Mini Ninjas, from Eidos Interactive is a great game. I played the demo off the PSN with my wife and 7yo daughter and they both loved it so I went and picked up a copy at retail. Its been a hit so far all week.
This is a cute game with a simple story and not-too-complex fighting but quite a few items, spells and collectibles to make it interesting. That said, it also looks great.
The controls are pretty simple, you can move and look around, you can sneak in tall grass or bushes, you can attack with your primary weapon, or stun enemies with a kick, or use spells you learn and items on them such as shurikans or cherry bombs. There are also situations where you'll need to balance along tightropes, run along a wall to cross a crevice or jump between walls to reach higher places. There's also fishing.
As you progress, you find and rescue some of your friends who have their own skills, such as mesmerizing enemies with a flute or picking them off at a distance with a bow and arrow. As the main character, you can also possess nearby animals and use them to attack or sneak past enemies or to search for ingredients for potion recipes you'll purchase along the way.
I must say I haven't finished the game yet, but its proving to be a lot of fun, as is trying to get 100% at the end of each level for the collectibles. The trophies are also well chosen in my opinion. I'm annoyed by games that give progress trophies for the completion of each chapter of the game, and this one doesn't.
On the PS3, the only completion trophies are awarded for completing the game on each hard or normal difficulties, rescuing each friend, and for the major boss battles. The rest are for actual accomplishments like collecting one of each ingredient type, defeating a certain number of enemies as a bear, or with a bow, or for rescuing ever trapped creature in the game. One interesting MGS style trophy is for completing any level without being spotted.
Stumble It!
