Despite never owning the game, I have fond memories of Mini Ninjas. In the summer of 2009, my brothers and I were dead broke, and spent our time playing demo after demo on the PS Store. The Mini Ninjas demo was surprisingly interesting - there were secrets, a well-controlled main character with lots of tools in his belt, systems of stealth and magic and multiple characters. For the longest time I considered it to be a potential hidden gem on my radar, but as I got older, I increasingly couldn't justify playing a older kid's game instead of whatever was newer, shinier, more interesting and complicated.

Enter 2022. I have acquired a Steam copy of Mini Ninjas for $2, and am bewildered to discover it was made by the B-Team at IO Interactive, known for making the best stealth games of the last 10 years. I relive the beginning stage - the same one that comprised the demo - and things felt as good as I remembered. It was simple, but fluid. I could imagine a younger version of myself, used to the clunky LEGO platformers and the like, being floored by the number of tools the player has to get through the semi-open stages. I feel as though I'm being set up for something wonderful off the beaten path...

But then the experience repeats. Again, and again. The same enemies, the same structures, the same environments to conquer appear and reappear, and I am inundated with more characters, more systems, more ninja tools, more powers and spells with nothing interesting to use them for. New enemy types are gradually revealed, but they have specific strategies required to defeat them that destroy the purpose of the vast toolkit. Bosses break up the monotony, but they are largely just quick-time events, totally divorced from all of the cool shit you're constantly being given. By the endgame, I have 5 party members, nearly 10 spells, and a half-dozen potions that I have never been required or even encouraged to try.

There really is something beating here. The environments are simple in structure but their openness and art direction are quite captivating. Traveling off of the beaten path is almost always rewarded. Stealthing through the landscape is a genuinely viable alternative to the vast majority of encounters. The samurai fortresses that punctuate the game's various acts are fairly complicated, with vertical geography and greater threats building tension the deeper you delve. Best of all, Hiro himself feels great to control, making his friends almost entirely redundant with his speed, spellcasting, and array of combat skills.

If the focus of development was on a more singular experience (akin to Tenchu, perhaps), where as much care was put into the challenges before the player as the systems that exist for their benefit, with even more routes to success and a greater need to dig deep into the bag of tricks, even if just for optional content, we're looking at a winner - one that could appeal to a wide range of players. What we got, however, is not that. Following Mini Ninjas, the team behind its development was absorbed into the main Hitman team as support staff, and to this day haven't been granted access to independent development again. It makes one wonder how things might have turned out had the opportunity been taken more seriously.