Super House of Dead Ninjas

Imagine you’re back in an arcade in the 80s’-90s’. You’ve got a few games seemingly calling your name from the moment you set foot in the joint. Street Fighter, Galaga, Pac-Man, Frogger, you name it and its within view. The one thing all these games have in common is that none of them are easy. Each one is designed to reward skillful players with victory, and therefore, having to cough up a few less quarters ultimately (though that’s debatable depending on how they got so good). In any case, Super House of Dead Ninjas brings back this exact feeling of a rewarding challenge, only this time you won’t have to dive deep in your pockets to find that last quarter. It’s a fast-paced romp through a descending hall of enemies that won’t let up until you do.

Slash Like a Flash

There’s only one goal in this game: get to the bottom of the tower, a mind-numbing 350 stories, and destroy everything in your way. Once you start, you’re given three things to pay attention to:

• A sword (of course, you are a ninja, after all)
• Some health
• A timer

That’s it. There’s no sort of prerogative, objective, or story to look out for. All you need to worry about is how you’re going to make it from one room to the next while being efficient and taking as little damage as possible. Super House of Dead Ninjas operates in a way that’s similar to any old arcade or SNES game – its unforgiving. None of the floors that you’ll manage to reach will give you a break and the game will only begin to get harder the further you descend. It plays a lot like Spelunky 2 or The Binding of Isaac, but without focusing on much minutiae, you don’t have time to make thought-out decisions.

You can, however, utilize your ninja’s rage ability by slicing up a bunch of enemies in a short amount of time (or collecting a power-up), which gives you a short period of invincibility and double melee damage. Additionally, the controls are nearly perfect in every way; when you’re rushing through the tower trying to keep your rage meter high, the only thing saving you from a quick death is your own dexterity. Though incredibly frantic and challenging, complete with bosses throughout, this is the perfect game to satisfy your arcade and rogue-lite needs simultaneously.

Race the Clock

What makes this game so unique is that it is heavily encouraged by the developers to be played in a speed run fashion, so much so that the timer will track each of your runs and compare it directly to your personal best. After trying it out for yourself, or watching some pros breeze through it, it becomes clear that this is attainable by anyone, as long as you’ve got this skill for it. If you manage to get to the end, which some have been able to do well under 5 minutes, you’re sure to meet your match in an impressive final boss battle.

Bottom Line

Super House of Dead Ninjas definitely isn’t for the average player, simply because of the steep difficulty curve and the rogue-like elements, but it is definitely a game that was caringly made and designed.

Pros

• Great controls
• Unique design
• Easy to become addicted to

Cons

• Difficulty can scare off many people
• No multiplayer