Ninja Pizza Girl (PC)

As video game speedrunning rose in popularity in the 2010s, it was natural that some game developers would catch on and try to integrate it into their title’s design. However, it’s easy to overlook that many of the popular speed games are ones that weren’t developed to be completed quickly at all and often rely on esoteric glitches to achieve the best completion times. However, there is definitely still a thrill to be found in a game allowing you to build up speed and move through a level with incredible fluidity. Designing mostly for just the speedrunning aspect can lead to something hollow that will only appeal to the most mechanically minded people though, so while Ninja Pizza Girl’s platforming gameplay is quite clearly constructed to appeal to people trying to complete it with optimal movement in as little time as possible, it doesn’t forget to try and build up some game appeal with its story.

Ninja Pizza Girl’s main character is a teenage girl named Gemma who works as the delivery person for her family’s pizza place. However, rather than having to worry about driving to a house in time for a delivery to stay fresh and hot, Gemma and her family live in an unusual future where most people live in houses built atop large skyscrapers meaning that there would be no quick way to get to a customer save by running there on foot. A self-trained ninja (in that she looked up how to act like one online), Gemma must leap across rooftops and find the best path across walkways and balconies to reach her customers before time runs out.

The game segments its levels into small batches that follow some fairly simple storylines at first, Gemma’s delivery job leading to things like her help bring two shy people together romantically or helping an old acquaintance learn to overcome her fear of heights in this future that certainly isn’t a good fit for someone with acrophobia. These stories are fairly simple and often silly, but they begin to build up to the main conflict where a megacorporation known as MeGaCo notices the tiniest percentage dip in their dominance of the pizza industry and sends out their own ninjas to sabotage this mostly inconsequential rival. Rather than going for anything directly aggressive at first though, they go for Gemma’s ego as their target, MeGaCo’s ninjas insulting her outfit, pushing her around during deliveries, and trying to emotionally manipulate her into giving up. A plot thread of trying to cope with bullying and focusing on the positives in your life starts to emerge, but the marketing for the game seems to overplay the poignancy and impact of this narrative direction, Ninja Pizza Girl’s examination of teenage bullying closer to a very special episode of a teenage sitcom but with more focus on a feel good ending rather than raising awareness.

When it comes to the pizza delivery part of the game, the focus is completely on the flow and feeling of the movement. The player is given a rather speedy character to control who builds momentum over time, the path forward mostly requiring them to identify when to jump to take different paths, when to slide to get under obstacles, and when to perform actions like plank-shattering kicks or wall jumps to keep their rhythm and speed as the rooftops get more intricate in their design. The layouts of each level feature many paths that essentially create a hierarchy of movement, players with sharp reflexes or those who can identify the course ahead based on past experiences able to take the optimal routes through the level. It’s not always as obvious as the high road or low road being the best option though, which makes initial runs of a stage less about achieving the best time and more about getting to the end so you can later return to them if you’d like to achieve a better time.

A bit of a problem with these levels becomes apparent though as, if you aren’t compelled to speedrun them, they aren’t quite as deep or diverse as you might hope. If you just want to make it to the end of the stage, performing well is still important, the player needing to make sure to break their falls with a roll and not dilly dally or else the tight timer might force a stage restart. However, many stages can feel rather short because of their speed-focused design, and the game recycles its obstacles and set dressing often so stage variety is mostly built off how the objects have been shuffled around for this particular challenge. Ninja Pizza Girl does roll out new variables over time such as fans where Gemma rides the wind to get around and interior areas with trampoline mazes become common for a while, but it is clear more thought was put into providing multiple routes through a stage rather than making normal level navigation exciting. Some stages do at least change their objectives though, becoming more about things like collecting a certain amount of objects in a more open or challenging stage layout rather than simply focusing on getting to the end, so outright stagnation is staved off even if the game is lacking in stand out stages.

Most of the excitement in Ninja Pizza Girl thus comes from the fluidity of the movement and trying to keep Gemma moving flawlessly through a stage. If you’re able to keep your momentum going for a while, the game does eventually give you a big satisfying surge of energy, the music cranking up as this hyper mode feeds into the satisfying feeling of maintaining excellent movement. However, this special state kicks off with a zoom in and slow down for dramatic effect, which is definitely not the best form of execution in a game where moving quickly and precisely is key. It can actually be smarter to hitch up your running just a touch to avoid it activating when you’re doing something delicate like trying to land on a small platform, because otherwise it will interrupt your expected aerial momentum when it suddenly activates. You’re given some forewarning it is coming based on visual effects, but it certainly feels like it could have been integrated as a mechanic without such theatrics to ensure you don’t need to restart a stage because the reward you received for such a high quality performance caused you to lose your rhythm.

There are dangers to look out for in Ninja Pizza Girl though, and besides things like tricky level design or hazards like electrical pylons, the rival ninjas will be your main concern. Appearing in many ways such as hopping out from behind blocks and dropping from ceilings, these obstacles are more dangerous to make mistakes on because they outright halt your momentum harshly. Whether they’re tripping you up or hurling garbage in your face, the MeGaCo ninjas will slow you down considerably, and as you’re trying to pick up speed again, they’ll begin to laugh at your misfortune. In a rather interesting twist on a video game health system, the laughter of the ninjas is what reduces your strength, Gemma able to regain health by picking up speed and getting back in the flow of things but experiencing a greyed out world every time she’s slowed down. If there are more ninjas in the area, they all join in the laughter, meaning your self confidence takes a harsher hit and Gemma may even come to a halt, the player needing to mash a button to help her recover her resolve. You can bounce off ninjas and slide into them to prevent them from hitting you even though they’re sometimes placed deviously to make this often easier said than done. The ninjas are a unique implementation of a way video game characters can damage you but rather irritating in how much they can impact the game flow, especially in the final set of levels where slow downs are practically inevitable on a first run through a stage.

While retrying levels is sort of an inevitability if you want to earn good ratings or ended up hit by ninjas a few too many times, the short level length at least benefits the game there, and Gemma’s confidence always resets on a level retry. However, between stages she might need a pick me up, and this is where the game’s collectibles come into play. The levels will have floating goodies to collect as you parkour you way to your destination, and these are sometimes placed without regard to the level’s optimal route. These collectibles are retained after a retry at least, but grabbing them can sometimes involve going out of your way or deliberately halting momentum in a game that was attempting to be built around it. Buying Gemma stuff to get her out of a funk is important though, and there are also extras to be had like developer interviews and special costumes if you collect the right things along your adventure. If they were placed a little more intelligently then these could be a good way of showing potential level routes or add an interesting secondary layer to optimal movement in a level, but some stages can lead to you finishing with hardly any of the collectibles if you’re going for the fastest time. With a level timer applying pressure to keep you from exploring as well, these feel oddly integrated even though the small additional content they come with are a nice touch otherwise.

THE VERDICT: Ninja Pizza Girl wants to be a compelling speedrun game, and with its fluid movement and multiple level routes to explore it seems to have some decent ingredients for becoming one. The creators take some time to ensure it’s not all dry mechanical strength though, with a cute story that lightly touches on issues of bullying and some collectibles to use to get extras. The big drawback in this recipe though is they way things come together, with collectibles not gelling with levels that are often focused too greatly on speedrun setpieces to feel compelling for a typical player. The rhythm of the movement is appealing despite the sometimes disruptive hyper mode activation and some stages mix things up just enough to stay fresh, but a lot of the levels blur together and stages can often end a bit too quickly even without you taking any special routes.

And so, I give Ninja Pizza Girl for PC…

An OKAY rating. Ninja Pizza Girl tries to flesh out its many components, but since everything bows in deference to the speedrun design, it doesn’t quite nail everything it’s attempting. The obstacle course feel of the stage design provides a mechanical challenge that keeps play interesting enough, but it also means that you’re not given the level of diversity needed to really make progressing through them compelling beyond that gameplay feel. The sensation of building up momentum and maintaining it is effective and getting into a groove certainly provides some excitement, the game’s appeal also carried well by brief story scenes to add some little jokes and character beats between some rather dry background design. The neon signs and bright cityscape are nice certainly, but they’re the backdrop for most every level, and the homogeneity is likely one reason a stage can feel like it abruptly wrapped up since levels are a string of similar challenges rather than a natural escalation. The gameplay is definitely solid despite the aesthetics and variety not being quite there, the mechanics and levels definitely suited for speedy play, but the extra layers of appeal feel like they need to step up their game to make this more enticing to players who aren’t looking to devote tens of hours to planning optimal movement routes through samey stages.

When we go and look back at other huge speed games we see titles that had much to provide beyond design conducive to working on lowering your times and honing your movement. Even a game like Celeste that seems to have speedrun concepts baked into its fluid platforming has more of its design focused on movement challenges and using your abilities properly rather than just building up speed and maintaining it, but with Ninja Pizza Girl it mostly feels like it is a problem of what’s emphasized than completely misunderstanding a need for appealing design outside of speedrunning. The story adds personality to the game and the levels do throw in small twists to keep your interest, it just needed to focus on these a bit more so that its speed-focused level design had a better core to earn your initial interest. It certainly seems like it wanted its anti-bullying plot to be a bigger focus based on how it advertises itself, so if Ninja Pizza Girl had embraced more aspects of its design than its satisfying movement and multilayer stage construction, it might have had a more robust speedrunning side simply because people would feel more strongly about Ninja Pizza Girl in general.