This game is Pac-Man as a platformer, and I mean this in the grandest of all possible senses.

N++'s timelessness is unmatched by any other game in its genre. If you think Celeste is "precise", Super Meat Boy is "hard", Super Mario is "expressive", you're not wrong — but, still, N++ distills all of these qualities in the purest, most refined experience of jumping and moving in a 2D space.

Unbound by any concern whatsoever with things like narrative, worldbuilding, or thematic cohesion, N++ is just lines. Each of its checks wikipedia four thousand three hundred and forty stages (!!) is made up of a few perfectly straight lines, a mere dozen or so types of enemies and traps, and a number of square "coins" you may pick up as you traverse the level if you have the gall to go for any score higher than "I was able to clear this level somehow".

The only two things that prop up this ridiculous game are pure, unadulterated level design intelligence, and a physics engine that would make Einstein himself soil his trousers. Every single input you give to this game works double or triple duty. You know how in Super Smash Bros you can control the height of your jump depending on how long you press the button, and you can also do a "short hop" by lightly tapping it with a level of subtlety that's frankly unbecoming of the fighting genre? That is good gameplay. Now, imagine that, but better. Bonkers better. Infinite levels of either floatiness or short-hoppy-ness at the tip of your finger, dictated only by your eagerness and/or patience to let go of the A button.

If the Ninja you control in N++ could leave traces of paint in the screen, we would most certainly have N++ artists, such is the expressiveness and gracefulness of this character, in these levels, with these physics, in this game.

N++ is a challenging yet simple platformer. You play as an awesome ninja whose entire purpose is to just complete a bunch of platforming challenges that utilize your momentum. This game is actually really hard especially in further levels. Speaking of which, there are A TON of levels. I'm not exaggerating when I say this. For example, each level you play on, called episodes, contain 5 stages. Each episode goes in an order of A-00, A-01, and so forth until reaching -19. By then it reaches the next letter so the process continues until reaching E-19. So to do the math of only one chapter of this game it would be 20*5*5 (it's times 20 because the episodes start at -00.) There are 500 stages per chapter, and that's only in the standard solo levels. There's an "Ultimate" section of levels and even co-op which has completely new ones. ᵗʰᵉⁿ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ'ˢ ᵗʰᵉ ᵘˢᵉʳ ᶜʳᵉᵃᵗᵉᵈ ˡᵉᵛᵉˡˢ. So yeah, you want a platformer that'll last you for a while? Get N++. Anyways the actual controls of this game are very smooth and fluid. The N series has always utilized your momentum for platforming, so sometimes before making a jump off off of a ramp, you'll want to turn the opposite direction right before jumping to get extra height, but if you keep running forward you'll get more horizontal distance. There is also vertical momentum which does mean that there's fall damage so you must be careful. Luckily the game teaches you these things in first episodes of the game, just make sure to read the title of each stage on the bottom right corner. Also the entire soundtrack is vaporwave, which is great to hear whenever you rage because you accidentally pulled back while making a jump into some explosive mines :) But for real, if you want a difficult and precise platformer, I recommend N++, it's clean and super simple so the graphics aren't gonna blow you away. Oh yeah you can also customize your ninja a little bit after completing some episodes, so that's neat

This is a perfect platformer for me. Incredibly tight controls, an insane amount of content (a lot of it secret!), and awesome soundtrack. There is no story and the graphics are incredibly basic, but there's no need for that here - you're just a ninja trying to collect some gold and get to the exit.

Hours played: 259
Platinumed?: nope, have some Race/Co-op episodes to get through and some miscellaneous trophies
100%?: nope, I'm maybe 50% through the game?

I needed a while to get used and enjoy the momentum-based platforming. But once I did, N++ became a really enjoyable platformer unlike any other game in the genre. Momentum is really what this game is all about, and once you master the mechanics, moving around each level at lightning speed feels amazing.

The game feels a tad too long though. I completed everything including the X-rows in solo and legacy, which amounted to roughly 1435 levels (including some coop and race required for the platinum trophy) and by the time I was done I felt a bit exhausted.