Ninja Launcher

Ninja Launcher truly baffled me. It had a pretty good gameplay foundation, and there are plenty of game modes to try out, it just feels unfinished. I think what it came down to was a general lack of exposition. Where pretty much every other StreetPass game had at least some kind of dialogue before or after a play session, Ninja Launcher didn't have anything. It's a real shame too, because the concept could have been fleshed out into a pretty neat story. Now I'm just left to wonder what it could have been like.

Ninja Launcher puts you in the role of a ninja, but all of your enemies are perched on top of unscalable cliffs. To fight back, your apprentice suggests that you hop into a cannon and strike at their level. Unfortunately, you can't take any weapons or armor for the launch. That's where your StreetPass tags come in. Everyone you tagged becomes an ally that will fly a kite along your flight path with weapons or armor attached that you can then pick up along the way.
 
The gameplay comes down to rearranging your allies so their kites intercept your flight path. You only have a few seconds to line everyone up as best as you can, but you can shoot as many practice shots as you want during that time to see how well you are lined up. While the temporal limitation led to some pretty disappointing launches, it also made it pretty exciting when I got everyone lined up perfectly so I could land a critical strike on my opponents! It's too bad that there wasn't any payoff in the game to celebrate those successes.

Launching a ninja out of a cannon at different yokai warriors is a fun concept, but I wish I could know more. I want to understand the world, its characters, their motivations, or frankly anything at all, yet there is no story to be found. There are perfect opportunities for even the slightest bit of dialogue after defeating a strong enemy or transitioning between stages, but there's nothing of the sort. In fact, the cut back to the menu that invariably happens after every launch is jarring enough that I noticed it every time. Practically every other StreetPass game had a recap screen with some sort of concluding spiel, and many even have things to do beyond interacting with your StreetPass tags, making Ninja Launcher's lack thereof even more noticeable.

I didn't actively dislike this game like I did with a few of the other StreetPass games, but I was disappointed with it. This close to the end of my StreetPass journey, I'm happy just to check another game off the list, but I do wish the journey to get to this point was more engaging. What was available to play was unique, and I can't imagine it working in any other context, so it has that going for it. While Ninja Launcher didn't do enough to impress me, I wouldn't discourage anyone curious about the StreetPass Mii Plaza from trying it out. There's something fun here, just not enough to be worth much of your time.
Although the game is no longer being distributed, you can learn more about it here (as of 9/19/24): https://breezewiki.com/nintendo/wiki/Ninja_Launcher

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