If you've been following my Twitter or watching my gamercard, you may have noticed me zeroing in on 200/200 in N+. Well friends, I finally made my way through this a maze zing game last night, and I must say it is one of my prouder 200/200's.

The first thing you'll notice upon loading N+ is the sweet opening music, an electrically charged techno-inspired track that is very appropriate for the subject matter and helps to psyche you up for the upcoming tests of your ninja-like agility. Next, you'll likely head into the tutorial for an easy 5 gamerscore which will acquaint you with our nameless hero, who subscribes to the way of the ninja - a "highly advanced system of spiritual, cognitive and physical training. It emphasizes pacifism, humility, and the need to traverse a series of 5 rooms before the end of your [90 second] lifetime".

After picking up your freebie 'cheevo, you'll begin your journey through N+'s standard 250 room obstacle course which will continually increase in difficulty, testing your dexterity, jumping power, reflexes, and ability to reach the exit of each room completely unarmed save for your wits. You'll encounter lethal robots with an insatiable thirst for ninja blood, as well as deadly landmines deliberately positioned to impede your progress. The game encourages you along the way with strategically placed achievements at 15, 30, 40 and 50 episodes completed - as well as a surprise secret achievement that I can almost guarantee you'll obtain by the time you complete the game... There's also a pair of pretty easy ones for completing an episode without dying and collecting all the gold scattered throughout the episode (I reccomend doing these early on).

From a visual point of view, the game subscribes to a minimalist design philosophy. The grey background is reminiscent of a silicon landscape and is only decorated by the enemies and objects that you will use to traverse the level, flipping various gate and door-opening switches, and of course, the precious gold that you can collect to provide a brief extension of your lifetime. Metanet has spoken on the simple design and monotone colour scheme, noting that "if the level graphics were more detailed/busy, it would be much harder to take in at a glance everything that was going on, and apply the focused precision necessary to play the game.. which is very important! We definitely knew that the graphics had to be kept as sparse as possible in order to make things as clear as possible for the player."



It's in the gameplay where N+ really shines. Remember back in Super Mario World, how Mario could jump continually from one wall to an adjacent one in an ever ascending climb (all while gleefully shouting in that musical Italian falsetto voice?). Well, the same dynamic is present here - in fact your ninja can bend the rules of physics even further by free-running up a wall and then wall-jumping ever higher, much like a pixelated Jackie Chan. Certain levels will also have springy blocks which you can bounce off of and pads which launch you high into the air. While falling from a great height will end in a satisfying bloody splatter, if you manage to land on an incline sloped downwards, your ninja will somehow survive.

A complete lack of conventional weaponry can make the enemies in N+ a constant source of frustration. Moving gun turrets, auto-targeting blasters, electroshock sentries, homing missiles and frick'n laser beams all make your life difficult and force you to devise ways to avoid these hazards on your goal to complete the level. Expect to die. A lot. But completing a particularly hard level and outsmarting these enemies all the while making it look so damn cool is just so satisfying - and that is what makes this game tons of fun.

My one and only gripe with the game is the fact that it won't save your progress until you quit to the main menu. Thus if you simply shut off your 360, or quit to the dashboard quit to the dashboard from the Xbox Guide button, you'll be forced to replay any progress which hadn't been saved. Metanet explains this peculiarity:


Luckily, I was only caught by this issue twice. The first time was early on and didn't pose too much difficulty in replaying it, but the second time forced me to replay episodes 47 and 48 - both include a number of very tough levels - one of which took me a while due to a degree of luck that was involved (or perhaps I just wasn't "in the zone" as I was the first time through).

In addition to the standard 250 levels, there is also an "expert challenge" consisting of another 50 levels. I haven't tried these yet, but I have a feeling I've got my work cut out for me. There is also a level editor, if you're into that kind of thing (I don't have the patience). Unfortunately Microsoft denied Metanet's plans to allow users to post content to a central repository - instead you'll have to find episodes by joining other users games. When you're done playing, you have the option to save the content onto your hard drive. As usual, the XBL community has come through with a workaround, the N+ Level Sharing Society.

There are also several multiplayer options, including two versus modes: Survival and Race. Survival tasks the competitors with, you guessed it, surviving. By collecting more gold than the other guy and avoiding the enemies and hazards, the last ninja standing wins. Coincidentally Race mode involves beating the other ninja(s) to the end of the level. You can also opt to work your way co-operatively through the single player campaign or an entirely new multiplayer campaign. In the MP campaign, the host is often in a different location than the other ninjas and you have to work in conjunction to make your way through the level. This can lead to a lot of gentle ribbing of your fellow ninjas as you watch them fail, often quite epicly. There is also an unwritten ninja rule that you refer to eachother by colour, rather than gamertag (as ninjas have no name). The achievements for multiplayer include completing 10 ranked matches of each adversarial type and completing 5 and 10 co-op campaign episodes.

Each level has a clever, often pop-culture inspired name that will often have you chuckling, such as "one jump to rule them all", "all the leaves are grey, and the sky is grey" and "Ninja In The City". Your ninja also does a variety of ninja-like victory dances upon reaching the end of each level. All in all, N+ handily justifies the 800 Microsoft point price tag (approximately $10), even though the game it's based on is offered free on the Internet. Either check out there, or download the trial version and see if it tickles your fancy. Again, my only gripe is the aforementioned saving issue (and a slight netcode issue in multiplayer that's distracting but not gamebreaking) - as such N+ scores 9 precious squares of gold out of 10.

[With files from X-Power.be]

P.S. I would like to thank my close personal friend Josh for reccomending this game to me. Without your continued support and gentle guidance, I would've never added these 200 achievements points onto my gamerscore. Truly, thank you - from the bottom of my heart. I forgive you for cheating in our gamerscore contest by playing "King Kong". You are the wind beneath my leaf.