Try and say that title five times fast! Welcome to Mononoke Slashdown, the latest release from Arc System Works. Mononoke Slashdown is a 2D ninja game where you slash stuff. A lot. Seriously, the game puts the Dynasty Warriors franchise to shame with how much slashing you do. Well, there’s a bit more to it than that, but this isn’t a complex game by any means.
But what is Mononoke Slashdown? Well, you’re Kagemaru, an apprentice ninja who somehow manages to find himself the sole guardian of the village against a horde of evil enemies out to destroy everything. I’d explain it further, but due to the incredibly atrocious grammar in the game, it’s really not worth it. Suffice it to say that you’ve got to fight all the demons and there’s no one else to help.
Mononoke Slashdown consists of a background and some monsters. That’s it. There’s no complexity to the game and very little finesse. In the opening stages, you pretty much just mash the Y button repeatedly and wait for the stage to end. This is symptomatic of the underlying problem in Mononoke Slashdown, its complete lack of depth. I hate to say it, but it’s just a simple game that isn’t all that enjoyable. Slash down through some monsters. Cool. Wait, they’re too powerful! Upgrade your weapons, armor, spells, and treasure by grinding through previously played levels over and over again to rake in some cash and actually be able to beat the later levels.
If you can manage to make it through all 6 of the other stages in each world of Mononoke Slashdown, you’ll end up in a boss fight where you’ll promptly get slaughtered. Bosses are ridiculously tough in Mononoke Slashdown, requiring multiple attempts and throwing out cheap shots left and right. Once you finally do manage to kill one, you’re always surprised because they have no life bar and the only way to tell they’re weaker is that the attacks become more and more aggressive.
In addition to the boss fights, regular levels are also somewhat hard and irritating. Either you beat down a huge stack of enemies, you slash some crystals, or you escort some villagers to safety. Escorting villagers is not even remotely fun, requiring you to get smacked around hard by enemies as you try to hit them to let the villagers run past. In regular missions, if you haven’t upgraded, even just taking out hordes of enemies is hard due to the sheer number of hits it takes, the volume of enemies on screen, and the variety of attacks they wield. The game difficulty and enemy hit points ramp up pretty fast so you’ll definitely be grinding regularly.
Control on the other hand, is tight and well-designed in Mononoke Slashdown. The gameplay itself controls like a dream and combos are fluid and easy to pull off, both the regular multiplied combos and the special attacks. They’re also extremely effective, and once you get powered up far enough, the game does become easier, especially with the grinding. You’ll be flying through the air in triple jumps launching ninjitsu blasts with abandon. Of course, you’ll still get utterly served by the bosses, but hey, live and learn!
Mononoke Slashdown definitely isn’t for everyone. It will appeal to a very specific kind of masochist that loves to simply spend the night mashing buttons with no real goal other than to get to the end. Sure, saving the villiagers is noble and all, but by the time you manage to beat the game (and it’s fairly short), you simply won’t care anymore. It will have drained the life right out of you due to the tedious and repetitive nature of the game. Just slash, fight a boss, rinse, and repeat. Over and over again for 35 stages and five worlds.
It seems that you get what you pay for though. Weighing in at only $7, Mononoke Slashdown isn’t all that expensive, but you don’t exactly get a ton of compelling content either. On the upside, the sprites are large and well-designed, and the music isn’t all that terrible either. Is it worth $7 for this one? Probably not. It’s hard to see anyone feeling compelled to play Mononoke Slashdown. Unfortunately, it’s just another sub-par ninja game cashing in on otaku that love ninjas by being inexpensive in both price and content. Unless it wildly appeals to you, I’d pass on this one as it’s a middling bargain game at a middling bargain price.
This review was written based on a digital copy of Mononoke Slashdown provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes. Also, ninjas were just as often subversives, politicians, and poisoners as well as how we think of them today. Learn more about ninjas here.