S&S; Indie Review: Ninja Exorcist Episode 1

Title: Ninja Exorcist Episode 1 // Format: XBLIG // Release Date: 7/23/2012 //  Developer: Nebula Game Studios // Price: 80 MS points // Violence: 3/3 // Sex: 0/3 // Mature Content: 2/3
Ninja Exorcist Episode 1 is hopefully the first of many in the Ninja Exorcist universe, this could easily be one of my favorite indie games I've ever played.  Nebula Game Studios has a gem on their hands, and hopefully over time, they will perfect the game and it's mechanics.
Presentation,Story and Gameplay: In Ninja Exorcist you play as Daigo, a cool Ninja Prodigy who suffers from terrible visions.  The story in the game is told through scrolls and rolling text, its actually really intriguing to say the least.  At the beginning, the game features a long backstory told through Star Wars style vertical scrolling text.  The nitty gritty of the narrative is just to stop this mysterious evil dragon hellbent on erasing all known life.  Of course its a lot more complicated than that, you'll just have to play it yourself to fully understand the story.  Like I previously stated, the game's narrative is told through scrolls, so there isn't really much voice acting in the game besides grunts of dying enemies and alarming ninjas that have just spotted you.  This would be a negative, but the incredible music more than makes up for lack of voice.  Oriental inspired music will fill your ears doing downtime, and more hardcore style rock will pick up the pace during your action sequences.  I love the soundtrack in the game, it has to be one of the best from any indie game to date, in my mind.  The gorgeous 2D art is not too shabby either.  Daigo and the other ninjas all look good, and highly detailed bosses really take the cake entirely.  Getting into the gameplay, it has a lot of platforming, stealth, and satisfying 2D beat-em up mechanics that are all blended well together.  The platforming feels good, executing double jumps, and jumping off walls feel natural.  Grappling also feels solid.  The stealth in the game is really my only problem with the game.  Although its not broken by any means, it has a lot of problems.  Once you gain the ability to see your enemies' field of vision, it makes it easy in theory to just sneak up and execute them with a silent kill.  Frequently, enemies would notice me when they really aren't supposed too.  This doesn't happen every time, but enough to take heed.  You get a good arsenal weapons for you to pulverize enemies with, including your sword, shurikens , and bow and arrows.  As you finish off enemies, you'll gain levels, and each level you'll have the option of increasing a separate option.  Learning new skills, stealth techniques, and special moves are all available when you gain a new level. Final Thoughts: This game is really good, and it has a lot of potential for future episodes.  Besides the stealth issues in the game, I couldn't really find anything that annoyed or irritated me.  The developers have an update coming that very well might address the issues I had with the game.  With that said, you should definitely pick this one up, for only a dollar, which is a steal.
S&S Rating: 8.5/10