Ninja or Die is a genius indie game, Gamescom 2022’s best kept secret

Without a doubt, one of the greatest joys in gaming is being completely surprised by a new, unknown title. The kind of thing where you get to know the game exists and get really excited about the full version in just a few minutes. It’s a very hard feeling to stir, so it’s not very common – but it happened to me again this week with a little indie game called Ninja or Die.

From Japanese single-player developer Nao Games, Ninja or Die is an indie game I do feel like we’ve seen before – a roguelike that’s as hard as nails, with pixel art so sharp you feel like you could cut yourself on it. However, it’s unique — and the absolute killer of the concept.

Much of what sets it apart is its control scheme and titular ninja skill set, which offers a very simple concept: each core move is associated with a button and action. Jumping, attacking, and parrying are all handled using the same inputs and actions. The protagonist can’t even walk — the movement is done by stringing together jumps, wall jumps, and ground sprints, all triggered by a single button.

It’s not so much that the protagonist responds to your input in a context-sensitive way, it’s that the ninja uses all of his skills at once every time you press a button. Holding it also allows you to recharge, which boosts the attack and makes any jump travel farther with less arc. If your jump lets you pass through an enemy, it deals damage based on your current equipment and the strength of the jump. If it takes you into the path of an enemy attack, you will parry. It’s all about one action, and tight controls combined with quick responses and lovely crisp pixel art mean simple movements are incredibly satisfying.

Of course, on the other hand, without the ability to move, nimble heroes are vulnerable when they’re not moving. That might not sound like a problem – but given that you need to carefully manually aim before each jump to avoid obstacles that hurt you on landing, the pressure will always move again – and fast – neither Dunk yourself into hot water.

So it’s a delicate dance, somewhere between frenzied, eager movements and stillness in brief moments of silence. It quickly becomes a thrilling back-and-forth game—one in which you find yourself moving forward subconsciously in your seat, with your toes curled in your shoes when you’re in extreme concentration.

A few levels are more like puzzles where you have to kill all enemies on the map to open the door to the next level. Certain stages offer optional rewards for those who go deeper. Still others are brutal tests of your traversal ability and mastery of the game’s single skill – like climbing vertical levels through a series of tricky jumping walls to escape instant death that keeps rising from below – but if you’re careless , the enemy on the obstacle road will kill you first.

Games like this are always hard to do justice in trailers or text. Usually, you just need to see them for yourself. That might be the case here, but I can at least impress me how much I enjoyed the short 20 minutes or so I played. I rocked back and forth when I repeatedly tried to get my best at a particularly tough stage – but I also never hit the threshold of feeling like it wasn’t fair. Also, I played Ninja or Die at Gamescom, a busy show where I’ve seen many other bigger, higher budget games – but it’s the title that’s stuck in my head. I like it.

In a way, it channeled the old Nintendo way of thinking that Nintendo represented during much of Super Mario 64’s development by spending a lot of time in the sandbox story, ensuring the simplicity of controlling Mario in 3D The behavior is interesting even in the environment without any other distractions. In that case, Mario has a surprisingly broad skill set – but the concept is probably more relevant in single-skill games like Ninja or Death. By tightening the core mechanics and tweaking them to extreme precision, Nao Games seems to be on the verge of delivering something very special – and I can’t wait to play the last thing now.