Not spicy enough
Even as I type this I am saddened, look; when I first heard about Mexican Ninja, I was pretty excited. All of it was based on the name, I mean come on, a Mexican Ninja sounds badass, so I was all in. Even after I found out that it was the oft-overused roguelite style game, I figured I liked Double Dragon Gaiden because of its beat-em ‘up and as long as I could chop up baddies as a Mexican Ninja I was in. Well, the game is here and while I still think the idea of a Mexican Ninja is pretty badass, I can’t say that for what the final product ended up being.
MSRP: $16.99
Platforms: XBOX (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $16.99
In Mexican Ninja the story takes place in Nuevo-Tokyo, which is this whole thing that was born from Japan and Mexico going to war. When all the dust settled a new ruling class emerged, a regime forged from the Narcos and Yakuzas; they are now known as The Narkuzas and their word is law. But whenever there is an oppressive group, there is always rebellion filled with those who fight for what’s right and the people’s freedom, and that’s where we find the Mexican Ninja; fighting for the people.
Mexican Ninja is a brawler style roguelite game, so players will have to get used to dying so that they can power themselves up. Combat is fine, I was hoping for more honestly. As players progress, they can spend their earned money on upgrading attacks. Parries, other combos and special moves are all included here and they are all nice. That being said, I found the most success by just mashing the X button for light attacks with the random heavy attack thrown in.
My real issue with the combat is that it feels very ‘floaty’, dashing around I would often miss my target when trying to link an attack. As it stands though the combat is serviceable because of the game’s brawler nature. So, enemies will kind of gang up on our Mexican Ninja so attacks will strike multiple opponents at a time. As I said above there is a parry mechanic that players can upgrade to and it comes in handy. I also am not a fan of the rogue light nature of the game, I get it; it’s a simple game style to develop for. But this game could have been able to better showcase its personality if it was a linear beat-em up.
Mexican Ninja is a humorous game; I mean the bad guys are a mashup of Yakuza and Narcos. One of my favorite bosses is the Crack Panda, imagine if a Panda took the Venom that makes Bane from Batman into a huge threat. Yea, that’s what this Panda looked like, it was visually awesome. There are more than a few bosses who are entertaining, not to mention the personality that the streets of Nuevo-Tokyo have on display. The sad thing is all of this is just window dressing, we don’t get to really see much of those streets other than as an arena for fights. The interesting looking bosses, we never get to learn anything about they are just good-looking punching bags.
I expected more from a game called Mexican Ninja yes, I was given a Mexican ninja to control but I was really hoping that the developers would lean into the complete wackiness of the story and its characters. Combat just feels middling in comparison to other games in the genre, aside from some really cool bosses it just didn’t gel with me at all. I loved this world and the Narkuzas that inhabit it, I just really wish we got to learn more about it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
