TIM BENITEZ

Beat of the Ninja

 

This is the story of Tempomaru, a ninja in training. Born to musical parents, they thought it would be pretty fly if their son became a ninja. They enroll Tempomaru in a ninja school in which he is taught by Ninja Master Beatsuki. These are just a couple characters the player can select from in Beat of the Ninja, but Tempomaru is the main character used for story mode. It's all about him.

 

 

A one on one fighting game with the use of rhythm to land attacks on the opponent. The interface will be like a standard fighting game with each character's life meter at the top with their characters profile picture. At the bottom each fighter will have their own super meter which can be charged up to three slots. Each fighter will stand face to face and always be at attacking distance.

 

Each stage (or arena) will have a tune with one constant sustaining beat in which the player must input a command to attack or defend upon those beats. Note that the player must put in their command on the beat and not the individual notes of the song. Each player will take turns in attacking and defending. A fighter will defend while the other one attacks. The turns will switch with however many beats are allowed in a transition. For example if one beat is allowed per transition then the player will attack once then defend once then attack once and so on with each individual beat. The player must input the right command on his beat or he misses his chance. The number of attacks allowed in each transition can change from one to up to four. The game engine will determine these transitions. If three beats is selected by the game engine the player must input the command (with the beat) as follows: attack, attack, attack, defend, defend, defend, attack, attack, attack, and so on until the game engine changes into the next transition. The transition will change at random but the game will stop the fight to tell the player it is doing so. The warning will follow the beat with specific words which are “Transition” (meaning a transition change), “Three”(or any number of inputs allowed for each side's turn), “Ready”(allowing the players to prepare and highlights which fighter will start the transition), “Fight”(The players' inputs start with this command). There will be a green spotlight that flashes to the beat on the attacker and a red one on the defender. In addition to this, there will be a black border around the game screen that flashes white with the beat.

 

Each stages music will have looping songs just like any video game with a distinct beat to follow. The fight ends when a fighters health is depleted or when time runs out if unlimited time is not selected. Naturally the fighter with the health remaining, or the most amount of health, is the victor. The game will keep a number score for bragging rights. The score will go up with each successful hit landed and will multiply if a player does not miss a beat. The tempo may change in the middle of the song but will warn the player in the same way as the transition change except tempo will be the word used instead of transition. The new speed of the tempo will start at the beginning of this warning. This will add another layer of difficulty for each player.

 

Each player will have a punch button, kick button, block button, a jump button, and can crouch with the down arrow, unless using a joystick in which the same direction still applies These buttons will be the face and directional buttons (or joystick) on a controller. The player can use a different direction command for each punch or kick to perform different punches or kicks than if they were to push the button without any direction. Some of these single commands may come in as multiple hits but will still fall within one beat, thus maintaining the constant beat exchange. Each of these various attacks will deal varying amounts of damage. Each direction input must be put in before the beat and held when a beat command is executed. It is only the attack, defend, and jump command that must be put in at each beat. This will give the defender fair warning if the attacker is going to attack high or low for the next attack. When one of the meter slots is filled up the player is able to unleash a super combo by pressing two shoulder buttons simultaneously on one of his beats. The player who initiated it must input commands that pop up on the screen to match the notes given for the super combo. It will not be the standard beat like during the regular game mode. The more slots that are filled up, the more damage the combo deals.

 

The game will be in 2D and will give the image of Japanese ink brush paintings. The game will feature Japanese type music with Japanese instruments. Many of the the themes may be familiar to some who have played Japanese ninja games or watched ninja anime. This is not to limit the prospective audience to Japanese gamers, ninja fans, or anime fans. This game's music will have catchy beats for anyone to tap their toe to and bring in any rhythm game fan. There is a possibility that fighters will also enjoy this game. There is also the chance that martial artists will be intrigued by this game as tempo is a training tool in various martial arts such as Capoeira. There will be a total of eight different fighters each with their own special attacks and fighting styles. There will be a total of 12 different stages with their own tune to fight to.