There was something naughty about using that precious family time so trivially.
Basking in tropical warmth, enjoying (mock) cocktails and lots of free time, the frigid power outage a few months earlier was a distant memory.īut during the lazy vacation moments when other people sunbathed, we played Fruit Ninja. A few months after Hurricane Sandy, my family and I went on vacation. My other memory of Fruit Ninja is, in many ways, the opposite experience. Gathered around the colorful, flashing lights of the tiny screen, we chopped pineapples and coconuts by candlelight.
My brother’s iPhone 4S (which he could charge at school) became a little portal to normal times. To distract ourselves from the cold, we played Fruit Ninja. For two weeks, my brother, sister and I confronted the same biting early November temperatures as students currently face on Amherst campus. Like many families, the Brandfonbrener household was left without electricity. The first was in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast from Canada to the Caribbean. I have two memories from my childhood of playing Halfbrick’s groundbreaking 2010 game, Fruit Ninja.
However, Yaiba is more of a straight hack and slash game than the modern Ninja Gaiden titles which have a tougher enemies and a stylish flair to them.Fruit Ninja, originally released in 2010, holds up as one of the best mobile games available, claims Managing Arts & Living Editor Alex Brandfonbrener '23. At least from what I played, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z has responsive and fluid controls like other Team Ninja games. The game is 30% complete, so Spark Unlimited, Team Ninja, and Comcept have some way to go before it comes out in 2014 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Comcept explained there are other elements and players will be able to combine elements to create other effects. In the demo, Yaiba can use fire by turning a flaming zombie into a weapon. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z also has an elemental weapon system. Yaiba’s robotic eye highlights where to go next and which walls you can run up. That’s where Cyber Vision comes in handy.
She gives you objectives, but you still need to figure out how to get there. A girl with red pigtails (who Comcept staff said still hasn’t been named) acts as Yaiba’s navigator. While you’re in mid-air, Yaiba has to smash a wall to move forward. The demo also had bits of platforming elements where Yaiba ran up a wall and vaulted off it towards another building. When you aren’t killing zombies, you’re leaping from buildings. When you trigger Bloodlust, a rage meter like power, Yaiba does his impression of Ryu’s ultimate attack and kills zombies with one hit. Yeah, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z doesn’t take itself seriously. Later in the same level, Yaiba throws a zombie into a truck that drives right between a giant pair of legs on the roof of a sex shop. The doomed zombie doesn’t get the message and is crushed with an explosion of blood by the zombie in the bulldozer. Another zombie walks right in front of the bulldozer and the driving zombie waves its hand in an attempt to warn the zombie in the way. Instinctively, the zombie turns the bulldozer on and starts driving. In one of the game’s puzzles, Yaiba has to grab a zombie from a dumpster and throw it into a bulldozer. If you grab a large zombie you can rip off a zombie’s arms to make nunchucks or turn a regular sized zombie into a Meat Slapper which is like a whip with a zombie on the end.Īn employee from Comcept explained that they wanted to make zombies tools in Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. Yaiba can also use zombies or better put parts of zombies as weapons. If a zombie has a B button icon flashing over its head you can do a quick execution move. You will run into groups and zombies and Yaiba can cut through them in seconds. The enemies in Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z are appropriately brainless, which is different from other Ninja Gaiden games. His cybernetic arm gives him a rocket punch attack. Yaiba’s basic attack is a one button sword combo. True, but he’s a different kind of ninja than Ryu Hayabusa. Yaiba says he’s "a ninja, baby" after a bloodlust fueled rage. A fountain of high contrast blood bursts out of Yaiba and the demo began after his cybernetic transformation.
Yaiba makes a cocky comments, but Ryu gets the last laugh when he slices Yaiba’s left arm off. Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z opens with a duel between NInja Gaiden lead Ryu Hayabusa and Yaiba who takes a swig of sake before the fight.