Reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoon fun

User Rating: 6.5 | Mini Ninjas PS3
With its unique animation style and background styles hearkening to classical Japanese art, it really is a colorful and vibrant setting for a fun game. It really took me back, while playing it with my 7-year old, to those early Saturday mornings when they made exciting cartoon adventures, with a nice story and good action. The kid was just as engrossed watching me play it as he would be if we plopped him in front of the tube, but this immersed him a little more as he helped solve some of the simple puzzles.

It is not a challenging game for even moderate gamers. There are aspects that might be, like collecting the trophy for completing a level without being seen, or rafting down the Great River and its rapids without taking any damage, or even the final level itself (at times). But this is a game geared towards children as evidenced by its graphical representation and degree of difficulty.

The integrated trophy system is great and lends a sense of accomplishment, especially for kids, as a large portion of the trophies are easy to collect. Now we can really compete on the PSN trophy levels.

The cutscenes were a little bland, and the story was light on substance. But the gameplay was intuitive and the settings were beautifully rendered. I really enjoyed collecting the various magic scrolls, but some of the magics themselves seemed a bit frivolous and not entirely useful.

All in all, it was a fun game, especially when playing with a kid around. I might replay sections of it to see if I can collect a few more trophies, but I won't linger too long after one go-through.