Typing Ninja Review (PC)

Beneath a crystal white waterfall of cascading cherry blossoms and seasoned clusters of soft wildflower, a word etched in bamboo taunts me from the rippling current of the surface down below. As I make a last-ditch effort to bludgeon my head against the keyboard and execute the final letters, it informs me that a ninja isn’t a ninja without the proper tools at their disposal. And by proper tools, it refers directly to a specific attribute — an attribute that, after several attempts at trying to identify it, I so clearly lack. It doesn’t matter if I have a Black Shark RGB mechanical keyboard and all of the lavish gizmos to go with it. If I don’t have the mental bandwidth to withstand falling words or the slightest glimmer of swiftness in my wrists to trace them, then I’m probably not going to amount to the rank of Typing Ninja.

I just here, of course. Luckily, Typing Ninja isn’t the toughest cookie to crack. Well, it is and it isn’t. And by that I mean, if you yourself are somewhat familiar with fast-paced typographic patterns and tediously bendable formatting, then it can be as simple as flowing with the aforementioned waterfall and slicing through words with a well-timed hack and tap. If, however, you’ve never subjected yourself to a typing game or even so much as flexed your fingers in an online spelling bee, then you might struggle to master the fundamentals here.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I had the opportunity to slug through The Chef’s Shift, yet another typing-based game. For that reason alone, I find myself mindfully comparing the two, critically analyzing each and every aspect with a fine-tooth comb. The question that I’m trying to answer is, which of them is better?

No Room for Typos

Typing Ninja isn’t massively different from Space Invaders, in the case that, in order to progress, you must whittle down blocks as they gradually descend into the bottom section of the playing field. The only difference here, of course, is that you have a keyboard to fight your battles for you, and not, in the case of the arcade classic, a pellet-pushing spaceship that ejects a short supply of rectangular rockets. But other than that, it’s the same basic concept: you remove falling threats from the board and use the occasional power-up to elevate your attack power and earn additional perks.

The game itself is spread out across a selection of levels, with the odd boss battle being added after a set amount of pivotal encounters in the main campaign. Regardless of the battle that you find yourself in, though, the gameplay itself is always the same: the words fall, and you type them out as quickly as you can to remove them before they reach the final hurdle. As you progress through these challenges, the game essentially opens up a few extra portals for you, with several of them allowing you to explore different abilities—perks, if you will, that grant you the chance to reduce health blocks on a target word, substitute lengthier words with shorter ones, and even restart your current session from a checkpoint after failing to complete it in the allotted time. Again, pretty basic stuff.

Flexing the Keys

While the gameplay is all rather straightforward and compressed into the one vessel, Typing Ninja does a pretty decent job of introducing a couple or extra modes to the wheel. Aside from the traditional Story Mode—a six-level campaign that revolves around a hero’s quest to overcome an illegitimate fear of technology—the game also features six other options, including a rogue-like and survival mode, all of which adopt their own leaderboards for you to carve away at. Moreover, there are boss fights for you to overcome (thirty in total), with each one housing a separate set of rules and mid-battle curveballs. So, quite a lot to chew through, all things considered.

It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, given that Typing Ninja isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with riveting gameplay or seamless action sequences, but it’s still worth pointing out that the game itself does run in a smooth and simple manner. With little to no visual errors or game-breaking technical issues marring the overall experience, it’s definitely an easy one to pick up and roll with, I’ll say that much. But, it is a predictable game, and therefore, you might find yourself burning out long before the wick extinguishes the flame, so to speak.

Verdict

Typing Ninja might not do anything particularly special to the basic format of a traditional typing game, but it does, however, take full advantage of a certain trick up its sleeve — and that is its ability to manipulate the language and drive a wedge between a predictable outcome and a palatable strategy. With thanks to its inclusion of a myriad of unique rules and mechanics, Typing Ninja steps out from the shadows to bring something a little more interesting to the table. And it does it well, too. Granted, it isn’t in possession of that all-important wow factor, but it does provide enough of an incentive for you to keep splicing the words and shoveling through the pages on a relentless journey to conquer the leaderboards.

I’m willing to give Typing Ninja an extra point for its chosen art style. Yes, it’s liminal and it’s far from perfect, and it doesn’t exactly stretch much beyond the same storybook setting, regardless of the mode that you choose to pursue. And yet, it is still a heck of a lot more pleasing on the eye than the bog-standard block-squashing arcade game on the market. The fact that it flows nicely, too, makes it all the more juicy for the senses. That might be an exaggeration, but you get the point — its aesthetic embellishments are a solid addition to an otherwise tight-fisted blueprint.

While I can’t say that Typing Ninja is better than The Chef’s Shift, I can say that it has a lot of noteworthy qualities and opportunities to sharpen your typing abilities. It’s a great pocket-sized tool, and so, if you do happen to find yourself itching to cut words with a katana, then you should definitely give Brain Boost Ninja’s blossoming masterclass in typing a shot.