10 Second Ninja

10 Second Ninja X Xbox One Review

A game that does exactly what is says on the tin. 10 Second Ninja X is an insanely fast-paced action game that challenges the player to beat its levels in only 10 seconds!

You’re a ninja who needs to destroy robots, beat the clock and defeat a pirate named Greatbeard. A pirate I hear you say… yep, it’s an interesting take on the pirates Vs ninjas question that have been around for millennia. You play as a pretty awesome little ninja guy, who has a sword and some throwing stars and bubbling hatred of pirates.

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Beating the clock is something that has been around in gaming for many years, whether it’s time trials or trying to beat your best time for leaderboards. Gamers have gotten used to the whole aspect of racing against Father Time. However rarely is the player ever only given 10 seconds!

The aim of this game is to take down the evil Greatbeard who has started turning animals into mindless robots. The story has a Sonic the Hedgehog feel to it, but with a pirate and a ninja instead. The dialogue is very humorous and has some great back-and-forth between the little ninja guy and Greatbeard. With a game that is so fast-paced the dialogue can feel a little long in places, like the developer was trying to increase the total play-through time but these can be skipped by hitting the Y button.

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Be prepared to get frustrated with this game early on as it’s relentless in its difficulty. You are shown 10 levels to start and to progress you need at least 20 stars meaning an average of 2 per level. The aim of each level is to destroy all of the robots and release your little animal friends in as fast a time as possible. The faster the time the more stars you obtain and the easier it is to progress on to more levels. You will frequently find yourself full of rage restarting the same level over and over again just because you misstepped and fudged up. Restarting the level is done with a simple press of a button which is great as it gets you back into the action quickly.

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As the game progressed the levels start getting a little harder with more obstacles for you to traverse such as electric grids and switches. These take a lot more planning to find the best route and the fastest time to get those all-important stars. There is a steep learning curve to begin with but as you progress you will find the game gets a little easier as you start to understand the best way to play it. 60 stages might feel a little too light but for a game like this where you’re more likely to play the same level over and over it’s a good number. If you are good enough to 3 star the levels you can unlock Marathon mode which challenges you to beat the sets of 10 levels without dying and without restarts making it even more challenging.

10 Second Ninja X is a fast-paced action game not to be missed as it was fantastic and refreshing to play. The game is well-suited to be a go between to other games you’re playing as it’s so different. It’s great to see consoles being able to get in on what was a PC exclusive originally and with extra content makes that even better.

9 out of 10