Slow-Mo Stick Figure Fighting
(Rate this game! 261 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)
Loading...For those not familiar with the “demo scene,” there are many competitions where programmers (or programming groups) will get together and see what they can do with severe size, time, and system restraints. Sometimes they produce music, sometimes fantastic visual effects or even short CG films. In this case, developer “Hikey” has produced a ragdoll fighting game that won second place at the Breakpoint 2007 demo competition.
Simple Concept
This is a fighting game without a punch or a kick button – your persona automatically adjusts to the classic stickman pose. If a hand or a foot touches an enemy, the joint springs forward and hits the opponent.
Movement is also handled very simply; the arrow keys on the keyboard apply force to your stickman’s head. There is no restriction to jumping height (you can fly perpetually), and your momentum is only countered by the walls at the edge of the screen.
What results is surreal–your character is sailing around on the screen in what appears to be a scene only possible in The Matrix–but it’s this freedom that makes it so much more fun.
Create Your Own Moves
One of my favorite side-effects of a physics-modelled game is you don’t need to teach people how to throw a hard punch. When you only have control over the motion of your head, you’ll soon find a few different ways to get your arms and legs whipping around you to deal smashing blows to your opponents. You’ll work out neat moves you can do by springing yourself off the ground or nearby walls. The faster you are moving, the more damage you deal.
TMNP also incorporates a few seconds of slow motion every time you score a hit. Apart from looking really cool, it also gives your stickman a bit of a speed boost. If you use your slow motion time wisely by winding up for another barrage of blows, you’ll do that much more damage.
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Puppets Game Screenshots)
Mindless Fun
I found myself playing through the first few levels with relative ease, but was happy to see that the difficulty does actually ramp up quite a bit, forcing you to try out and learn new moves and tactics. And when you get stuck (did anyone defeat Mr. Ninja?), there’s a sandbox mode where you can pit yourself against 50 enemies and arm yourself with a chain or nunchucks.
Being a competition-designed 96Kb game, it didn’t exactly go through a thorough quality assurance program. Yes, it has it’s share of bugs and sure it has potential to be so much more than what it is. Despite the drawbacks, it is still worth downloading… even if it’s just to try out the bull-whip.
I do have one complaint, though–why the horrible name?
Download Teenage Mutant Ninja Puppets (68 KB)
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My name is Matthew Wegner, and this site is dedicated to physics games.
on July 29th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
As always: What is the music?
on July 29th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
M̼m РWe Have a Map of the Piano
http://www.last.fm/music/M%C3%BAm
on July 29th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
This looks the same as Ragdoll Masters (http://ragdollsoft.com/ragdollmasters/), which came out in 2005. I didn’t actually download Ninja Puppets so I can’t verify this, but from the video and screenshots it looks almost shot-for-shot, including the “giant stickman” boss battle.
on July 29th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
It’s basically a clone of Ragdoll Masters, yeah. RDM was one of my early reviews on the site here:
http://www.fun-motion.com/physics-games/ragdoll-masters/
on July 29th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
“Unknown sofware exception” or something is all i get when a i press ESC to start the game… Looking at the forum posts, looks like this game work on some PCs and not work on others..-.-
on July 29th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
By the way, just to clarify–I don’t use “clone” in a necessarily negative way. TMNP has some evolutionary updates as any good clone does. The pacing is certainly different, and features like a head blow causing temporary limpness contribute significantly to the gameplay strategy.
But, yeah, it isn’t super-amazing new or anything…
on July 30th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Nitpick: There were quite a few competitions at Breakpoint, and this game won the second place in the 96k game competition, not the demo competition. The second place in the PC demo competition went to Noumenon, a new demo from the old Amiga-group Andromeda.
on July 30th, 2007 at 2:54 am
TMNP is better than Ragdoll masters in my opinion.
How many people have you guys managed to take on at once? My record is 49.
on July 30th, 2007 at 4:41 am
I downloaded this game TMNP is IMO better then Ragdoll Masters..
I actuall found some sort of cheat. If you press A or D you can travel back in time to redo a action… You can also press W (Whip) and you get the whip so you can easily win the story mode. If you press C (Chain) you will get the chain.
As far as I found out. There isn’t any button for Nunchukus or a Sword.
I hope this doesn’t spoil the game… But I love the A and D thingy..
on July 30th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Yeah, it’d be cool if it… worked.
“DO NOT SEND”
-TGP-
on July 30th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
I had a lot of fun with this game.
on July 30th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
this game anal rapes my computer to the point of almost crashing, even at the lowest graphics options.
on July 30th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
…for some reason it’s not working…
“This application has failed to start because MSVCR71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.”
on July 31st, 2007 at 1:58 am
IMNSHO Ragdoll masters is better, but this is good too. :D
on July 31st, 2007 at 2:29 am
Woo! I recommended this game on the forums and now it’s been put on the front page!
Back on-topic, I thought the guy’s name was Mikey not Hikey?
on July 31st, 2007 at 6:39 am
Boo! It doesn’t work! Burn the software ninjas, they have failed!
(Mine gets to “Press escape to continue” then does a “TMNP.exe has encountered an error and must end. This is due to bad programming by the software ninjas! Burn them!”)
(I’m sort of paraphrasing there)
on July 31st, 2007 at 9:41 am
I keep getting this weird bug where I keep the HP I had from the last time I won a match. Even in the custom game.
on July 31st, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Matthew, great music just like in all of your videos.
on August 1st, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Superb!
Amazing! This is so cool!
Pros:
1.It’s full-version
2.Slo-mo is cool
3.VERY quick download
4.No install
5.Addicting
6.When all the enemies die you can keep pushing them around
7.It uses physics!
8.In sandbox mode you can choose to fight bosses
Cons:
1.Weak story (but thats really O.K.)
2.No music
3.No different game modes
on August 2nd, 2007 at 6:01 am
In respond to your question: did anyone defeat Mr. Ninja?
Yes, I have defeated Mr Ninja to become one myself :)
In story mode you can also use the whip and the chain (press ‘w’ or ‘c’ to activate). I couldn’t find the rest of the weapons.
Whip is definitely a deadly weapon… at least when you find out that you have to move left and right or make circles to make damage – instead of pressing ‘w’ :)
I like the game. It kept me busy for a while.
on August 2nd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
i found this game far before fun motion did and i grew board with it. yeah once you beat it there nothing left for it. it gets boaring
on August 3rd, 2007 at 4:04 am
This game goes waaaay too slow. I tried to play it but I couldn’t get past the curtain falling. I don’t get it. My computer is fast and reasonably well at handling games (AR in high det, Barrel Mania etc.). Does anyone have any tips? I really want to play this. Well it looks great. It sounds like Ragdoll Masters with more levels and sandbox (More levels since I haven’t paid for the full version) and I like the look of the graphics. But yeah, if anyone has a way to fix the problem, greatly appreciated thanks.
on August 25th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
it doesn’t work :(
on September 8th, 2007 at 10:10 am
IT DOES’NT WORK!!! But, then again, my computer sucks.