The XBLA incarnation of cult Ninja platformer N+ is due to receive another healthy dollop of DLC.
For a measly 200 MS Points, players can guide their agile stick figure avatars around 150 single player levels, 50 multiplayer ‘race’ levels and 25 ‘survival’ multiplayer maps. Add to this the July DLC update (150 single player, 50 multiplayer) then throw in the built in level editor and N+ probably has enough levels.
Also out this week are 200 points worth of new boards for Buku Sudoku at something like one sixth of a point per puzzle – that’s pretty much a metric plethora.
N+ and Buku Sudoku DLC release this Wed [Xbox 360 Fanboy]
3:55 PM, the LA Convention Centre. Everyone is tired, and you can see the media room starting to slow down — people wander by with exhausted expressions on their faces, looking at their watches and lighting up when they realise there’s not much left in the day. Even Crecente has passed the point of being totally with it, pausing in the middle of sentences to stare off into space. I shuffle off to check out Atari’s E3 offerings, and am met with a surprisingly cheerful staff who point me in the direction of caffeine. I am not caffeinated enough to face a spiel on Deer Hunter Tournament, so I’m sat down to await a demonstration of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. I hear something about transport options from the person enthusiastically imbibing what the Deer Hunter guy is saying — ‘Oh cool, so you’re planning on having like, ATVs and stuff?’ — and am glad I’m parked in front of The Witcher instead of one screen over. More impressions and details after the jump:
Lately we are seeing more and more online flash games making the leap to consoles and handhelds. The newest addition to that roster is N+, an updated version of a little Ninja action/platformer game called N that took the interwebs by storm last year. The gameplay is simple and addicting. Guide your stealthy Ninja through mazes of obstacles, grabbing gold along the way until you eventually make your way to the exit. Now, Developer Silverbirch Studios is set to bring the title to the PSP and DS with new levels and new game modes.
Metanet, developers of XBLA’s N+, are hard at work on their next title, Robotology, and have been openly discussing their development hurdles at their blog, a refreshing level of transparency on the process. Central to their difficulties right now seems to be moving past sprites to animation in the 2D setting: We don’t have animation properly “sussed” yet, otherwise we’d be able to better explain what the various aspects of the problem are.. all we can say for sure is that once you eschew sprites, it gets tricky ;) Of course, this is the whole point — if you want to avoid the limitations of a sprite-based system, you’re necessarily going to have to deal with all of the problems that using sprites lets you avoid.
In the same post, though, the Metanet guys reveal they’ve set up an expansive Etsy shop of N+-themed merchandise. Merchandise! If you like cuffs, there are all kinds featuring scenes from the game, and some good-looking ninja shirts too.
Robotology: Back To The Drawing Board [metablog, via GameSetWatch]
The guys at Metanet are begging the internet to stop, they want to get off. After comments from a Game Developers Conference interview with Gamasutra made their way online, comments that slammed the crap, shit and liquid feces clogging the plumbing that is Xbox Live Arcade, people got various things bunched up, rubbed raw and in a tizzy. The N+ team wants to couch those complaints, writing on their official blog, “We didn’t intend to provoke outrage, we simply spoke candidly”. Add to that some tenderness about royalties being cut for Live Arcade development and people can get understandably testy.
We may know who that “anonymous” developer, the one who recently said that Xbox Live Arcade was “full of shit,” is now. The frequent poo talk from a recently published Gamasutra interview from the N+ developers, who are surprisingly frank about their experience with Microsoft and the Live Arcade certification process, makes us suspect that they could be the ones (if not one of many) unhappy with what’s available on the service.
Well, not the entire thing. That would be madness. While we fully expect some group of nutjobs to pick up the slack, recreating the entirety of the original Legend of Zelda in two-tone grey, the current N+ user created stab at Zelda-nostalgia is a perfect sampling of glorious obsession. Kudos for making it difficult-looking to boot. Via GameSetWatch.
For those of you not wanting to wait until April for the handheld versions of the tiny ninja game that has Crecente tearing out hunks of his long, flowing hair, get yourself to an Xbox 360 this Wednesday as the classic PC flash game N makes its way onto Xbox Live Arcade as N+. With 450 levels that are sure to test even the most serene ninja’s patience, a built-in level editor for creating your own challenges, and online multiplayer in both co-op and competitive flavors, N+ is surely worth 800 of your hard-earned fictional units of Microsoft currency. Not convinced? Try the free PC game over at Metanet’s downloads page for a taste of what’s in store for you this Wednesday.
N+ on XBLA this Wednesday (the 20th)!! YES!!!!!!! [Metanet Blog - Thanks Michael!]
N+ for the Playstation Portable is every bit as fun, fluid and frustrating as the original, a game that could quite easily become the one title I carry around with me whenever I take long trips, if it weren’t for its ability to make me shout out, every time I play the game, a mix of vulgarities so shockingly diverse it even surprises me.
What’s good about this port, created by Silverbirch Studios for Atari, is everything that is good about the original. Instead of trying to fix what wasn’t broken, the team set their sites on recreating what I’ve always considered a classic of Flash play.
