Ninja Pizza Girl Review (PC)

A lot of different puzzle platformers with an emphasis on fast completion times and collectibles have appeared in recent times from all sorts of independent developers. Some have embraced their Sonic-inspired roots while others have gone into new directions by bringing in clever stories or extra mechanics.

Ninja Pizza Girl from Australian developer Disparity Games is a title that ticks all of the aforementioned boxes. With its outlandish name, you'd think that it doesn't take itself too seriously, but if you pay attention to the story, you'll find a compelling plot that focuses on the coming of age of protagonist Gemma, a teenager who starts to realize that delivering pizza and zipping across rooftops can be quite an experience.

Throw in the imaginative levels or the nifty visuals, and Ninja Pizza Girl definitely seems like an interesting game.

Does it manage to perform a smooth delivery or should you abandon it in the fridge? Let's find out.

Story

As I mentioned above, while a title like Ninja Pizza Girl doesn't exactly make the game seem like a serious endeavor, its actual story has a lot of depth and deals with some big themes in a great way.

You control Gemma, a sixteen-year-old girl who acts as a ninja pizza delivery girl for her father's independent pizzeria. You're guided through the pretty big levels by your computer whizz brother, and you soon start to learn that not only is the outside world filled with surprising things, like people answering the door for their pizza delivery in underwear, but also plenty of cruelty.

While the first few levels don't pose big challenges, soon you'll start to encounter other teenage pizza ninjas who do plenty of cruel things to you. They don't kill or hurt you physically, but they can trip you, throw mud in your face, or just laugh and call you a "try-hard." Bear in mind, for a girl like Gemma, all these things are quite cruel, and instead of your life points dwindling, you find her morale slowly fading away.

Fortunately, the game isn't that serious, and you can restart a run or go in the main menu and cheer Gemma up by buying chocolate or tea, or getting her a new outfit to make the pizza runs that much more enticing.

Overall, there's a short but very compelling plot in Ninja Pizza Girl and I urge you to complete it. You may or may not resonate with Gemma's plight but you'll certainly experience a change of pace from other games nowadays that feature perfect protagonists.

Start your run in Ninja Pizza Girl

Gameplay

Ninja Pizza Girl delivers a great story and its gameplay isn't too shabby either. The actual puzzle platforming systems are quite well done, and after you complete a couple of early stages, you'll soon be able to tackle the rest of them.

The level design is quite fluid and doesn't immediately punish players for straying off the main course. There are many hidden collectibles scattered throughout the stages, from recycle icons that can be used as currency for Gemma's TLC items and outfits, to special QR codes that can be spent on unlocking "swag" like a digital comic book or gameplay modifiers like a double jump or big head mode.

There are also special collectibles that instantly fill the world with more color and augment the soundtrack, at least until you hit the ground from a bigger distance or stop your current momentum. A key to keeping your flow is the roll button that lets Gemma roll from a fall and maintain at least a portion of her speed.

Platform design is pretty imaginative, but in longer gameplay sessions, the levels start to feel a bit too similar. There are also a few items with which Gemma doesn't interact all that well, such as the bars that let her swing. Some portions also require trickier movements, and while you may be fooled into thinking that you can complete a set of jumps just by pushing forwards and hitting the jump button, you may need to stop your momentum in order to make sure you don't fall off.

Enemies can prove to be pretty tricky if you don't have enough speed. You can always jump near them and then hit jump again to perform a dive kick or, if you have enough momentum, slide and take them out. Things get a bit more challenging once your foes start slinging mud at you, but there are three difficulty levels to ensure that you can deal with the challenge or if you want things to be even trickier.

At the end of a stage, you're rated based on your time, as each level provides a certain limit. You also get to see how many collectibles you picked up, but these don't factor into your overall score. There are also some special stages revolving around hitting a certain number of collectibles and maintaining your momentum. Sometimes these can prove to be quite challenging but they're a good change of pace.

Alternatively, you can also try out the aforementioned gameplay modifiers in previously completed levels or jump into the Speedrun mode that eliminates all of the story moments and conversations.

Smooth jumps in Ninja Pizza Girl

Visuals and sound

Ninja Pizza Girl uses a pretty great visual style that fits the sci-fi dystopia theme. The colors are bit washed out in some cases, but the game manages to keep things relatively fresh. The animations are good, but sometimes the interface doesn't respond to controller stick movements. In some situations, the artwork doesn't feel up to par, but during regular gameplay, everything is fine.

The soundtrack is also quite good. Everything starts off on a lower key, but as you keep your momentum going, things escalate. When you pick up the special collectibles, things get even louder and you instantly regret it when you stumble and loose the streak.

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The Good

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Conclusion