Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It was something of a surprise to see Io Interactive announce that their next game wasn’t going to be another Hitman title, or any other kind of manshoot, but instead a new direction based on cute cartoon ninjas. That game, Mini Ninjas, is came out this week, to a mixed reception. Needless to say, I’m going to tell you Wot I Think…
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IO’s surprisingly cute third-person action game, Mini Ninjas, appears on the 8th for US types, and the 11th for those in Europe. Not perhaps the inevitable follow-up to Hitman and Kane & Lynch, the ker-choppy silliness seems like it could be pretty fun. You can play the demo for yourself to test your prelikings. Meanwhile, somewhat prematurely, there’s a ‘launch trailer’ that’s just appeared.

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The Mini Ninjas demo is out, and it’s here. This is the surprise move for what the Hitman team did next and, yes, it’s showing off at least a fragment of their creativity and invention. Your download today will be 778mb. My impressions and the two (possibly one, with new player bugs) new trailers below.
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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.
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Rather than following up on previous experiments in ultra-violence, Hitman, or Kane & Lynch, Danish devs Io Interactive have decided to head for the cell-shaded hills and create a cute action game entitled Mini Ninjas. As you might expect from the title, it’s a game that features diminutive dudes with sharp sticks, and some kind of Kung Fu cliché. A worthwhile new direction after the Kane & Lynch controversy? Or did Io actually take the time to watch the Hitman movie and decide that their next brush with Hollywood had better be via Pixar? Whatever the motivation, I have to admit I like the look of the giant lumbering evil samurai, and the fact that there’s a happy panda involved. There’s far too many sad pandas around these days, and this is all very cute.

Debut teaser trailer post-click.

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