Shenkuu Warrior: The Epic Sensation

First off, the Gnorbu requires the assistance of a human counterpart to click in the general direction of the nearest ledge. Then, once the Gnorbu grapples up to the outcropping, she doesn’t just sit there and take a breather, she has to go extreme. She needs you to click again, in the direction of yet another rock. Always remember that her life is in your hands, and you must point that grappling hook carefully! Now, the cycle begins.

It’ll probably take a while to get used to this. You may fall because your aim is just a tad off, and most likely, you’ll get mad at your mouse, or your internet connection’s faultiness; blame missing the rock on its technological error. It couldn’t possibly be your fault with your eyes glued to the screen like that! However, when you fall, you go all the way back to the start, and your points will vary from how high up the mountain you made it. Don’t freak out if the points drop – it’s only temporary, and you can gain those points back by completing the level!

Once you get in the swing of things (sorry, I know you’ve had enough of the puns in this newspaper), you’ll see the background start to change. You’ll go from your dark green jungle scene to a brighter, tanner, rocky area. It’s probably a welcome change on your eyes; however, this is where the suspense begins to pile on. You realize you’ve come all this way, and if you fall now, it’ll all be for nothing! Just keep aiming, and soon you’ll make it to the top of the mountain, bluish-white with snow! Continue to the sky, and soon, you’ll see a message pop up saying, “You did it!” and fireworks surround the Gnorbu. You feel so wonderful, huh? Well, this game doesn’t end there.

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the next level! The first thing you’ll realize is that your points are higher! That’s a reward for making it all the way to the top, and the higher you go from now on will make that number escalate further! Things are exactly the same here except for two things. First, the position of the outcroppings have changed, as always. You should be used to that by now. However, the next change is a bit more of a shock – the length of the mountain changes. It’s now a little bit taller, and you have to keep clicking precisely in order to keep the Gnorbu swinging carefree through the air. If only all of us could do that... -sighs-

From here on, it’s exactly the same concept as level one, just with an increasing difficulty level. Don’t get discouraged if it takes you seemingly forever to get through a level, just keep pushing until you get your ideal score. However, the game is so fun that you won’t realize how quickly time passes while playing it. Holy Kadoaties, has it been two hours already?

If you’re playing this for the NP, the payout is 1.20 NP for every point. That means that you’ll need a total of about 833.156489 points for 1000 NP. However, it’s a worthwhile game to play if you need a cure for boredom, too, or even if you just feel the need to try a new game! All in all, while being an odd but simple concept, Shenkuu Warrior is pretty darn fun.

Now, here are my personal opinions and technological details.

Gameplay: This game is deceptively simple, and generally accurate; however, occasionally, it seems that the length of time that the grappling hook is in the air after the Gnorbu sprite leaves the screen is slightly random. It is also a little annoying that the screen is much taller than it is wide because I click outside of the screen of play a lot. But it was a great idea, and I’m surprised that even though it’s on the games page in the “Most Challenging” box, that it doesn’t get as many plays as other games in the same category. Come on, don’t shy away from these games because of what they’re marked as! Darblat, to me, is actually more difficult... So, I give this an 8/10.

Neopoint Payout: For what this is, it really isn’t bad. I see people getting excess of 50,000 points, and so it mustn’t be too hard to get some decent pay, right? However, for beginners, it won’t pay much, so I’ll give payout an 8.5/10.

Graphics: Heck, it’s a repeating background with some slight changes and is in typical Neopian style. I certainly couldn’t make it look like that, but like I said earlier, it’s a simple game. It does have better graphics than games like Escape from Meridell Castle, but it doesn’t have many sprites to work with, so it receives a score of 7.5/10 in the graphics department. However, if the game is completely awesome, do graphics really matter? To some they do, but to each his own; I don’t really care much.

Overall: In short, this game is incredibly addictive, and gives some decent pay. On the pros side, it’s fun, and advanced players have the possibility of high payout and perhaps even a trophy once the concept is grasped and mastered. With the cons, beginners may have a tough time, and the gameplay can seem to be a tad difficult. It doesn’t get quite as many plays per day as Kass Basher, but it’s about average. With all factors accounted for, I’ll give it an 8/10 overall.