The Legend of Tobimaru is a challenging old school action platforming adventure that sees you learning ninjutsu skills and using them to fight your way past the most powerful warriors of three rival ninja clans.
Previously featured in Alpha Beta Gamer a year ago and now far more polished, The Legend of Tobimaru draws inspiration from classic titles such as Super Mario Bros, Mega Man and Street Fighter II to deliver a skill based retro action platforming in large secret-filled levels. It plays a little like you remember the Shinobi games to play like, though far better than what they actually play like, and sees you controlling the titular Tobimaru as he seeks vengeance on the three clans that attacked his clan and tries to recover a powerful orb that they stole.
The Legend of Tobimaru features large open levels and and abilities to unlock but it’s a lot more linear than most metroidvanias so there’s very little in the way of backtracking. There are secrets to discover, stat upgrades to purchase and useful combos and abilities to unlock. It’s a tough game, with relatively scarce health pickups so you have to be careful when entering into combat. The majority of the weaker minions can be dispatched without too much fuss, but you’ll come across mini-boss and boss fights that’ll really test your fighting skills.
The current build of The Legend of Tobimaru features around an hour’s worth of gameplay and really impresses with its excellent retro styled pixel art animation, interesting level design and challenging skill based combat. There are some frustrating difficulty spikes (the second rolling ball of death in particular), but it’s a very promising game and is well worth checking out for a slice of old school ninja action platforming.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The The Legend of Tobimaru Kickstarter Demo Here (Windows)