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N+
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As you control your greedy ninja with the 360’s analog stick, you can pull off stunning parkour acrobatics that would make Jackie Chan proud. It takes some practice to time your jumps and harness inertia, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be bouncing off walls, sliding down hills, and nabbing more elusive riches than a certain Italian plumber on speed. You’ll need every bit of that mobility to navigate a huge variety of treacherous mazes, and to outwit all manner of evil machinations including electrified drones, gun turrets, guided missiles, and mines.

Ouch...

The game’s ample collection of single-player levels will keep you occupied for a long time, and you can always retry levels you’ve beaten to improve your times. But N+ really shines in its multiplayer offerings. You can play four-player co-op on a local machine, over system link, or Xbox Live. You can race other players to the exit, compete to be the last ninja standing in a free-for-all, or work together to finish a gauntlet of 10 rooms in record time. Occasionally laggy connections can mar what is normally a righteous exhibition of slick moves and spectacular deaths.

With so much content to sift through, you might never find time to tinker with the game’s included level editor (cleverly named Ned). It employs a simple interface for creating your own platforming masterpieces of ninja torture in a matter of minutes. You can spell your name, craft impossible structures—even draw naughty, monolithic body parts to clamber upon. Perhaps that’s why you can’t widely distribute your created N+ level content with other players aside from hosting a private match. It’s a shame because there’s a real opportunity for aspiring modders and level designers to rise to the occasion (no pun intended), especially in light of Microsoft’s recent XNA initiative to entice homebrew game developers to its platform. Even without the ability to download other user-created levels, the included map tool is a welcome feature.

Make your masterpieces with Ned.

It’s hard not to smile when beating a particularly challenging level (Electric Jellyfish, I’m looking at you) or leading your stick ninja to an early dismemberment at the hands of wicked traps. About the only complaint one can level at N+ is its uneven difficulty. Even though it doesn’t reinvent the genre, N+ improves upon it so much that it’s hard not to recommend to just about anyone but the most casual player.

Highs
Great use of physics; solid platforming; abundance of content for single and multiplayer modes; entertaining soundtrack; level editor included.

Lows
Can’t share user-made levels online; blistering difficulty of some levels will drive you insane and make your hands ache; saved progress doesn't always register.

Final Verdict
N+ is an exciting throwback to 2D platforming that improves upon the formula in almost every way. Whether you enjoy your action online or off, you’ll get plenty of enjoyment for your money. This is one of the best XBLA titles currently on the market, and is heartily recommended for fans of action games, platformers, and cooperative play.

90%

Mar 11, 2008

Review by Bobby Stein.