IFReviewed by
Victor Gijsbers on 2007-04-13 06:39
Dunric's
Ninja is not just a bad game, it is an absolutely awful game. The first thing I noticed is that it doesn't recognise 'x' as an abbreviation of 'examine'. The second thing I noticed was that the prose was, to say the least, interesting: "The birds fly atop it, scattering the sky with a distant breeze." After that, it only became worse. There are exactly two items in the game that can be picked up, but it seemed that the author decided they needed no description. Indeed, examining them is not even a valid game action. Then again, almost nothing is a valid game action. As far as I could see, gameplay consists in wandering through the very small and completely linear game world, picking up your sword (which you cannot examine), solving one trivial puzzle, and being suddenly attacked by an evil ninja. Once this last thing happens, you are allowed to press space several times to see the random generator decide whether you die or prevail. Oh, and due to a bug in the code, both can happen at the same time.
Although the verb list includes 'save', it is not actually possible to save the game - presumably, adding the word to the verb list was merely a cosmetic touch. (Either that, or programming a save-routine in GWBASIC exceeded the author's skills. One does wonder why anyone would choose BASIC over an established IF-language.) The same holds, surprisingly enough, for the word 'quit'. In a desparate last attempt to keep his player from leaving as soon as possible, the game answers any request to quit with the words "You have not yet completed this adventure, master...". No, and neither do I wish to! Avaunt, o piece of crap!