day: in the US, this is the holiday where we honor the service of our brave men and women in uniform who have given their all in the defense of our nation. Also, we have fireworks, attend barbecues and often go to the beach. Viva America! We know that TUAW readers love three-day weekends almost as much as they love free swag, so we thought "Why not combine the two?" We'll be posting giveaways all weekend long to help you get set up for summertime. Our first pack of goodies comes courtesy of Shawnimals and Venan Entertainment, who are the folks behind the new $1.99 Ninjatown:Trees of Doom game for iPhone.
NinjaTown: Trees of Doom half price for a 'limited time'
Between scaling deadly pines and being adorable, NinjaTown franchise star Wee Ninja somehow found the time to pow-wow with Business Ninja and work out a price drop for NinjaTown: Trees of Doom. The Doodle Jump-like series spinoff game landed on iPhone earlier this month for $1.99, but apparently developer Venan Entertainment decided that it's "not yet satisfied" with sales, despite remaining atop the Top 25 paid app charts for some time now. No official end date is given for the sale, though the game's iTunes App Store listing says it will stay on sale "while featured by Apple." Better get it while the getting's good then, eh? NinjaTown: Trees of Doom (Venan Entertainment, $0.99):
TUAW's Daily App: Space Miner: Space Ore Bust
Space Miner: Space Ore Bust is a terrific game for the iPhone -- it's an arcade game that's basically a one-stick shooter, where you move a ship around a 2D field (rendered in colorful 3D), collecting asteroid ore and taking down alien robots. But though the basic premise of the game is quite simple, there's actually a lot of depth that builds up over time, as you navigate around various zones, and upgrade your ship, your ore collector, and all of the other various parts of your space ore business. And while the gameplay is tight and fun, the best part of Space Miner (in my humble opinion) is the brilliant and hilarious script. Not only does the story of the game give you great reasons to keep going out there and blasting ore, but it's legitimately creative and funny. Chicago poet and performer Robbie Q. Telfer is listed in the credits as story editor, and that really paid off for the game -- some of the dialogue is just perfect. So yes, the game is worth a buy even at the normal $4.99 price -- but wait, there's more. Starting tomorrow, Space Miner: Space Ore Bust is going on sale for just 99 cents for a limited time to help promote the Venan Arcade's upcoming second game, the strangely titled Ninjatown: Trees of Doom. At that price, it's worth a purchase just to play through the tutorial. Definitely be sure to grab it.
Return to Ninjatown in tree-hopping iPhone adventure
click to enter the gallery of doomShawn Smith's Ninjatown characters first appeared in video game form in a 2008 tower defense game for DS called, appropriately, Ninjatown. It was adorable. Developer Venan Entertainment is bringing Ninjatown back on a new platform, and as a platformer, sort of! Ninjatown: Trees of Doom puts the player in the role of a Wee Ninja who, in order to impress Ol' Master Ninja, demonstrates his ability to run straight up a tree. To avoid enemies and obstacles like Dark Syrup, Wee Ninja must leap between two parallel trees or use branches to catapult himself upward. Trees of Doom will be Ninja Dropping onto the App Store "in a couple weeks" for $1.99. %Gallery-91004%
SouthPeak is apparently rolling in the dough
Sure, you used to laugh up your sleeve at SouthPeak when it unleashed My Baby and Dream Pinball 3D on an unsuspecting public. But SouthPeak couldn't hear you. Know why? Because SouthPeak's ears were stuffed with money. GI.biz reports that the publisher's income was at $17.3 million for the most recent quarter, a jump of 76 percent over the previous year.Financial apocalypse sweeps through the nation, and only the people behind Two Worlds are able to rise above it all. Strange times, friends. Strange times.
Real Ultimate Buying Power today on Amazon [update]
"One skilled in the art of stealth -- Nintendo DS". That's the hint Amazon is offering for a Gold Box deal that will go up today at 6PM PST. We don't know the exact identity of the offer, but we can speculate! Our guess is Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, which just happens to be one of the best games of 2008. What a delight it would be to get it at one of the best prices of 2008! Other ninja-related games we can think of offhand include N+ (another honoree!), Ninjatown (wow, a lot of ninja games in our top 10), Tenchu: Dark Secret (not so great), various Naruto releases, the Izunas, Ninja Reflex, and Taito's Legend of Kage 2 -- which you can get for cheap right now. [Update: it's Ninjatown for $20!]
Metareview -- Ninjatown (DS)
We have a tendency to miss metareviewing portable games, especially when they're caught up in the mad flood of holiday releases. But Ninjatown has been getting such good scores we figured it deserved its moment in the sun, especially since you'll be able to pick it up for $15 on Friday. ... And yes, OK, it's kind of a slow news day. So sue us. GameShark (91/100): "Ninjatown has 'sleeper hit' written all over it. It certainly looks innocent enough on the outside – it's cute and goofy, and oozes sugary sweetness, as it's actually based on a stuffed toy line (the Shawnimals, created by ex game journo Shawn Smith). But underneath that fluffy exterior is a seriously addictive tower defense game that is as hardcore as it is adorable." Game Informer (90/100): "Don't let the cutie-pie exterior fool you - Ninjatown is a gamer's game through and through. The units in this tower-defense title are versatile and useful, enemies are diverse and deadly, and there are enough power-ups and options to keep things fresh. Best of all, levels don't seem to have a preset way to beat them, unlike many tower-defense games on the market." 1UP (B+): "Ninjatown's layered in a coating of sickly sweetness that no amount of scrubbing will ever get out of your DS slot, but this obviously wasn't a game rushed out just to peddle Shawnimals merchandise. If you can get past the saccharine coating of the Ninjatown world, you'll find a surprisingly good tower defense?style filling hidden inside the hard candy shell." GameDaily (80/100): "Once you're done admiring the charming and colorful artwork that encompasses the Ninjatown box, you'll soon realize there's a deep, addictive and challenging game for your DS inside. Ninjatown takes the fast-thinking, reactionary gameplay of tower defense and combines it with simple real-time strategy elements, creating one of the more compelling and unique games in recent memory."
DS Fanboy Review: Ninjatown
When I received my pretty-much-complete build of Ninjatown, I was floored at just how much fun this ridiculously cute game is. But, beneath its layer of cute sprites and witty dialogue hides a masochistic game that loves to punish you for making an incorrect move. Of course, it is a strategy game, after all. %Gallery-15839%
DS releases for the week of October 26th
There's a ridiculous amount of cuteness available for the DS this week, and while cuteness is certainly a staple among DS games, the combination of Ninjatown and MySims Kingdom may just be enough to destroy the universe. If we're still here come Wednesday, it means we survived. Importers might want to pay particular attention this week to the Japanese releases, too, but of course, with Play Asia's current sale -- 15% off everything in stock through Halloween -- it's a good time to import anyway. Might as well rack up on those Japanese DS games before the DSi comes along to spoil the import party. Bella Sara Go Diego Go!: Great Dinosaur Rescue Master of the Monster Lair Monster Jam: Urban Assault My Baby Boy MySims Kingdom Ninjatown Petz Rescue: Ocean Patrol Petz Rescue: Wildlife Vet Rubik's World Sherlock Holmes: Mystery of the Mummy Shrek's Carnival Craze Smart Boy's Winter Wonderland Theresia Tornado Travel Games for Dummies The Wonder Pets!: Save the Animals! Zenses: Ocean Zenses: Rainforest
Nintendo Channel: won't you take us to Ninjatown?
The Nintendo Channel has been great recently about giving Wii/DS owners the chance to try out quirky DS strategy games. Well, great in that there have been two. A few weeks ago, a Lock's Quest demo hit the channel (and we do hope you checked it out!) This week, SouthPeak's super-adorable tower defense game Ninjatown is featured.Limited-time demos returning for this week include Brain Quest Grades 3&4 and 5&6, MySims Kingdom, and Ubisoft's mysterious Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs. It seems to be some kind of touch-screen dinosaur fighting game for kids. We suppose we could actually play it and find out.%Gallery-15839%
Hanging out in Ninjatown
Come my ninjaCome come my ninjaYou're my defenderMy wee ninjaOops, wrong town. Today, we're on about Ninjatown, the adorable Tower Defense-style game which uses cookies as currency. In fact, we've got ten cutesy new screens. Even though Ninjatown is based on time-honored gameplay principles, it takes such a fresh approach that we're always happy to see something about it. The enemies, the minions of Mr. Demon, can't resist the Ninja Baby, and neither can we.
E308: A sneaky visit to Ninjatown
I don't know a thing about Tower Defense, so Ninjatown was scary and alien to me. But, unlike most strategy things, the world is so super-cute and appealing that it motivated me to try to play it. The game begins with an adorable cutscene in which the mayor, on his way to a good cower, entrusts Ol' Master Ninja to defeat the incoming minions of Mr. Demon.Playing Ninjatown is like a sort of strategy Actraiser. You pick a square parcel of land and place the ninja group of your choice there; the building gets built, then ninjas of whatever kind come out and start working. Wee Ninjas beat up on enemies, Sniper Ninjas shoot peas, and Snow Ninjas freeze enemies with snowballs. You can also build training centers and other enrichment buildings nearby. The ninja fortifications can also be leveled up for more stamina and attack power. All of these use cookies, the official currency of Ninjatown, which are replenished by defeating enemies.%Gallery-15839%
E308: SouthPeak's lineup has some hidden gems
Big Bang Mini is one of those delightful-looking, under-the-radar games that people should be paying more attention to, so we're glad that SouthPeak will be showing it off this E3. Then again, we're shmupoholics, so we can't help but be seduced by this trippy, fireworked shooter. An honorable E3 mention also goes to Ninjatown, though, for its cute and clever ways of portraying the deadly assassins. The other two DS games on SouthPeak's lineup are Brave: Shaman's Challenge and Igor the Game, neither of which we can muster up much enthusiasm for at the moment. Hopefully we'll end up pleasantly surprised, though -- at least by the former, as licensed-based games would probably have to make us breakfast, too, to incite a reaction. %Gallery-18714%%Gallery-15839%
Ol' Master Ninja's ol' magic
Ol' Master Ninja has plenty of techniques at his disposal to help take care of the denizens of Ninjatown. This trailer illustrates some of the ninja magic that can be used in-game to augment the monster-killing abilities of Ninjatown's silent, cuddly assassins. One special ability allows the player to refill ninjas' health by humming into the mic while they are on screen. Another gives Ol' Master Ninja a magnifying glass that can be directed onto enemies with the stylus. Ninjas aren't helpless on their own, of course: Forest Ninjas shoot barrages of arrows, and Business Ninjas can ... smack dudes in the head with cell phones.%Gallery-15839%
Two Worlds publisher obtains $12.9m in funding
SouthPeak Games, publisher of Two Worlds as well as the uber-cute DS title Ninjatown, has secured an impressive $12.9 million in private funding. As reported by VC blog VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, the financing is particularly interesting given that most investments of this sort are directed at the online games, virtual worlds or social networks, rather than the more traditional console and PC game space that SouthPeak calls home.The company will have no shortage of projects on which to blow its newfound cash, with a number of other titles on deck including XBLA puzzler Roogoo, Monster Madness: Grave Danger for the PS3, and The Temptation, which is totally not-an-expansion to Two Worlds. With multiple sequels planned, Takahashi also notes that the pub sees last year's Xbox 360 and PC RPG as its biggest success to date, though it's a sentiment obviously measured in something other than review scores.
Ninjatown: Tower Defense with ninjas
We knew developer Venan Entertainment and Shawnimals creator Shawn Smith were intending to create an "action-strategy" title with Ninjatown, but, for some reason, it never occurred to us that what they meant was a ninja-themed Tower Defense game.Reviewing IGN's gameplay clips and Joystiq's hands-on preview, it's obvious now how Ninjatown will play: During a brief building phase, you'll build ninja huts along a path which will produce varied ninja units. Enemies will start to charge down the path, and your newly created ninjas must try to stop them.Managing and commanding the ninjas from a hot air balloon as Ol' Master Ninja, players can jump into the battle with special attacks, such as smacking enemies with the Ol' Master Ninja's cane and slowing them down by blowing into the DS's microphone.Publisher SouthPeak expects to include 30+ scenarios total, encompassing five different gameworld areas, for Ninjatown's fall release. Though there's already at least one other Tower Defense commercial title due for the DS -- 5th Cell's Lock's Quest -- the cute character designs, playful approach, and use of the system's features could be enough to turn Ninjatown into something special.%Gallery-15839%Read - Joystiq hands-on: NinjatownRead - IGN's Ninjatown videos
Joystiq hands-on: Ninjatown
Designed by artist and former EGM editor Shawn Smith, Ninjatown is so sugary-cute that it should come packaged with flavored DS screen protectors. Its looks are just as sly as ninjas themselves, as we found a (so far) surprisingly deep action-strategy game underneath all the serious eye-fluff. We got some stylus time with a nice and solid pre-release version of the game yesterday. At first, we caught ourselves giggling a bit as the game's mechanics were explained. After all, it's not every day that you see a special attack where you literally blow away ah-dorable fire demons using the DS microphone. Keep reading for more silliness and our full impressions. %Gallery-25123%
October may be Ninjatime
Gamefly, the online rental service that takes too long to ship things to our apartment, now has a release date for the adorable Ninjatown: October 16th of this year. This is the first we've heard of even a ballpark release date for the action/strategy/awwwww game based on Shawn Smith's characters. Gamefly tends to know their stuff, too, so if this release date turns out to be inaccurate, it's probably because the publisher changed it.Now that we know when the game is coming out, we can start budgeting our expenditures of hundreds of Pocket Staches and plush ninjas versus the actual game.[Pocket Stache available here]
What's going down in Ninjatown
We're confident in our belief that Ninjatown is the only ninja game in history to feature cartoon hearts on its box. It's all due to the super-cute style created by Shawn Smith that the bizarre dichotomy between cute and cold-heartedly murderous can be maintained. For example: the game is a strategy game, which means war. The black-suited ninja is less than one second away from committing an act of violence on the boxart, and yet the ninjas' Smurf-Village-like dwellings overpower that and elicit an "awwww." We've got the first direct-feed screens of the game in our new gallery, and the same feeling applies: yes, these are people who primarily identify as ruthless assassins, but ... we want to huggle them.%Gallery-15839%[Via press release]
EGM visits Ninjatown
Shawnimals creator and Electronic Gaming Monthly alum Shawn Smith finally broke his silence on Ninjatown, sitting with EGM to talk about the game and share a couple screenshots. We knew to expect plenty of characters from the Shawnimals plush toy line when the Ninjatown trailer debuted, but, until now, we've been left in the dark on how the "action-strategy" title would play.According to Shawn, battles will be split into two phases, building and combat, the first of which allows you to drop in structures and create/upgrade the different ninjas at your disposal. While combat hasn't been finalized, it's expected to include a "puzzle element." We're not sure how that would work with the two screens shown so far, but it certainly sounds interesting!
