25 June 2008

Touchless Ninja Strike Game
Real Ninja never give up, neither should you!

Back in March, I wrote about touchless control interface for camera phones based on the eyePlay Engine. The core technology is based on the image processing and algorithms that utilize the phone camera together with user hand movements and translate them to commands that control the UI. I also said that we can expect a whole new generation of video games if the technology will be able to identify and interpret complex human gestures on the right way in the real time.

Now few months later I am proud to preview the "Ninja Strike"- the first Mobile game in the world based on the mentioned eyeSight‘s touchless interface and controlled by real hand movements in front of the Camera sensor!

The game was also nominated for the International Mobile Gaming Awards last year, in the Excellence in Gameplay category, but it didn't win, losing in favor of "Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol", developed by Jadestone and published by Nokia.

The story behind game is pretty simple, you're obviously a Ninja warrior but unfortunately your Sensei was captured by the evil Kurai Ninjas. Now you must do everything within your power to find and free him! Be ready to face the Kurai Ninjas in a battle that only one can win. With deadly Ninja shurikens as your weapon and special abilities to unveil, you will go on a quest like none before.

Beside the Ninja stars you are able to increase your power with various special abilities that you must discover and win by killing the unique enemy’s warriors during the game. The game is not a totally touchless controlled because after the 3rd level you’ll have to use the key “5” to protect yourself from the enemy’s starts and attacks.

Menus
*Click to enlarge

The game has a total of 5 levels (Village, Street alley, Forest, Subway station and Temple) where you can blast evil Kurai Ninjas. The main menu is really features reach and there is an option for starting the New game, Resuming the game from the last check point, Change the configurations, Check the highest scores and run a Help after all.

Graphic is on the acceptable level for this kind of game, especially considering that accent is on the gameplay, touchless controls and the eyePlay engine. It’s a unique feature that makes the game what it is.

Speaking about controls I have to be honest and say that it definitely requires some time to get to use it and to learn how to move hand on the right way to prevent unwanted shots and especially to synchronize the hand movement with the character that appears on the screen. Just like the real thing, you should not expect to complete this course easily or on the first try!!

Of course once when you get to use it you’ll be able to control shurikens without a problem and with the pretty good accuracy. The only real problem is actually the moving the hand in the “standby” position because sometime engine interprets backward movement as signal for releasing the shurikens but after some time you’ll learn how to avoid this problem.

Different abilities
*Click to enlarge

For the moment, Ninja Strike is only available for the testers and through the Israeli Orange website, but eyeSight will soon bring it to many other international gaming platforms.

Until then, you can watch a my video presentation of the Ninja Strike game, nothing especially by the way but at least you’ll see how it looks in practice.

Oh yes, it is highly suggestible to not play this game in public, I repeat do not play in public eye, game cause pretty much the same effect as the good old Mosquitos and you’ll looks like a full, like a freak at least :]