OneMetal.com game REVIEW:
Mute Crimson (Xbox Live Indie Channel)

Appreciating Xbox indie games is a bit like scavenging through your neighbour’s dustbins – you squander hours delving through the gaming equivalent of dirty nappies and empty milk cartons and seldom find anything worth a second look. However, sooner or later you’ll probably stumble across something worth your while, and discovering Apoxxle’s budget ninja platformer Mute Crimson is like unearthing a packet of naked bondage Polaroids between two tea-stained issues of The Radio Times.

Boiled down to its essence, the wall-scaling, laser dodging action of Mute Crimson resembles the likes of NES-era Ninja Gaiden. The graphics might look basic in the screenshots, but I ended up appreciating a purposely minimal 2D art style that backflips over confusion with only black, white and lashings of pixellated red blood onscreen. There’s very little animation, few enemies and basic sound, but you’ll soon discover that this game is anything but lacking in polish.

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Like its masked progenitors, Mute Crimson is tough, but the firm-but-fair difficulty will soon demonstrate how much effort has gone into the level design, shrewd ninja-smiting hazards and solid pacing. The controls are tight and restart points are thankfully well-planned, so whilst you may end up cursing your blocky assassin, you’ve usually got no-one to blame but yourself.

You get a decent amount of levels for your MS points too, and I was happy to see that new challenges and obstacles are introduced throughout the game, including an array of weird Engrish-speaking bosses. This is one of those games where straightforward, unfussy presentation allows the designer to focus completely on gameplay, something that should really be remembered by many larger studios. Mute Crimson may not be re-writing the ninja rulebook, but it serves as a perfect demonstration of the Indie channel’s success in promoting the talents of solid coders who understand that a game is only entertaining as long as it is fun, challenging and full of ninjas.

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Like most of the better indie titles, the demo is quite generous, so lovers of double-jump, ninja sword and platform spike dodging have no excuse not to experience this bloody little gem. For only 80 MS points, the ninja-curious and perhaps even outright ninjaphobes might want to give it a try.

Bottom Line

Miles better than most full-price offerings, and full of discount ninja magic. Drop out of a tree and grab a copy today.