By Jim Rossignol on July 27th, 2009 at 11:11 am.
Hey, you there! I bet you’d like to be amused, at least in passing, by ragdolls kicking the crap out of each other in zero-g. Am I right? I thought so, because that means you need to go and have a look at the Rubber Ninjas demo. (Via Indiegames) Ragdolls get kicked, dudes explode with poly-blood. It’s probably not going to get you to choke up the $19.95 for the full game, but it’s at least a pretty distraction from your cold, lonely isolation on the face of an uncaring planet, spinning through the deadly, infinite void of space.
Stop it! You’re going to make me start cutting. . .
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So is it a bit like rubber Toribash?
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Stop that emo shit, man…
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Possibly intriguing…
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*hug*
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Okay, so played a single match. It’s kind of like Toribash, but mostly not. In fact, from what I can see, it eschews all notion of precise controls and instead just has you control the movement (as in up, down, left, right) of your rubber ninja through.
Advanced moves include: hurling yourself at an opponent, then veering off, so that you legs swing forward to deliver a fancy kick.
No idea if this is any more effective than just head-butting them.
Further analysis required…
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This is essentially the sequel to ragdoll masters, but in 3d, and minus coop campaigns, which is annoying. The gameplay is surprisingly deep, or at least I think so, but what do I know. :p
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Replayed Sumotori. Its still awesome.
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RPS, I like the cut of your Jim.
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Space is not infinite, silly.
Is it?
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No it isn’t…
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It’s infinite enough that you don’t notice the difference.
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Ok, I started watching their “gameplay” trailer, but I only lasted about 12 seconds because the constant superslowmo/VanDamme/Matrix effects made it impossible to discern THAT anything was occurring, much less WHEN or HOW QUICKLY it was occurring. /Skip.
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Mujadaddy:
The video is terrible, and shows nothing. The demo itself is actually kind of fun. Shallow, but fun.
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Only worth it if you have mates. Physical friends that is. I used to play the original at uni with friends, it makes for some fantastic unexpected tournaments with lots of ooohhs and ahhhs.
The weapons are a nice new feature, but other than that it looks identical. No Internet MP either :(
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Was quite excited to see what this was all about, as i’m very much into silly little physics games and indie stuff. In this case, looks like Toribash.
But then i looked at the video, and it just looks like a 3D copy of Ragdoll Masters ( http://www.ragdollsoft.com/ragdollmasters/ ) … which isn’t a very fun game at all. :(
Shame. Oh well… back to my lonely, cold, isolated rock-bound life.
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“It’s at least a pretty distraction from your cold, lonely isolation on the face of an uncaring planet, spinning through the deadly, infinite void of space.”
Yeah.
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Fun little demo. The shmancy 3d effects make it kind of hard to see what’s going on though. Ragdoll Masters, the predecessor, is much better in terms of clarity and control – I very much recommend it. Try the demo, it’s more fun than you’d think.
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I find it amazing that the developer was able to add a third dimension while keeping the game playable. To compare with Ragdoll Masters, this new incarnation does indeed seem to lack a some control and clarity, making precise movements and tactics harder to accomplish than in the previous, and thereby making it less of a skill based game. I would guess this is an unavoidable consequence, and bravo to the developer for pulling it off so well. This is a purchase for me.
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Toribash with less of a learning curve.
Also: if space is not infinite then what is beyond it?
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It is nothing like Toribash.
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Ben/Mujadaddy – I believe Douglas Adams explored this quite enough already. Space is huge, incomprehensibly, mind-bogglingly vast. Infinity, on the other had, is rather flat and boring.
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While it is, indeed, nothing like Toribash, it does bring it to mind, superficially.
Anyways, it seems spawned from that Toribash and Sumotori mold, but without any semblance of depth. I can’t imagine this would stay fun long enough to be worth $20.
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@liddlemonkey
Beyond space there is only candy floss, but when you try and lick it you realise it isn’t really there. Just like normal candy floss.
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Gave it a shot, and my goodness this game is mind numbingly terrible.
It’s basically like having 2 asteroids ships fight in a bowl. Just with slightly prettier graphics.
You don’t even control the body, you just drag the head around and the body drags behind you like some kind of fishing lure.
Shame really, sounded like an interesting concept, rubber men fighting in zero g, using heavy ragdoll.
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Yeah Starky, the trick is learning to control the body by extension of controlling the head. It does require a bit of learning it.
The method of control is identical to the original Ragdoll Masters, and I’d recommend looking to that first for newcomers. With this new iteration, luck is a slightly stronger factor (a difficulty offset by not having to restart every death) which will upset the learning of it. Once it clicks, it becomes much more fun. (This I remember only from my experience with the original ofcourse.)
Also the Toribash mentions are inane. The original Ragdoll Masters is atleast as old as Toribash, and besides both containing stickmen, they are wildly different types of games.
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After watching my girlfriend play this (accompanied by her whoops, and cries for star-blood), I’ve realized that there may be more to Rubber Ninjas than I originally thought.
There is definitely a market for something /like/ this, but without any advanced means of controlling your character (i.e. once you’ve passed the five minute learning curve, there isn’t anything to sink your teeth into) it simply isn’t something I could justify spending actual money on.
Still, I like the concept, and the visuals are very nice. I’ll wait to see if a more in-depth version comes out, though.
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I actually found the original to be more entertaining. Perhaps because this idea is now old but I suspect it’s more to do with this:
Player boots up game.
Starts demo campaign.
Flies towards enemy and spins around to flail legs feet first.
Fun ensues. That is until you land a hit. At this point the game grinds to a halt to with no motion what so ever and a very slight rotation on the game world. You can’t see what your doing and more importantly you no longer feel like your in control of your little rubber ninja.
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What an odd game. I’d prefer it if gravity mattered
Needs more controls. I don’t know how the AI would cope, but currently all you do is drag your character’s head from place to place and then change direction before something hits it.
An interesting dynamic (leading with your vulnerable bit), but I reckon you should at least be able to control your character’s spin direction, even if it’s just left and right. Half the fun of this sort of thing is feeling like you pressed the button at just the right time and delivered terrible violence to your opponent. Currently this effect is rarely there and it feels pretty random.
Also, how do you know so much about my life Jim? (I feel much better knowing I’m being watched . I’m special!)
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I put up a review for this on Fun-Motion yesterday:
http://www.fun-motion.com/physics-games/rubber-ninjas/
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Twenty pond is a bit steep isn’t it? Considering you could gt Trine or even prototype if you look around enough.
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Much preferred the original Ragdoll Masters. The slo-mo was actually very annoying, and given that the influence of your arrow or wasd is based on your perspective, having the game RANDOMLY alter that perspective mid-move is really quite idiotic.
One plus is that the round arenas and shifting z-axis prevent the cheap tactic I often found useful in the original: sticking my head in a corner, and taunting the enemies with my death-dealing feet.
Verdict: bought the original and loved it, particularly because I could put it on a very small flash-drive and play it anywhere I went. Absolutely passing on this new iteration, though the weapons were a nice touch that I thought would’ve been nice in the first one.
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Half the fun of this sort of thing is feeling like you pressed the button at just the right time and delivered terrible violence to your opponent. Currently this effect is rarely there and it feels pretty random.
In this aspect it is worse than Ragdoll Masters, but the exact same mantra is applicable: need more practice. If for instance you can’t use your arms effectively when desiring to, you’re missing out on those opportunities to strike.. It is a valid complaint ofcourse, and I think this game has suffered somewhat from the “testers syndrome” ie. difficulty being scaled to the developers ability. I’m having a lot of fun with it, but I also played Ragdoll Masters everyday for a loong time. In the same vein, I don’t mind the time slow effects or camera reversals at all; I feel they significantly help me make movement decisions, and just let me admire the stunts/admit the defeats I manage to pull off. I do believe some things could be improved, but I have great hopes this one will get polished into a gem like the original.
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Anybody else having trouble getting it to even run? Possibly related to my vidcard (Radeon 4850).
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I’ve discovered this is a lot more fun on a slow computer or one without a fancy graphics card. It makes the showy spin/freeze business painfully long, but it’s easier to see what’s going on and control things. Gives a groovy Matrix slo-mo fight scene type effect.
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where can i find the demo to actually play?
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all u people who wrote something about this game are faaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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and what is up with all of your gay names its like come on people thoes names are so gay they make clay akin look strait
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