Yes that is the actual name of the game

Greetings TL! Well, recently I have been getting back into playing my Steam games mostly because I have been bored of HotS recently (just no motivation to actually play) and in preparation for the Summer Steam Sale that will be upon us soon I decided to finish up some games. I recently finished Dark Souls which was amazing and one of the best RPG experiences I have ever had, even though it had it's flaws. After that, I jumped right into a game that was an impulse buy on Steam a few months ago, Super House of Dead Ninjas.


There is also a comic to read. Isn't long but the artwork is pretty cool


All I knew about it is that it is a retro style platformer based on an Adult Swim flash game, which is very basic to say the least. It greatly expands upon the flash game adding better graphics, much more enemies, weapons, and bosses. The basic outline of the game is that you are a ninja and you start at the top of this huge tower and your objective is to get to the bottom. Along the way encountering several types of enemies and bosses to defeat.


The original Adult Swim flash game. Needless to say, it has been improved upon


This game reminded me a bit of Ninja Gaiden, then again maybe that's just the ninjas....


It's similar to Ninja Gaiden I guess....minus the truckloads of bullshit


It sorta plays like Super Meat Boy in the way it rewards how fast you play. You have a time counter in this game, you can add time by defeating enemies which drop time power-ups or by finding them around the tower. If the timer hits zero, it summons a grim reaper looking character who kills you in one hit. It isn't instant death though, if you can still find more clocks, you can reset it. The timer is not long so you are kinda forced to rush through the game to an extent. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can get annoying to know you are always fighting against the clock. In a way, it's the main enemy in the game that you have to face and overcome.


A typical game-play view of the tower you are descending

The stages are decently varied. There isn't much in the way of enemy or environment variation though which was rather disappointing. There are only a few areas in the game to speak of. There is a separate area though called Transdimensional Leakage. Strange looking tower that is endless. I guess you could say it is the games version of a survival mode where you are just going for a high score.


Looks like someone used the level structure for their math homework in here

There is also a rage timer, kill enemies in quick enough succession and it builds up rage. When it is maxed out you are invincible for awhile, although it does deplete fast. Keep killing enemies fast enough and you can keep it for quite awhile. In a way, the time and rage mechanics are pretty cool. This makes the game very fast-paced to play and it is immensely satisfying once you learn how to fly through the levels.


Rage Meter. The faster you kill enemies, the longer it lasts. Small price to pay for being invulnerable

The bosses can be a bit frustrating, at least they were for me. You fight them in very confined spaces and the margin for error is low. Maybe that will come as I get better at the game, but I can't help but feel like getting hit by bosses is just expected of the player and there is nothing you can do about it. They usually have somewhat wonky movements so hitting them with the projectile weapons you have can be pretty iffy. The later bosses generally have patterns of weakness though so I felt they improved as the game went on.


A shark with a mechanical claw?.....sure, why not



Do I really wanna know what that yellow liquid is? No...I'd rather not

There is a good amount of weapon variety that you can get throughout the game to keep things fresh. You have a basic melee weapon assortment like swords,nun-chucks, or whips. Then you have your secondary weapons. These are ranged weapons with limited ammo but are fairly powerful. They include Shurikens, boomerangs, guns, and even Hadokens that look like an invisible Ryu conjured them up. There are also magic attacks, but they have a very limited use, best saved for bosses. There are three different ones in the game and all of them turn the enemies on the screen to slush. Very useful if you are in a tight place or even against a boss

One of the strengths of this game is that you are constantly unlocking new outfits and weapons to use it seems. If that wasn't enough, there is Chaos Mode available right from the start, starting you out with a random weapon load-out. Even though it seems like a small addition, I can see this adding longevity to the game and spicing things up.


Bored of having the same weapons? Let the game play some roulette with you then


Magic attacks are powerful, but have very limited amounts of use.


The weapons, secondary weapons, and projectiles are all varied

There are some things about the game that are fairly terrible though. The controls feel very slippery to start out as the movement is pretty sensitive. You really just start flying across the screen. I also had somewhat of a problem with the double-jump in this game. In a way, it feels like it is too low for a double-jump. There is one boss in particular where you have to jump over throughout the battle and there is a very small margin of error in terms of timing your jumps so you don't get hit. I will say that you do get used to the controls later on though and I got more comfortable with it.

The other big problem I had was the screen. You are stuck in a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is inexcusable to me, indie developer or not. I had the same problem with Hotline Miami, although more extreme. Bottom line, if you are making a game nowadays it should support modern resolutions. No excuses.

Overall it was a fun game for a few days and was well worth the price (Got if for $3.50 during a sale, normally $7 on steam). If you enjoy difficult platformers, it's well worth a try!




What do we say to the God of Death? Not today.