How to play
Ninja Alley
Walk the street with your friends, beat the bad guys, and clear the streets and their bosses together — three at a time, four for the last chapter, or all ten in one run to the Throne Room.
At a glance
- Players
- 1–4 at once
- Ages
- 6 and up
- Round
- Minutes — a sit-down game
- In the packs
- Party, Arena, Big Kids
Controls
The stick and button 1 are enough to play. The rest add moves for the older kids.
| What you press | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stick | move along the street, and up and down it |
| Button 1 — the big button | attack — press in rhythm for punch, punch, kick; in the air it is a jump kick; hold it beside a fallen friend to pick them up, or beside a standing one to lift them and throw them down the street as a flying kick |
| Button 2 | jump |
| Button 3 | ki spin — clears the ring around you; costs half the ki bar |
| Button 4 | grab a stunned enemy, a crate or an item, then throw it |
How a round goes
Ten streets in three chapters, picked on the setup card: the alley at dusk, the rooftops at sunset and the dojo (three waves each); the night market, the docks and the pagoda; then the bamboo grove, the bridge, the castle wall and the throne room (two waves each) — every street ending on its own boss, and the full run of all ten there for the table that wants it. A chapter starts fresh, and the run ends on a finale the whole room watches: the last boss falls in slow motion, fireworks, the squad hoists its MVP, and a banner names the clan beaten. The camera moves only once the wave on screen is beaten; until then an invisible wall holds the group at the right edge, and a GO arrow flashes when it lifts. If nobody walks on, the street moves on by itself five seconds later, at a stroll, and stops at the next fight; it waits while any ninja is down. That is what keeps four children on one television.
Button 1 in rhythm is a three-hit combo: two punches that land on the nearest enemy in front of you and a kick that sweeps everything in reach, and then the next press is a punch again. Mashing faster buys nothing. Every hit fills the ki bar, and button 3 spends half of it on a spin that knocks down everything around you. Jumping is never required, but at the top of the arc nothing can touch you.
Crates break open; coins, pizza, scrolls and weapons lie about, and you pick them up by walking over them. A weapon has no timer: you keep it until something knocks you off your feet, and then it spins away. Pizza heals, and one slice between four ninjas is a race. Clearing a stage gives everyone standing a heart back and helps anyone on the floor up.
Three hearts each. When a ninja goes down, a teammate stands beside them and holds button 1 for a second or so to pick them up; left alone, they get up by themselves after ten seconds. The run ends only when every ninja is down at the same time — one ninja still standing is a run that can still be rescued. Alone, you start with two retries and can earn more with a good street rank or a pizza on full hearts; going down with none left ends the run.
Scoring and winning
Co-op: the squad clears the Pagoda or falls together. Points are personal — damage dealt, bounties on enemies and bosses, coins, crates, and 400 for a revive, more than three grunts. The card names the top scorer when the Pagoda is clear, and the stage you fell on when it is not. Alone, your score goes to the leaderboard.
Tips
- The kid who stops fighting to pick a friend up must finish ahead of the kid who kept swinging. That is the whole design in one number.
- Punch, punch, kick, in rhythm. Eight presses a second buys nothing four does not.
- The street gets kinder when the squad is hurting: pizza turns up twice as often once somebody is on their last heart or on the floor.