This game looks and sounds awesome. Unfortunately, the control scheme is horrible and will make you want to throw your phone across the room.

First off, the game is a marketing gimmick for the NY rap-rock band Shinobi Ninja, you might remember I wrote a news blurb about it. So the music is fairly cool if you’re into that type. The graphics are pretty cool as well and I dig the heavy outline art style even though I find it highly overused in all manner of media these days.

The thing that totally drags this game down is the, well, utter crap control scheme. It consists of a directional pad on the right side and button on the lower left. Why is it crap? Because it gets in the way of the game and it also gets in the way of your success. It also gets in the way of the game’s success if you ask me.

The directional pad on the lower left covers maybe 10% of the screen (rough estimate) but also the lower part of the screen, maybe 1/3 is unplayable area. So really the controls take 1/3 of the screen. Talk about poor game design. On top of that, the character will get totally stuck on things, sometimes they are things you can’t even see.

Also there seems to be no save feature in the game. So if you don’t play through something in its entirety and have to come back, you will haveto start all over again. Including watching the opening animations, which can’t be skipped over.

Yeah, I agree, totally lame.

Anyway, this does not at all reflect on the music of Shinobi Attacks but on the poor game design and quality assurance on the part of the development team. There are five songs in the game but of course I lost interest before I unlocked the other three so I’ll just have to go to Myspace or their website to hear them.

Further Screens: