Mine Fu

Hello,
ok, first question, what is Mine Fu? It's clearly not an rpg, I expected a clone of Bomberman but instead what we have here is a low-paced action puzzle game. It's a game in which the main character is a ninja, so expect fighting enemies, using some gadgets (or bonus items) and also solving simple puzzles.

The plot is nothing new: the nine demons were defeated by the ninja's master but now they came back and the young adept has to show that he mastered the ancient art of Mine Fu!
But what is the art of Mine Fu? Basically our ninja will automatically mine all the "demon tiles" (some square with a face that change after it's mined) just standing on them. The problem is that he cannot walk twice on the same tile after mining it, so it's important to plan a path that will mine all the demon tiles and let our hero exit the area. To make the things easier there is the presence of normal ground (that isn't mined when the ninja walk on it) and the ability to jump one tile (while this is explained later, the ability is immediately available), while some enemies will make instead everything more complicated.


We're at the volcano! Level 7 out of 9... the destination is nearby!

The little ninja can attack with his sword, but pay attention that every enemy has a different behaviour, some just move following fixed patterns, others run towards the ninja, some instead do not move and use ranged attacks.
As I mentioned earlier there are gadgets that can be found hidden inside some breakable containers: shurikens and flaming swords that permits to attack from distance, a log that gives a couple of seconds of invulnerability, the grappling hook that lets the ninja cross huge gaps and the extra life that is always handy!
But pay attention that you can also find the black demon, that resets the level (you have to restart it but without losing a life, so take note of the container and avoid breaking it again!).

The level will also reset if you finish it without mining all the demon tiles AND killing all the enemies, but since this won't consume one of the ninja lives, it's useful to test and figure out a solution while earning some useful points that are necessary to increase the ninja's lives.

The system is really simple: Z is for jumping, X is used to attack or use the bonus equipped, the arrow keys are used to turn and change direction if pressed once, if you hold down the key the ninja will walk in that direction. Different, but easy and perfect for this kind of game.


The rocks are another of the many obstacles, they can be pulled away, still they are a nuisance!

There is no menu, the game automatically saves before entering a zone and before a boss fight. Oh yes, there are also bosses, the demons mentioned before, and in most cases the idea is finding out the enemy weakness and strike: one for example is vunerable to his energy balls and you have to redirect them at him, another requires to dodge the tornadoes she summons before striking... to tell the truth most bosses aren't that difficult, but like for the rest of the levels, the best way to act is taking your time to watch the patterns and find the best way to win. There's no time limit, but every misstep will cost one life (sometimes I reloaded just because I failed in a really stupid way!).

Graphics are simple but cute and use most resources from Rm2k3 but also other assets, and I liked a lot the cutscenes after each level, these are often humorous and establish the feel of a lighthearted adventure. Music is simple, catchy but it may be repetitive after a while, ok but wo what's the final rating then?


Ok, boss time and this enemy makes me feel uncomfortable...

Verdict
The game is in my opinion pretty original and well done. I love how new element are progressively introduced like the rocks, the use of the grappling hook and the pink exploding tiles. Sometimes the bonuses are rather useless (it happened to find the invulnerability bonus in a level with no enemies!), in other places they are instead brillantly used (like the level with three enemies and a large gap between them and the ninja. Here you find a grappling hook and several shurikens to kill them before traversing the large pit), and I also find a couple of bugs like restarting a level and see some enemies dying without even touching them, and some levels being skipped (happened a couple of time, I just could see them briefly, and I remember playing them before... but sometimes the game decided to skip to the next level! Uh ok!).

There are also some minor problems that aren't bugs, like the fact that some opponents are extremely fast and for this reason hard to fight due to the slow moments of the ninja, and the lack of a message if you exit a level without completing it. I mean, when I first encountered the shooting enemies I believed these were considered traps and I just had to avoid them... but no, you must kill them too! Anyway yes, the game said "kill EVERY hostile" but it was way earlier, and I forgot!

In the end this is a puzzle game I enjoyed a lot. There are some rough spots and little problems but I think that the difficulty is for the most part well balanced and required the use of logic and some planning in most levels. Pretty good, gets 3.5/5!