Dec 18, 9:00 am
I had Mini Ninja’s on my GameQ for what felt like forever. When it finally arrived in the mail I wasted no time gluing myself to my Xbox for a weekend, forsaking all other games and set out to become a mini Ninja. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this is a delightful game.
It is beautifully stylized and it oozes cuteness. The story is fantastic and I was quickly sucked into this world, making my way as an adorable Ninja on a quest to defeat the Evil Samurai Warlord. He has been turning all the wild life into Samurai to feed the ranks of his magical army taking over the land. It’s kind of genius and very kid friendly because you’re not killing guys but defeating the magic and returning all the little animals to their critter form. One of your main missions is to find all of your fellow ninja’s who have been captured. They then become playable characters that you can switch to at any time. Each character has a special weapon and attack, along with a unique achievement to unlock. Durring your journey you are equipped with special Ninja abilities and you learn to harness the power of Kuji magic as you travel through a perilous world on your way to the Fortress of Doom.
I love how ridiculously cute this game is and I thoroughly enjoyed my play-thru, I found the 1000 base gamer score a relatively easy…score. It’s always great to play a game that I find incredibly fun and rewarding and Mini Ninja’s is just that. I highly recommend you rent this game and get your sneak on!
Platform: Xbox 360
Approximate time: 12 to 15 hours
Minimum number of play-thru needed: 1 complete play-thru required (may need to revisit a level or two)
Offline points: 1000
Online points: none
LIST OF LEVELS
1 Ninja Mountain
2 Leaving Home
3 Earth Castle
4 Boss Lumbering Fool
5 Great River Canyon
6 A Distress Signal
7 Haunted Forest
8 Night Castle
9 Boss Windy Pants
10 Grassy Hills
11 Flooded Valley
12 Water Castle
13 Boss Timid Swimmer
14 Winter Range
15 Snow Castle
16 Boss Screeching Owl
17 Snowy Canyon
18 Volcano’s Shadow
19 The Big Jump
20 Final Approach
21 Living Castle
22 Evil Samurai Warlord
COLLECTED INGREDIENTS
Only collecting one of each of these items is necessary for an achievement. You don’t have to collect every single one, so if you missed a few don’t worry. It is only important to collect some of these ingredients to make the potions you will use over and over.
Blue Petal
Tiger Lilly
Sacred Lotus
Burdock Flower
Ginseng Root
Horse Tail
Wild Parsley
Oyster Mushroom
Mountain Fire
Stone Cap
Spear of Ashida
POTIONS
The most important potions you need to make are ones that replenish your health and replenish your Ki.
Healing Potion - Heals you for three hearts.
Samurai Healing Brew - Heals you for one heart and uses a small amount of Ki.
Flask of Unstable Energy - Refills your red orbs for your special attacks. (press and hold “Y” when you pick up a red orb to use your special attack)
Flask of Arrow Shield - Creates a bubble around you that deflects arrows.
Burping Potion - Creates a cloud around you that stuns enemies.
Essence of Fish - Turns you into a fish. This was helpful when I was looking for ingredients in the water, since when you are in animal form all the ingredients / collectables are easier to see.
Flask of Strong Ginseng - Completely refills your Ki.
Flaming Oil Potion - Makes your sword glow with fire and enemies are unable to block your attacks.
Strange Brew - Makes your Ki stay fully charged for a short time.
OTHER COLLECTED ITEMS
I didn’t use any of the bombs, Shuriken, and Caltrops and I saved all of my Honeycombs for the last boss battle because that’s the only place you will really need them.
Shuriken - Stuns enemies.
Caltrops - Trips enemies chasing you.
Fishing Pole - Lets you catch fish.
Anemone - flower used to activate the shrines, usually found somewhere close to the shrine.
Honeycomb - Fully heals and replenishes Ki fast! But if you go after a beehive be sure to take cover in water or throw up a wind wall spell because they will kill you quick.
Smoke Bomb - Allows you to be in stealth mode for a short time.
Cherry Bomb - Exploding projectile that damages enemies.
Time Bomb - bomb that goes off 5 seconds after you place it.
Pepper Bomb - bomb that distracts enemies and makes them sneeze.
Gold Coins - used to purchase potion receipts and bombs.
SPELLS
You learn these spells when you activate a Kuji Shrine. In order to activate a shrine you need to find the Anemone (special flower growing somewhere near by) and place it on the shrine.
Detect Kuji Shrine - calls butterflies that you can follow to the closest shrine.
Spirit Form - Allows you to possess an animal, so you can cruise around virtually undetected. This is helpful for seeing where ingredients are. Animals have a keen sense of smell so ingredients and collectables appear to have a blue smoke surrounding them.
Fireball - Allows you to shoots one fireball at a time.
Tornado - Creates a tornado.
Camouflage - You turn into a bush and enemies can’t see you. This little one is awesome. I would use this a lot to sneak up on people.
Lightning Storm - Causes lightning to strike the enemies.
Sunrays - Causes a ray of light to shine down in dark places, but it’s only use is to zap ghosts.
Sonic Boom - Causes a large shock wave that knocks down enemies.
Wall of Wind - Creates a wall of wind that block almost everything.
Ice Storm - Causes ice to fall from the sky, freezing your enemies for a short time.
Slow Time - Slows down time. Extremely helpful with the final boss.
Meteor Storm - fireballs rain down from the sky and kill multiple enemies.
Most of these achievements are fairly straightforward; set the game to the hardest difficulty and you should have all of them by the time you finish. The boss battles are very simple. The game will prompt you with actions; just press the right button at the right time. I only had a little trouble with a few of these achievements so I have provided a little more information on those ones. Enjoy and happy hunting.
Off You Go - 20
Completed basic training
Found Futo - 10
Find Futo: he is a big and slow character with lots of power, and uses a hammer. He is the only one that can effectively defeat the “big ones”.
Found Suzume - 10
Find and free Suzume: she is master of the flute.
Found Shun - 10
Find and free Shun: uses a bow and arrow for stealthy range attacks. He is the only one who can effectively defeat the fast moving, evil ninjas, (they leave a trail of smoke behind them) they appear on a few of the levels, as soon as they land in one place just fire tons of arrows at them. You can jump and avoid their attack.
Found Kunoichi - 10
Find and free Kunoichi: she is master of the spear.
Found Tora - 10
Find and free Tora: he has wolverine like claws because he thinks he’s a tiger. I feel like Tora is the fastest, so when I had to cover a lot of ground I would switch to this character.
Lost and Found - 20
Retrieve all five missing ninja
Off The Richter Scale - 30
Defeat Boss Lumbering Fool
Smell You Later - 30
Defeat Boss Windy Pants
Tripped and Fell – 30
Defeat Boss Timid Swimmer
Crash landing - 30
Defeat Boss Screeching Owl
Restore Balance - 40
Defeat the Evil Samurai Warlord
This boss battle is unlike the other ones, as you actually have to fight him. He can only be destroyed by Kuji magic. The spells and potions I equipped are as follows:
Time Stop – gives you the chance to replenish your health or Ki and the opportunity to out run his attacks of lighting and ice storm (the only thing that poses a real threat).
Meteor Storm – I hit him with this one over and over. It takes out all the spinning balls he has around him, destroy all of them and win the fight.
Healing Potion - hopefully you will have a lot of this on hand.
Honeycomb – It brings both your health and Ki back to 100% immediately.
Flask of Strong Ginseng – to replenish your Ki so you can keep using spells over and over.
Little Ninja - 50
Complete game on easy or medium difficulty
Hard Little Ninja - 100
Complete the game on hard difficulty. I didn’t notice much of a difference when I played the game on hard as opposed to easy or medium. It’s an easy game even on hard.
Don’t Blame it on the Sunshine - 10
Bring sunshine to all denizens of the graveyard. Just zap each ghost with the Sunrays spell. You can position the rays directly over each ghost without getting very close. Don’t let any of the ghosts touch you (or suck the life out of you) and you should be fine.
Animal Friend - 100
Free all caged animals
*** NOTE – if for some reason you replay a level before you finish the game, you will have to free all the caged animals on that level again for it to count. Unlike the Jizo statues and Kuji Shrines that save after you find one, the caged animals, ingredients, and other collectables will reset every time you revisit the level.
Tree Hugger - 10
Shake 15 trees. Just walk up to a tree with fruit and tap “A” repeatedly. Fruit will fall off the tree that you can collect to build up your hearts.
Sage of Philosophy - 50
Reach level cap. Learning spells and collecting orbs will help you level up your hearts and skills, this will unlock most likely before you finish the game.
Avalanche - 10
Defeat an enemy as a snowball. I recommend doing this on Big Jump (level 19).
Smooth Sailing - 10
Flawless River Canyon rafting. You get this one on Great River Canyon (level 5). You can’t hit anything when you go down the rapids. Make sure to activate the checkpoint at the start so you can keep loading the last save and try over and over. The rapids are in two parts with a checkpoint in the middle. So if you make it through the first part, get out of your little boat and jump up to the checkpoint and activate the save. Then work on the second part. I just pulled back a lot to slow me down so I could take my time and have more control of my speed and direction. Keep an eye on your boat’s health (located in the upper right hand corner of the screen) if it turns red at any point reload your checkpoint.
Bow Before Me - 20
Defeat 50 enemies with the bow. You get this achievement by playing as Shun and defeating enemies with his bow and arrow.
Stop! Futo Time! - 20
Play as Futo, and defeat at least one enemy on each level, except boss fights where you are only allowed to play as Hiro.
*** NOTE if you reload a level, for any reason, before you finish the game you have to use Futo in combat again. I forgot to use Futo on Flooded Valley (level 11) and had to replay that level after I finished the game for the achievement to unlock. Keep track of which level you use him on so if you have to go back you will have an idea of which level you missed. IF YOU FINISH THE GAME and this achievement didn’t unlock and you have a few other achievements to go after then DO THIS ONE LAST. I only say this because if you are reloading levels and you have not unlocked “Animal Friend” you will have to free all the animals every time you load a level.
Eat My Dust - 10
Travel far in full gallop. You do this with Tora by using his special attack (press and hold down “Y” when you pick up a red orb). I couldn’t defeat anything with this special move; I think it’s about how far you travel collectively throughout the game using this special attack.
Pied Piper - 10
Incite 50 enemies to dance. You do this with Suzume by using her special attack (press and hold down “Y” when you pick up a red orb). Play your flute and get a certain number of dudes dancing to unlock her achievement.
Poker - 10
Defeat 30 spearmen with the spear. You do this with Kunoichi, she just needs to defeat a certain number of dudes that have a spear with her spear to unlock her achievement.
No Conjurer of Cheap Tricks - 20
Expend 1500 Ki using Kuji magic. Just use your spells, this unlocks early. Hiro is the only one who can use Kuji magic.
Now You See Me... - 40
Defeat 100 enemies with stealth attack. Just keep on sneaking up on guys and attacking them. You will know when you have a good stealth attack when your enemy only takes one hit to eliminate.
Big Guy- 10
Defeat a large one. Use Futo to defeat a large one. It’s a big dude with a club there are a few of them scattered throughout the game.
Boardom - 10
Defeat 10 enemies as the boar. Use your Spirit Form spell and possess a boar and fight some dudes.
Bear With Me - 10
Defeat 10 enemies as the bear. Use your Spirit Form spell and possess a bear and fight some dudes.
Silent Assas… Ninja - 50
Complete a level without being seen. I did this on Great River Canyon. All you have to do is jump into the water right off the bat and stay along the waters edge to the right. When you get to the waterfall get on a rock and jump to the middle and climb up the waterfall. Once on top go to the left, cross the river and hug the far right rock wall. Where the water flows over the falls on the far right you can jump down to a little ledge along the cliff. Follow it to the right to where you see the bridge. If you look down to the water below you can see a bunch of rocks sticking out of the water that separate the two parts of the lake. Jump down to the right of the rocks (under the bridge), don’t worry you wont die. Then paddle your way (hugging the far right waters edge) over to the checkpoint on the shore at the far left side of the lake. Paddle your way down the rapids and to the end of the level.
*** NOTE if you do this before you finish the game you will need to quit the game and replay the level to free the caged animals, collect the statues, visit shrines, etc, before you go to the next level.
Botanist - 30
Collect one of each ingredient
Completist - 100
Collect all Jizo statues – I didn’t use any outside help to find these. I did however search every inch of each map. When you finish a level it tells you how much stuff you have collected and what you’re missing. It then gives you the option to go to the next level or stay on the one you’re on. You can run around and find everything before you advance.
Tengu Friend - 40
Complete all Wandering Tengu quests. Anytime there is a Crow looking dude to talk to go and talk to him, he may have a quest. If so, just do what he wants. There are 5 Tengu quests and as soon as you complete your last one the achievement unlocks.
***NOTE if you reload a level that has a Wandering Tengu with a quest you have to complete the quest again.
1) Leaving Home (Level 2) – the Tengu is in the village: Just eliminate all the samurai on the other side of the river, across the bridge.
2) Leaving Home (Level 2) – the Tengu is near the Temple: He wants a Burdock Flower. The Burdock Flower is right up the stairs near the temple, behind a few statues.
3) Haunted Forest (Level 7) – the Tengu is in the woods to the left of the main path right from the start: He wants a Spear of Ashida. I had one and just gave it to him but there is one growing on the little cliff above him.
4) Flooded Valley (Level 11) – the Tengu is near the start of the level: He just wants you to go to the temple and check on the Tengu there. Once you return, he gives you a fishing pole so you can catch the massive Koi that will take you to the next part of the map.
5) Winter Range (Level 14) – the Tengu is by the split in the path near the start: He just wants a Tiger Lilly. I had one and gave it to him.
Sightseeing - 30 points
Visit all 6 temples. These are not the Kuji shrines but something different. They are easy to find and usually along the path and some are story related. The temples are where you buy stuff like receipts and bombs with the coins you find.
1) Leaving Home (Level 2) - go up the stairs by the Tengu that wants a burdock flower.
2) A Distress Signal (Level 6) - once you enter the area with mostly water, just after rescuing Shun, the temple is up a hill to the far right of the map.
3) Grassy Hills (Level 10) - When you see the split at the 2nd burning tree go right and you’ll eventually see the temple on your right.
4) Flooded Valley (Level 11) it’s on the far right of where you start. You must go there by way of your hat-boat.
5) Winter Rage (Level 14) – Just after you free Kunoichi, you will see the temple entrance right around the corner.
6) Volcano’s Shadow (Level 18) - once you reach the frozen waterfall, you’ll see the temple entrance to the right of it.
