Mexican Ninja review – A crass, fast-paced roguelike beat ’em up

Released late last year, the excellent Absolum demonstrated that the roguelike and side-scrolling beat ’em up genres marry together quite well. Now we have another title that successfully merges them together: Mexican Ninja. And while it’s not as impressive as Absolum, it still proves to be a lot of fun.

Developed by Madbricks and published by Amber Studio, Mexican Ninja puts you in control of… well, a Mexican Ninja. Your skills are needed to clean up a place called Neuvo Tokyo, where Narcos and the Yakuza have joined together to form the Narkuzas. With numerous fearsome bosses to overcome, however, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

The core gameplay here falls in line with what you’d expect of a side-scrolling beat ’em up: travelling from left to right, you pummel hordes of goons moving from one area to the next. And every once in a while you’ll encounter an outlandish boss, such an oversized panda, where you need to up your game to survive, carefully avoiding their attacks while looking for openings to exploit.

Both standard and heavy attacks are available to you, which you can combine to perform combos. The heavy attack can be used to parry certain enemy attacks, too. But what sets Mexican Ninja apart from other games in the side-scrolling beat ’em up genre are its roguelike elements.

As you make your way through a run, you’ll frequently be offered up perks that will modify your basic attacks or provide other benefits. Your standard attacks might have a chance to inflict the ‘Hangover’ status for example, which makes enemies move slower and inflict less damage. Or you might deal more damage with all attacks for a short while after being hurt yourself.

New special attacks can be obtained and upgraded, too. How would you like to set enemies ablaze with a gnarly fart? Maybe turning into a whirlwind for a brief period is more your thing? Multiple special attacks are available should you be offered them, and you can have two at your disposal at any one time.

Of course, to succeed in Mexican Ninja it’s best if you synergise. During one run I was lucky enough to have a perk that made my dash manoeuvre inflict Hangover upon enemies as well as both my standard and heavy attacks. On top of that, I did bonus damage to enemies inflicted with Hungover, too, giving me quite the advantage. With a range of status effects available and a wide range of skills and perks, then, get the right combination and you can become very powerful indeed.

Death is pretty much inevitable, though, and at the end of a run you’ll be returned to a hub. Here you can use the credits you’ve earned during runs to upgrade your character and purchase new abilities, gradually improving your chances of success on future runs. By completing quests picked up as you play, you can unlock a decent selection of alternative outfits for your Ninja, too, many of which provide additional perks and bonuses.

All the ingredients are present to make Mexican Ninja a delight, then – and for the most part, it is. Playing on PS5 Pro for review, what mainly lets it down is a lack of polish, with the framerate inexplicably dropping at times, such as during the aforementioned giant panda boss fight. In some areas you might also find the action getting a little too hectic, hampering your ability to actually see what’s happening. An abundance of objects cluttering the screen in some areas doesn’t help with this, either.

There are other issues, too, such as the game not feeling quite random enough at times to keep things interesting. And then there’s the game’s crass sense of humour, which won’t be to everyone’s tastes. As much as Mexican Ninja has going for it, then, some simply might not get on with it, and there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Still, if you like your games wacky and aren’t offended by foul language and humour that some would consider juvenile, Mexican Ninja is well worth checking out. It may be in need of some polish and tweaking to truly shine, but there’s an enjoyable experience at the heart of it.