The concept of Mini Ninjas must have presented quite a dilemma for its creators. Developed by IO Interactive, a studio known for more violent fare such as Hitman, Freedom Fighters and Kane and Lynch, their latest title featuring a cast of cute, diminutive warriors trained in ancient (and mythical) martial arts may just have kept the team members awake at night thinking about a single question: who or what is the game’s target audience?

While no developer ever likes to admit that they develop games for a particular target market, but rather profess that their aim is to simply create a ‘fun’ game that everyone can enjoy, there are obvious business-related decisions associated with every single game that has ever been made, and ever will be made, so as to ensure that there is sufficient monetary compensation for all their months and years of toil, allowing the studio to continue to create games that are ‘fun’ in the future.

One of these business-related decisions is the question of target market, because no developer would ever wish for their title to be relegated to a no-man’s land of appeal, hovering with one foot in the ‘hardcore’ demographic, a finger in the ‘casual’ audience, and a toe in the family-friendly, kiddie market. That’s how you end up with a platypus - a jack-of-all-trades that satisfies no-one, with sales performance to match.

Even for a game as solid, well crafted and satisfying as Mini Ninjas, this question must arise. Should the developers dilute the available actions in the game to match the theme and cute, stylised, cartoon-like visuals (which despite being well designed are, quite frankly, murky and unimpressive) to appeal to the family-friendly market, or beef up the blood, gore and realism to support a more deeply thought-out set of abilities and available actions so as to appeal to the hardcore crowd?

So again, we come to the question: who or what is the target audience for Mini Ninjas? Perhaps a quick dissection of the game proper can provide some answers.

Mini Ninjas tells the tale of a diminutive ninja called Hiro, who is set on a quest to rescue his friends from the clutches of an evil samurai warlord hell-bent on world domination, and who is using ancient Kuji magic (ancient and forgotten ninja techniques) to transform captured animals into evil samurai soldiers as a means to this end.

It falls to Hiro, and his friends (each usable throughout the adventure after rescuing them, each with their own unique capabilities), to travel through feudal Japan and put a stop to the evil warlord’s plans, freeing captured animals, defeating hundreds of enemy soldiers (all of whom revert back to harmless forest creatures) and destroying five powerful elemental bosses in the process, with a story told throughout by a suitably old and Asian-sounding narrator (who also sounds as though he voices a majority of the characters in the game).

This story is no more or less detailed, or more or less family-friendly, than that of a Mario or Zelda game; both of which are clear influences on the world of Mini Ninjas; both of which are also happily consumed by ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ gamers alike, so the story and storytelling techniques of Mini Ninjas shouldn’t prove to be too divisive for a given target audience.

Mini Ninjas plays the way one would expect a third-person action adventure game to play – the sticks control character and camera movement, you’re able to jump, crouch to hide in tall grass (which can come in very handy), attack with an average strength sword swipe and a heavier, enemy-block-breaking attack, block incoming attacks and run.

Unique to Mini Ninjas is the ability to pull off cool ninja techniques (such as fireballs, lightning strikes, slowing down time and many more besides) and choose an active technique from a radial menu. The assigning of these techniques isn’t handled all that well, as you have to go into a separate static menu to assign a selection of possible active techniques to the radial menu from your currently available techniques, while items can also be assigned in this way and used on the fly, but you still have to manually select from the radial menu (brought up with a bumper button) which item or technique you wish to be the active one (i.e. the one that activates when you pull the trigger).

Items (such as health and magic potions) can be activated in the static menu without being assigned to the radial menu, but it’s still a little confusing and not immediately evident which techniques and items are available, and sometimes, when you gain a new technique, it automatically assigns itself to the radial menu… after all this text, all you really need to know is that this system is a little too bewildering and convoluted, but you can get the hang of it over time.

For added gameplay variety, whenever you rescue one of your ninja friends from capture, they’re added to your ‘collection,’ allowing you to choose to play as them whenever you wish and use their unique abilities during a mission… only there really is that much of a reason to use anyone other than the main character, except for the occasional bigger enemy who requires the services of Futo, a large mallet-carrying ninja, to bop them on the head. It’s nice that there is a selection of other characters to choose from to add a bit of variety, but they’re never quite necessary past the point of curiosity.

Gameplay-wise, Mini Ninjas could prove a little beyond casual players and gamers who aren’t yet accustomed to third-person action games, with the addition of abilities that might overwhelm these players, while hardcore gamers will ably absorb the available systems and perform them without any trouble.

Luckily, combat is nice and satisfying with a variety of on-the-fly decisions to make, while there are a few extra-curricular activities to perform should you choose to do so (hint: it behooves you to do so). Things like fishing in a lake (your catches can be consumed for health), buying recipes for special potions, finding ingredients hidden around the expansive levels to make the potions, and exploring off-the-beaten-path to find secret areas which contain extra techniques.

The majority of the levels are excellently designed to provide more than one path of progression, but always (as is necessary) funnel you to main points of interest, which gives you the feeling of freedom and choice, and also allows you to explore at will but then know full well that you’ll be able to return to the task at hand at any time.

There’s a good assortment of enemy types, too, so you rarely get bored of attacking the same enemy over and over again, while your special ninja abilities successfully create the feeling of filling the shoes of a ninja, perhaps more so than other ninja-themed games, as in later stages you’ll gain access to more powerful techniques and the ability to attack multiple enemies at once to make quick work of your foes.

While Mario and Zelda are very apparent influences on the game, the developers of Mini Ninjas unfortunately didn’t take the visual cues from those games, despite what appears to be an attempt to do so – graphically, Mini Ninjas isn’t all that impressive, despite the stylised, cute and well designed characters and objects in the game. There is a visual simplicity present that, if pulled off well, could have been successful (case in point, Zelda: Wind Waker), but in Mini Ninjas, it’s a little too simple, and the lack of detail really hurts the experience, especially in some of the later levels when different environments are themed with different colours, marring and diluting the visuals to the game’s detriment.

Casual gamers may be able to overlook this considerable flaw in Mini Ninjas, but ‘hardcore’ gamers, used to triple-A titles where the presentation and production values are through the roof, will have a more difficult time accepting what’s on screen. Granted, the style is conveyed in a very consistent manner and it pulls off a cartoon, stylised version of samurais, ninjas and Japanese castle fortresses well, but it is striking the first time the game is observed in motion how watered down everything looks.

It was the hope that by breaking Mini Ninjas down into its base elements, some decision could be made about which target audience the game was aimed at, because there is just enough evidence to support either argument, either weighing towards a more hardcore audience or a family-friendly casual audience, with just enough elements present to appeal to one market, but put the other one off. As stated above, it’s incredibly important for developers and publishers to know who their game is targeted towards, as well as make development decisions to include or exclude any given element to improve the chances that the game won’t find itself in a no-man’s land of features.

After a bit of deliberation, Mini Ninjas could in fact be thought of as a cross-over title, with enough appeal for hardcore gamers through the game’s richness in gameplay and enough of a context and motivation provided by the story to continue playing, while the cute, stylised visuals, light-hearted story and basic, introductory gameplay elements are easy enough to understand and enjoy, and with a bit of effort, even casual gamers will be able to unlock the fun of selecting techniques on the fly, defeating enemies in a variety of different ways by using the available abilities to the full, and exploring the world to improve those abilities.

The same sentiment settled upon after previewing Mini Ninjas prevails for the full experience: If you give Mini Ninjas a try, and look past the graphics for a few moments, it’s possible you may just find a rewarding, charming and humorous game experience that you weren’t expecting - Mini Ninjas is definitely worth exploring.

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