Aaarrr! Now this is me type of app. Har, har, har! Aye, Banzai Blade tis’ called and I be slashing me blade everywhere, killin’ monsters and whate’er else this pirate comes across. I be pretty sure that ye will like this little bugger a lot.
Several months ago, Cartoon Network embarked on a mission. That mission – to build an app worthy of the masses. Well, they did exactly that with Banzai Blade where you play a ninja running endlessly whilst slashing the heads off of your enemies with your twin blades along the way. Interested? Read on for my take on this wonderful action app.
A Wonderful Story and Fighting System
Banzai Blade’s backstory is rather familiar. You are the hero and you are tasked to destroy and decimate the devilish monster named Oni along with his evil minions, which seems to number in the millions. A tough task it is, but one worth of such a ninja such as you. You are armed with twin blades, cool threads, and with endless stamina. Yes, you read that right, the ninja doesn’t get tired.
This is one of those endless runners, folks. The only difference is that Cartoon Network focused more on designing a fighting system rather than just delve into the whole “survive as long as you can” type gaming models. In Banzai Blade, your score is affected by the number of enemies you kill and not just tied into the length of your journey or survival.
The fighting system in this app is rather simple but ingeniously crafted to allow people from all skill levels to master and enjoy it. Basically, the ninja you control runs on auto pilot. All you have to do is attack anything that comes your way, be it small gray demon or the fireballs that the occasional dragon will spit at you. Just swipe to slash or tap to deflect any fiery ammunition headed your way. There are a lot of enemies to kill, all of them with varying degrees of difficulty. For instance, killing a red demon may require multiple slashes as opposed to a single slash on its gray-colored cousin. Furthermore, the system has a built-in pattern randomizer. This makes it difficult for player to anticipate the enemies coming at him one every run as the system changes up every so often. This makes the re-playability factor higher. Unfortunately, the frustration factor when your ninja dies increases in fold as well.
No Money? No Problem
Banzai Blade is totally free to play. It does sell in-game currency called blossoms for real money for those looking for an added edge when playing but players will be glad to know that you can actually do well without those purchases as every run is filled with opportunities to pick up and earn more blossoms.
The blossoms you gather can be used to purchase more powerful weapons, better threads, and power ups, most of which you will definitely need in the later levels. Now, if you are willing to part with your cash, you can of course buy the blossoms you need. I highly recommend going for the $4.99 for 1 million blossoms bargain.
Just One More Thing
Banzai Blade seems to be a perfect game all around. The graphics is great, the system is superb, and even the sound effects and music are optimal. The only thing I found irritating while playing around with this app is that the controls become too difficult to manipulate later on in the game. This is because you are flanked by more enemies that you can handle, most of which require a lot of quick decisions and extreme dexterity. This leads to your ninja receiving those quick and cheap hits that add up and lead to his death later on. It gets kind of frustrating, but I guess that is just how the game goes. Overall, though, the game is just awesome and should warrant your fast download and install.
