Gesture Ninja is a simple indie game on the App Store that releases on June 5th. Everyone likes an underdog pet project, so I was excited to give this game a try. Besides, the ubiquitous Fruit Ninja was a blast, might Gesture Ninja replicate the same intuitive fun? The short, simple answer: no.

The uncomplicated 99 cent premise is to swipe and tap a random order of four gestures which activate punches and kicks. As a black stick figure, your goal is to endlessly follow these gestures until the onslaught is too much to keep up with. Identical in all but color, your enemies will approach you on the left or right of the 2d plane. Your stoic martial arts hero doesn’t move, but sits back and lets the legions come to him or her.

This game is boring, broken and it advertises to you constantly. With such a simple concept, one would expect the controls to be immaculate. Nope. I found myself frustrated far too quickly, particularly with the double tap. Instead of allowing its simple concept to be an appealing aspect of the game, it just ends up being as messy as the rest of the game.

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The graphics could hardly be plainer, because it’s just a simple background with some minor details, and that mixed together with the simple stick figure characters leaves you with a bland creation that lacks the visual vibrancy of games like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja. The characters are supposed to be plain, so it seems like a missed opportunity to make the background great in detail so it might become more epic, but that idea is never taken advantage of. Unfortunately, even the soundtrack is bland: it’s just a simple war drum beat over and over.

Martial arts aficionados might appreciate the variable fighting stances, although this has no apparent effect on gameplay, whatsoever.

It’s a game of survival, but the real challenge is to see how long this app will survive in the sea of iOS games. Although most iOS games use simplicity as their calling card to allow quick on the go bursts of gaming, this game’s simplicity becomes boring fast, and that mixed with its lacking visuals and repetitive soundtrack make it hard to get any enjoyable experiences out of it.

There’s plenty of other great – even free – iOS games available that you can waste your time with, and if you decide to pick up Gesture Ninja, you may indeed just be wasting your time. Perhaps with more time and effort put into Gesture Ninja, it could have become a really quick, fun game to play on the go, but it seems more like a lazy attempt to get money rather than to provide gamers with a fun ninja battling experience.

This review is based on a review copy of the iOS game Gesture Ninja by Miklos Kekkoi.

Undisciplined Ninjas | Gesture Ninja Review
Overall2.5
Positives
  • Different fighting stances?
Negatives
  • Unresponsive controls
  • Constant advertisements
  • Bland graphics and soundtrack
2.5Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)
0.0

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