Tap Ninja | a Review
originally published on 06/10/2023;
Hello everyone, I am the culturally appropriative G.E.M.Simov, a friend that absorbs culture and empowers itself through it, here to talk to you about Tap Ninja.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
In addition to that, this is an IDLE game. Those are barely proper games and so I will put in less effort with reviewing them than I would otherwise.
Gameplay
This game is strikingly similar to another game I've recently reviewed. It's also an idle game, and it also features the Player Character running, endlessly, towards the right end of the screen.
However, this one does not employ jumping as much as the other one. Instead, it relies on the Player to click whenever an Enemy is in range, so that the Player Character will perform an attack, kill the Enemy and generate Currency.
In the case of this game, there are many currencies - as can be expected from an idle game - with the main currency, the one most easily accessible, being Coins (of the Japanese variety).
The Player gets Coins by killing enemies (clicking or tapping at the right time), after which they can start getting coins by purchasing Buildings (evidently, the Tap Ninja is a ruler of men with a violent streak), which Buildings provide a passive income.
Naturally, there are also Upgrades that can be purchased, which increase the amount of Coins received from killing enemies and from passive sources, whilst also providing a few additional mechanics.
One of the better mechanics is the implementation of the "Speed Step", which is essentially a combo system, increasing the amount of Coins received for kills and increasing the speed at which the Player Character moves with every successive Enemy kill, up to a certain maximum. The catch? If an Enemy is missed, the combo is broken; the extra Coins stop being divvied out and the Player Character slows down.
However, that is enough. The multiplier increases the amount of Coins earned by a large enough margin to actually be worth at least 10 seconds of passive income, thus making the act of clicking viable. That much is achieved through a system that is present in most idle games - that being an increase to click income based on a percent of passive income.
Another good mechanic that acts as an incentive for the Player to click is the "Energy Ability". The Player gains the option to click a button, which will make all their weapon swings automatic - meaning that they will not need to click to kill Enemies, their combo will not break and they can focus on purchasing Buildings or Upgrades, rather than keeping an eye on the the Enemies who are approaching.
The catch, again, is that this option does not have a cooldown - it has a charge, and it gets charged whenever the Player clicks and kills an Enemy. So, the idea is to charge it up to maximum, let the game play itself, then come back, spend a few minutes charging it up by manually killing Enemies, and then repeating.
Incentives to actively play idle games are good, because they indicate that the game might actually feature a decent rate of progression, coupled with a reason for the Player to click - because most idle games take away all reasons for the Player to click at one point or another, since the amount of currency generated via clicks is so tiny that it's impossible to notice when compared to the passive income the Player gets.
But, as with all idle games, there needs to be a point at which things get SLOW. Why? Because there should be an incentive to Ascend, of course! Ascending sacrifices ALL(most) of the Player's Upgrades, Buildings and Gold to provide them with Elixir, forcing them to start from scratch(almost). However, Elixir can be exchanged for Ascension Perks, which I am calling so because they appear in a tree-esque sequence and Perks require that previous Perks are unlocked. Those Perks provide all sorts of boosts, including the opportunities to purchase new Buildings and new Upgrades.
However, there are other mechanics, ones that are not so good. An example is the pet mechanic, which is essentially a gacha element for this idle game. The Player gets 1 egg every 24 hours and can hatch a pet out of it. There are 12 different pets, and there are different numbers of stars that a pet can have. The higher the number of stars, the stronger the pet. Well, the best way to increase a pet's star level is by opening more eggs, which can be bought with Amber, the premium currency!
Fortunately, there are means of obtaining Amber without paying for it, but they are based on either getting them from Fireflies (3 per day) or via challenges (3 per day).
Challenges - those are another wonky mechanic. These require an iron key to access and the keys are obtained once per 24 hours. Using a key to access a challenge, the Player is taken to a different map and must kill a number of Enemies. The Enemies are arranged in a manner that is challenging, requiring precise timing. Depending on the number of Enemies killed, the Player is awarded up to 3 Medals(the maximum being awarded if no enemies were spared), which can be used to purchase Medal Upgrades. Those are like normal Upgrades, with the exception that they persist through Ascensions.
I mentioned the premium currency, Amber, but I did not mention that the Player can buy all sorts of advantages with it. As usual - there is incentive to make the game tedious and unfun, to introduce inconvenience to it so that a solution for that inconvenience can be sold to the Player.
Well, I've talked about most of the mechanics of this game. Do they mesh well? Does the product become tedious and bothersome, rather than entertaining and engaging?
I'm inclined to say yes. While the rate of progression is much more steady, it is far less satisfactory or rewarding. It starts off fast, giving the Player plenty of opportunity to progress. Then, the Player ascends, and again - rapid progression. But afterwards the ordeal becomes an ordeal, a bothersome thing. Every Ascension gives the Player enough Elixir for one, maybe 2 perks, and then half the time those perks aren't even useful (such as ones that make Fireflies bigger). Knowing that there are hundreds of perks to be unlocked via Elixir, and knowing that it takes 30 minutes and more to get enough Elixir to unlock some perks at the midpoint of progression is dreadful.
The amount of time required does not go down, either, even if there are some mechanics that get introduced later on and try to save face. Ultimately, it had promise at the start, but it fumbled that and lost it. 1/3
Presentation
Does this game look good? Of course it does. As with every idle game, it looks good because it needs to get the Player's attention. A neat pixel-based art-style, with gorgeous backgrounds, even if there are only five of them, alternating every now and then. The sprites for the Enemies, Pets and Player Character are also quite decent. The Sprites for the Buildings are wonderful!
The music is a set of tracks that manage not to be too grating, though they are a bit loud and require manual adjustment. The interesting aspect of them is that they sound similar, as though they are based on the same track, but have differences that let them match up with the areas they play in. The Sound Effects are also satisfactory.
There are a few issues - there are no names for most things, no actual, written denotations. Coins are just the icon for Coins, Upgrades are the icon for Upgrades. That's bothersome, due to the fact that it is inconsistent. Everything else has some kind of name. In fact, most upgrades have names that imply that there might be a very loosely fitting story in this game, yet some things just don't have names.
In addition to that, on occasion an exclamation will appear, indicating that something important needs to be addressed. It happens when the Player is informed that they are not saving their progress to the Cloud, but also as a means of shoving advertisements down their throat. That's wack.
Overall, though, this isn't all that bad, even if it isn't excellent. 2/3
Story
As mentioned, there are elements of this game that imply the presence of a story. They imply, but there is no actual story. Interestingly enough, I found myself almost wanting to construct some story around it, because I quite like the idea of building buildings and developing an economy, but that bit of emergent storytelling did not get to be.
There is no story, as is expected for the standard idle game. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this idle game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time?
Well, it impressed me with the way it handled clicking, but seeing as it does slow down to a crawl, there really isn't much to say here. I did like the building aspect of it, but that's as far as it went. No, not giving it the Legendary Point. 0/1
Conclusion
3/10. Yet another completely ordinary and average idle game. Some slight bits of innovation, some neat ideas, and a nice appearance are all that it has to present the Player with. Only play it if you're a rabid fan of idle games and especially like feudal Japan, I suppose.
On the Wall of Shame. I had started forgetting that there were, objectively, bad games out there. Well, let's hang this one as a reminder of that!