Eastasiasoft are well known in gaming circles for releasing small games at low prices. They are normally pretty simple affairs, with simple retro style graphics, and simple achievement points available to grab.
Well, to keep their run going, the latest game from their stable is Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast, a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up with a bit of a gameplay hook and retro style graphics!
Normally at this point I’d wax lyrical about the narrative, but there is no point for there is no story. And I mean literally none – we are a ninja, on a jetbike for some reason, and there are a variety of insect and sea creature-based enemies coming towards us. Luckily, we can shoot, and so we can kill these creatures. And that’s all we need to know…
The story is a wash, but how about the presentation? Well, it is, as you may have guessed from the introductory paragraph, a retro styled affair, with pixelated graphics both for our ninja and the enemies. The playable area is a narrow strip going vertically up the screen, and the game does move at a fair old pace. The design of the enemies is pretty good, with a strong insect-based vibe going on, whilst the big bosses come in the form of spiders and the like; if you are an arachnophobe, be warned.
However, it isn’t long before you will notice a few issues, with the screen getting very busy, and the enemies being hard to see, especially when everything is full of bullets. It is a bit of a weird one really and when you are using one particular weapon, the problem gets worse. I’ll talk about the actual combat later, but suffice it to say it isn’t very easy to see what is going on in Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast. Consider this to be a wannabe bullet hell shooter and that means this is a bad thing.
In terms of the gameplay and this comes with two distinct sections, which feed into each other. There is the actual shooting side of things, which is self explanatory, and then there is an upgrade section, using things that you gain.
So, starting with the shooty bit (which is where the fun is to be had) and our jetbike riding ninja friend has a few tricks up their black sleeves. There is a variety of ninja based weaponry at our disposal – kunai knives, shuriken and a katana, to be exact. Weirdly, our ninja doesn’t throw any of these weapons and instead they are fired from the jetbike. The kunai fire a single shot from the front by default, while the shuriken are a three way shot. The katana is the game’s smart bomb, killing all small enemies on the screen, damaging the bosses and then finally also removing all enemy projectiles at the same time. It has a recharge time, signified by a ring that fills up around your jetbike – when it is full, unleash hell.
As we go through the shooty bit (that is the technical term, as I can’t call it “story mode”) various enemies get blasted to bits, dropping cogs; great big things that we have to collect. These come into their own upon our death (and in the early section of the game, this will be quite a lot), allowing access to the Upgrade menu, where we can spend these cogs to better various aspects of our craft. Extra health, an increase to the potency of the weaponry, the unlocking of new jetbikes and extra bosses, should you be of a masochistic bent, all are available. Obviously, having more powerful weapons and increased health makes things a bit easier in the shooty bit, and so with a little light grinding, we can soon make our ninja a bug squashing machine.
And getting stronger is only a good thing, as Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast is randomly generated, right down to the bosses you’ll face; one run it’ll be the big spider, next a kind of cocoon thing and so on. Even the regular enemies come in a random fashion, making the game last that little bit longer.
Want achievements? Well, you are in luck and Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast launches with 2000 Gamerscore up for grabs. While the majority of them are easy to get, there are a few related to progression through the game, so it isn’t a given, which is a nice change.
All in all, Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast does what it sets out to do – to be a retro styled shoot ‘em up with a reasonably strong hook. It isn’t anything new, but as the first in a promised string of Tiny Pixels games, it sets a decent benchmark.
There are better shooters out there, be in no doubt, but Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast is a perfectly serviceable game.
Retro SHMUP Action Returns: Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 – Ninpo Blast Takes Flight – https://www.thexboxhub.com/retro-shmup-action-returns-tiny-pixels-vol-1-ninpo-blast-takes-flight/
Buy the game from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/tiny-pixels-vol-1-ninpo-blast/9pcq1cpvqh9s
