Game Stooge

REVIEW: N+ (PSP)

• Scribbled on July 25th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
• Filed in Platformer, Reviews, Sony PSP

N+ isn’t the easiest game to classify. It’s a platformer, a collect-a-thon, a ninja game, but it’s also a test to separate the men from the boys, with over 200 levels to go through and a difficult that ramps up drastically around level 60. Once you get there, N+ is less of a game and more of precision calibration machine for your hand-eye coordination. You can check out the PC demo here; it won’t take more than a few seconds.

Each level consists of 4 stages, and each stage is one screen in size. The object of the game is to navigate your ninja through the level avoiding mines, roving drones, falling from great heights, lasers, rockets, machines guns, burning platforms, and so on. You must do all of this while a timer at the top of the screen slowly disappears. The timer can be replenished, even above its original threshold, by collecting the gold scattered around the stage. That’s about it.

The secret of N+ is its simplicity. The creators have boiled down the compelling features of platformers, cut out all the extraneous material and given us something very close to bliss. The graphics are simple, as are the sounds and music, so as not to distract you from playing. This type of commitment to game play should be lauded. The controls are spot on.

Despite the difficulty of later stages, I never felt that the game had cheated or pulled a lame trick on me, every death (and there were innumerable ones) was my fault. Either I didn’t hold the jump button down long enough, or I hadn’t controlled a fall successfully. This is refreshing in an environment where the game is so obviously gamed against you that you throw your hands up in disgust (examples that spring immediately to mind: Mario Kart and Alone in the Dark). There was more than one occasion when I lost myself in the game, obsessing over collecting more gold or completing a stage, unaware of the time until my girlfriend popped in to tell me it was bedtime or I’d be late for work! I can’t think of a better way to compliment a game than to admit I lost myself in it, and all on a simple platformer.

Once you get through all 200 single player stages, there are still 100 co-op stages to complete with a friend, or, if you’re not feeling particularly friendly towards your fellow man, 50 VS. stages. If you happen to plum the depth of that well, you can connect to the N+ servers and download more levels, or if nothing challenges you anymore, make your own levels to torture yourself with.

I wish I could tell you more about the on-line, multiplayer components of the game. I was really excited to try this game with others, but sadly the PSP hates my Wi-Fi connection and for some reason every other one I’ve ever found. That’s not Metanet or Atari’s fault so I’m not going to dock them on it. I just can’t tell you more about it.

When a game lets you lose yourself in it, instead of constantly reminding you that you’re playing a game, it deserves a perfect score. If I could avoid the score, I’d just tell you to go buy it.