By Jim Rossignol on June 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am.
A friend of mine seemed distraught about Mini Ninjas. “Why would you be developing that, when you could be doing another Hitman game?” He’s right, of course, but this does look reasonably entertaining – and I can only assume that Io are developing another Hitman game, as yet unannounced. Anyway, your diminutive assassin in this game isn’t going to require quite so much thought in play, but he can hide inside a pig, which is something 47 hasn’t tried.
Looks pretty cute and fun. I guess they want to take a break from the Hitman games. Also, is that a flatulent Dr. Robotnik he’s fighting at the end of the first video?
report
I’m sure I’d read before that they HAVE said a Hitman 5 is in the works.
I hope this isn’t eating into Hitman 5 dev time, but either way it looks like fun and the story trailer is super cute.
report
http://www.gamingindians.com/2009/05/eidos-president-talks-arkham-thief-hitman-etc/2/
Merry Christmas Jim Rossignol. They’re also making Kane and Lynch 2 at the same time as HM5 and Mini Ninjas.
report
Says Games for Windows on their website though.
Looks pretty fun actually.
report
Just watched the trailers, and this looks really good, actually. I was also doubtful, but that gameplay trailer brings back so many nostalgic memories of Spyro and Crash games on the PS1 that I can’t help but want it.
report
Wait, the Big Bad’s master plan is to defeat all animals?
Also, from the gameplay trailer I get a strong deja vu of I-Ninja game (http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/i-ninja)…
report
I’ve never played any of the Hitman games, but this looks a heck of a lot more interesting…
report
Oh. My. God. Tiny cut fox thing! Yaaaay! This brings back memories of happy times when most games chose to be about semi-origional content and colours other than those of the dirt spectrum were used by mainstream developers. I rather reserved about it though, mostly because it seems like it could be a bit to shallow. It should be noted I haven’t seen the first video because I’m getting an error so all I can see is the ESRB logo. But it sounds hilarious from my angle, if a bit immature.
report
This looks really fun and amazingly cute. I just hope that they avoid racial stereotypes, Hitman doesn’t exactly have the best track record for that. Oh and the boss battle did look a little crap. But you get to be that fox, so who cares.
report
Jesus… Chibi Ninjas, farting, animals & the promise of Crude Humour? It’s like Samurai Pizza Cats without the Pizza & the Cats!!!
This can only end well.
report
Looks fun, except for the obvious QTE for the boss.
report
How cute :)
Does really bring back memories of Spyro.
report
This looks like good fun, and kudos to them for trying something different. I hope they don’t suddenly drop the PC release though.
report
Ubernutz makes an official prediction that this will get in the top 5 games sold in it’s opening week.
report
@optimaximal
Well no, this could end really badly.
As much as I love IO they have no experience in making a really great fighting game.
Ninja Gaiden was so good because of Team Ninja’s DoA heritage.
Devil May Cry at Capcom too.
At the same time they do not have any experience making a Zelda or Okami style adventure.
So what are the odds that this will be good?
Cute yes, outstanding?
Not likely.
report
Why do boss fights have to be QTEs now, I remember when Boss Fights were actually challenging not because i couldn’t do a Simon Says game but because I had to dodge attacks an hit there weakpoints. Now a days Boss Fights are glorified cinemas where you don’t actually do much.
And thats my rant for the day.
report
Looks fun but I agree with Xercies – what is with the QTEs? They ruin everything. What I find especially odd is they seem to be in PS3 and XBox360 games (eg in Heavenly Sword and Force Unleased) yet big Wii games (Metroid and Zelda for example) don’t have them.
And on the Zelda note don’t those enemy explosions look a little familiar?
report
Looks amusing – definate wii potential surely…
report
This went totally under my radar and now i’m rather interested.
Maybe i’m just a sucker for that cell shaded art style? if that’s what it is?
report
Looks good. Do want.
report
Looks very I-Ninja to me, which is good news.
report
Definitely getting this, been looking for a good PC 3D platformer since Psychonauts.
report
Sign me up for another “Oooh looks cute and fun” and at the same time “WTF QTE” So I guess a :) and a :( makes a :|
I guess if most of the game is NOT qtes, I can live with just the boss ones – but after Mercenaries 2, I’d rather just not see them ever again.
report
Harry Potter? Pfft, that’s some stupid kiddy …Ooh, cute little ninjas! Boing, boing, tehehe! ^__^
report
Uh, oh, spaghettio. QTE. QED.
report
that…looks…AWESOME!
report
Like sammy said, reminds me of I-Ninja.
report
It does look neat and fun to play… Me wants !
report
I suspect the use of QTEs for bosses stems from the lack of granularity of player health — in a standard “hit the boss and don’t get hit” situation, if the player only has some four hearts of HP to work with (no fractions), I imagine it’s hard to balance “boss has interesting-looking attacks” with “player should be able to avoid them with moderate ease to prevent frustration and constant restarts”. Much easier to just make them debilitating rather than deadly, and make the QTE minigames decide whether you lose health or the boss does.
Then again, arcade games were balancing the hitpoints-in-boss-fights thing a long time ago, so maybe it’s just developer laziness and/or a different target audience these days.
On the third hand (where did that come from?), maybe I just haven’t played enough QTE-featuring games to mind them so much. Sure, I’d prefer a stand-up fight that both looks interesting and plays well — but in this kind of game, if it’s a choice between good-looking QTEs and a generic-looking “shoot it and don’t get shot” boss fight, I think I’d prefer the former.
report