Running across the rooftops of a large city can be both dangerous and freeing. Especially when I am being chased down by mega-corporation backed ninjas. In the fictional setting of Ninja Pizza Girl, Gemma must evade the oncoming attacks of “sell-out” ninjas in order to deliver pizzas and support the family business. But while Gemma’s father’s rooftop pizzeria had amazing reviews, was Ninja Pizza Girl also be able to deliver on its promises?
Ninja Pizza Girl, originally Kickstarted in August of 2014 by Disparity Games, coined the tagline, “Ninja Pizza Girl. For Honour. For Family. For Pizza.” While quirky and silly on the surface, Ninja Pizza Girl is actually a very deep look into family loyalty, depression, and bullying. Throughout the game, I played as Gemma, a young woman struggling with her sense of self-worth. This is caused by the constant criticism and berating done by the rooftop ninjas of the mega-corporation competitor who bully Gemma constantly. Luckily, I got to regularly knock their smug faces into the ground.
Ninja Pizza Girl is a time-based platformer, in which a specific time frame is given to complete a level. I had to jump, slide, climb, and bounce my way through each level in order to deliver my father’s pizzas before they got cold. This is where the pizza in Ninja Pizza Girl comes into play. While delivering pizzas, I would meet colorful characters that presented a mission for me. The first world involved getting people to wear pants when they opened the door to receive the pizza. Other worlds required beating the top competitor in a race, giving a costume to a little girl, and helping a couple fall in love. All of these requirements were done through the clever use of pizza delivery.
The controls for Gemma were very tight and responsive. There were a few times where I felt the controls did not properly represent the commands I had input on my controller. But the time frames given in the level are so lenient that it never actually caused an issue. There are only a couple buttons used throughout the whole game, which included: move left, move right, jump, and slide. Ninja Pizza Girl is much more focused on precision, speed, and the flow of movement than the complexity of the control scheme.
I really enjoy 2D running games such as Bit.Trip Runner 2, Doritos Crash Course, and Action Henk. The trial and error method of gameplay, combined with the memorization of levels and obstacles really resonates with me. Ninja Pizza Girl falls perfectly into this mold with one very distinct difference. In Ninja Pizza Girl, there is no way not to beat a level, unless you run out of time. While the other games listed above have enemies and obstacles that can kill the character and send him back to the start, Ninja Pizza Girl’s enemies only stunned me for a moment before I was able to continue on. Also, each level has a map with branching paths that all end up converging on the customers’ door at the end of the run.
The exploration of the maps in Ninja Pizza Girl is rewarded with collectables. Recycled material, QR codes, and helix nodes make up the collectables available. The recycled material is used like currency to purchase items to uplift Gemma’s spirit including new outfits, games, and food. These items actually influence the story and gameplay, but I will not spoil how. The QR codes unlock comic strips, concept art, soundtrack songs, and game modifiers – like first-person mode. I beat one level in first-person mode to score an achievement, but it made me feel sick so I turned that feature right back off.
Ninja Pizza Girl ran at a consistent frame rate on Xbox One, and never showed signs of lag or screen tearing. The visuals were crisp and clean, with interesting set design and world textures. This is great news as a lack of technical fidelity is detrimental to a game based on precision and flow. I found Ninja Pizza Girl to be visually engaging and a pleasure to look at.
Ninja Pizza Girl is also a pleasure to listen to. However, this compliment comes with criticism. There are only a couple distinct tracks. While playing the game, a track would start along with the level and I was unable to differentiate the songs between each level and world since they all sounded very similar. Then, if I was able to make some very good maneuvers, a turbo mode would kick in that brought with it an awesome dubstep track. Again, this was the same track in every level when in the turbo mode. I want to be clear I am not complaining about the quality of the tracks as the songs were very good, the selection was just incredibly limited.
Ninja Pizza Girl also suffers from being very short. Each level averages only 1½ minutes, with the longest level barely reaching over 2 minutes. I was able to make a complete run-through of the story in just about 3 hours. Ninja Pizza Girl is highly replayable with gameplay modifiers, difficulty settings, level completion rankings, and a time trial mode that kept me coming back for more. I think this small package has plenty of value for the end user to enjoy for much longer than the story takes to complete.
Summary
Ninja Pizza Girl tries to make a fun game that tackles important issues like self-esteem and bullying, and fully succeeds. Once I picked up Ninja Pizza Girl, I rarely put it down. I have collected every collectable, purchased every store item, received every “beyond classification” ranking, and laid waste to the time trials. After doing all this, I still wish there was more game to play due to my sheer enjoyment of Ninja Pizza Girl. This is definitely a game worthy of your attention.
Joshua was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 42 articles across game reviews, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.