Super House of Dead Ninjas is the first game that Adult Swim has put on steam. It’s technically the sequel to their free browser based flash game “House of Dead Ninjas”, but you wont need to play it to understand the story (they have a neat in game comic for that). The game itself takes the same core elements and enemies from the first game and adds to it. Allowing you to unlock more weapons and even get upgrades to help you reach through the entire tower that changes with each playthrough as you search for answers.

The story itself, although interesting, isn’t very long. You wont really know any of it in fact unless you read the in game comic. However, for such a short story it’s a pretty good one. While being a story the comic also gives you a chance to read some helpful gaming tips like a manual would fitting more than one purpose. Also reading the comic will explain the boss battles more and give you a better idea about what happened after the first game.

I actually hadn’t played the first game before SHoDN but the comic was enough to fill me in on the lore. I did play the first game after getting through SHoDN to compare the differences between it and it’s predecessor. The game is essentially the same at it’s core however they add a lot of things. The first noticeable difference when you start is that there is a big graphical overhaul. The first House of Dead Ninjas looked like an old arcade game and seemed to try to emulate a feel between playing an old arcade game and playing a flash game online. SHoDN Looks and feels like a SNES or Sega Genesis game which plays into the new name’s theme well. There are also more weapons and costumes to unlock by playing the game as well as many other features (including a map editor mode).

Everything about playing the game feels as intuitive as “They Bleed Pixels” and it does a good job at taking simple enemies and map layouts and turning them into a challenging labyrinth. It’s not a game that you can play only once, mainly because you wont beat it after only one playthrough, and they knew this when they made the game. The game itself seems to semi-randomly spawn itself with each playthrough making each experience, including the boss fights, an original experience every time. Although it’s not a long game it’s definitely a game worth checking out. It’s fun to play for several hours just trying to get through it all even if a part of me does wish there was controller support.

4/5