N+ is a simple game, both in premise and in its gameplay mechanics. In it you play as a nameless ninja and are tasked with collecting gold while avoiding deadly traps and falls, all while running against the clock to escape before it ticks down to zero. Making things interesting is just how complex the levels can be, and while the game is easy to get into and difficult to master it is hard to put down either way.

The levels are broken up into a series of chapters, with each chapter consisting of a handful of levels. As the player makes their way through a level the timer is constantly ticking down, which can be refilled by collecting some of the ever-present gold scattered around the level. Though you can always see the exit door and the switch that needs to be touched to open it, the difficulty comes in getting there not only in time but in one piece.

Though the player takes on the role of a ninja it is far from an easy task avoiding all of the traps in a level. Everything from mines that scatter ninja parts all across the level to roving robots that slam into you can put a serious crimp on a run. Other traps include laser and Gatling gun emplacements as well as homing missile launchers, and when used in conjunction it can make merely moving across a horizontal surface in N+ a puzzle in and of itself.

There is always a way to get past them though, and to aid the ninja in doing so is his surprisingly effective list of moves. The ninja can jump off of walls to scale vertical barriers, slide back down them so as to not fall to his death, and use his own momentum to his advantage in order to bound over obstacles and sail through the air to reach a far flung ledge. Kicking up a wall to sail over a field of mines and then slide down an opposing wall, all the while dodging a homing missile, is par the course for the N+ experience.

Thankfully the control scheme makes it easy to pull off all of these moves though it is surprising how simple it is. The d-pad controls the ninja’s left and right movement, and any of the face buttons makes the ninja jump. To jump up a wall you can hold in the direction of the wall while in the air and then press jump at any time contact is made, which you can repeat to keep climbing up or then immediately press the opposite direction to spring away from it. Wall sliding is a simple matter of pressing against a wall while airborne and holding it, functioning as a way to slow decent or simply avoid a deadly fall. The game makes no use of the stylus, though it is hard to see how such input could be thrown into the game without overcomplicating things.

The stylus isn’t the only piece of the DS N+ doesn’t really utilize, as the graphics themselves are incredibly simple. Though the ninja has quite a few frames of animation most of the game is quite abstract and lacks any real detail. This makes everything easy to spot and about as far from visually cluttered as one can get even in the most complicated of levels, but isn’t quite visually appealing nonetheless. Sound in the game is forgettable in terms of the equally simplistic sound effects, and absolutely dreadful in the music department which defaults to not being enabled and should be left as such.

As the player progresses through the game bonus content is unlocked in the form of new ninja colors, new levels, and other additional content. When the player has finally completed the over 200 levels in the game they can choose to create new ones using the level editor and share them with friends. The level editor is a little clunky at first, but once its learning curve is conquered it becomes easy to whip up your own deathtrap of a level complete with pixel-perfect jumps and countless traps and pitfalls. Let’s face it, after you have been on the receiving end of such levels countless times it’s nice to dish out your own brand of mayhem on an unsuspecting friend.

The multiplayer however will catch both you and your friend on equally unsuspecting ground in terms of just how difficult it is right from the get go. In multiplayer both ninjas are dropped into the same level and must navigate it to reach the exit. Death is not permanent, and while you respawn back at the relative safety of the starting area it takes a massive chunk off of the remaining time. What makes things frankly unsatisfying is just how difficult the levels are, with the relative difficulty of the very first one ranking somewhere amongst the difficulty level of the final 25% of the single player experience. It is fun to work with another player to have one distract a missile while the other dodges mines to hit switches, but ultimately it’s incredibly and needlessly frustrating.

Thankfully the rest of the game is not. While it does get difficult and can get frustrating to some extent N+ is a great example of solid platforming mechanics with shades of a puzzle game built into them. Every level has a solution now matter how crazy it looks at first, and it is up to the player to flex their ninja prowess to make it happen. Its multiplayer is disappointing, but the single player experience which is the real meat of the game is as solid as it ever has been and marks a great entry for the franchise onto the DS.





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