I enjoy checking out demos for new games, even if I'm pretty sure that I won't buy the game. I find that you can always learn something from playing a new game, and you can often learn the most from terrible games. However, I can count on one hand the number of demos that actually made me want to buy a game. Fortunately, I had that exciting experience this weekend. I raced to the computer and bought Mini Ninjas shortly after finishing the demo.

I had heard about Mini Ninjas several months ago and I was charmed by the cute teaser trailer. Yet I remained skeptical, as the cutest games often are often rushed out the door with the assumption that kids won't know the difference between a good game and one that needed more time. Mini Ninjas is being marketed as a family game, but seems strong enough to please more discerning gamers.

Mini Ninjas reminds me of a cross between two of my favorite games, Spyro the Dragon and Okami. It has the same strength and charm as Spyro, from the well-designed 3D levels to the
enemies who require more skill than strength to defeat. It is also like Okami, as it appears to have roots in Zelda-style adventures and it is very centered in nature. In addition, the aesthetic is clearly Japanese, which once again appeals greatly to my love of Japanese art and culture.

Combat feels light and fun. There are many tactics you can use to defeat the enemies, which allows for customization in what would otherwise be a fairly simple game. It's a nice change to see a game with solid combat that doesn't shed a drop of blood. Enemies simply turn into animals (as the animals were enchanted), leaving a frolicking bunch of critters at the end of each fight. If you find an animal that you particularly like, the main ninja, Hiro, can temporarily possess the animal. I couldn't get over the novelty of being able to see an adorable animal (such as a kitty), running up to them, and then POOF! I was suddenly controlling a kitty. While many of the most adorable critters are relatively ineffective in combat, some of the larger animals can be used offensively. Fortunately, the developers accounted for those moments when your prancing kitty gets unexpectedly attacked - the ninja will return to fight seamlessly.

Mini Ninjas is filled with other delightfully charming details that make it irresistible for me. You can free animals trapped in cages along the path, which gives you experience points. This reminded me of feeding animals along the path in Okami, which also gave you experience points. Also, when you enter water, you can ride in a large hat (like a boat). You can steer through rapids or, as I saw in a video, ride down snowy passes. You can even fish from the boat, which gives you health-restoring sushi. Even the animations and movements are adorable without hindering the mechanics. The ninja can deftly jump up a narrow space between two rocks, a feature that feels far more natural than any wall jumps I attempted in Mirror's Edge.

I have been looking for a game like Mini Ninjas for a long time. The most recent 3D platformer/adventure game that truly satisfied me was Okami, and I played that years ago. Despite the short length of the demo, I bought the game, optimistic that it will just keep getting better. I hope that Mini Ninjas will prove to be the adventure game experience that I have been craving. In the meantime, it's great to be excited about a new game again.  

What do you do with a new Xbox 360? I had played plenty of games on the 360, but I had never been able to fully explore Xbox Live. I had just read about a new demo of Beautiful Katamari released earlier that morning, which inspired me to download 10 other demos. It was Demo Day.

Once downloading was complete, I couldn't wait to check out Katamari in HD. The manager of an EB Games had told me that the HDMI connection would make a noticeable difference in quality from the component HD cables. He was right – the HD was as clean as any computer monitor. The colors were more vibrant and the text was the sharpest I’ve seen.

I was expecting the Beautiful Katamari demo to begin with a nice little movie of more of the random animals and colors that can make anyone wonder if they’re on some sort of hallucinogenic drug. Sadly, it was just a three-minute level that I easily failed. I am no stranger to Katamari, and I was slightly disappointed by the lack of content. The gameplay itself felt pretty natural. The move from the symmetric PS2 analog sticks to the offset 360 sticks was surprisingly easy. The vibrant world did look even better in HD, but I did feel that three minutes was way too short for me to get addicted again.

The next demo I played was for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. I had heard earlier that the game had captured Johnny Depp’s signature Jack Sparrow walk and I was curious to see what it was like to play as a pirate. The walk itself did look great, as did some of the other movements that obviously used motion capture technology.

However, the walk was highly impractical when most of the demo required running, if not sprinting. The sets and costumes seemed to fit the setting very well, but the camera angles made the game difficult to appreciate. I had to continually adjust my camera, especially to see the highlights on the floor of enemies preparing to attack (necessary to execute counterattacks). The battle system itself felt spontaneous and slightly simplistic, but I felt that it suited the pirate theme. One of the most frustrating aspects was the fact that different voice actors were used than the actors from the movies and the story lay slightly outside the movie. I didn’t quite understand what was going on and the demo seemed to end suddenly.

I then moved on to another movie game: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I am a fan of the Harry Potter series, but I have never played any of the games due to their typically mediocre reviews. I never wanted to ruin the magic of the series, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try a demo.

The world of Harry Potter looked very accurately represented in the game – visually, it was practically a digital version of the movie sets, props, and characters. Many of the voice actors seemed different, which bothered me immediately, but I was still willing to look past it if the gameplay was strong. I began in a courtyard and could talk to many people. Unfortunately, the first person I chose to talk to happened to initiate a game of gobstones from which I had no escape. I played the game for several minutes and lost. It was a close match, but I had no desire to play again when there were so many other things to explore.

I wandered around the courtyard, trying out a couple of spells and talking to a few people. The spell mechanics felt slightly clumsy compared to the apparent elegance of using a wand. Also, I found that talking to people became a bit disturbing – the faces were so similar to the actors in HD that they had begun to cross into the uncanny valley. About two minutes after finishing my game of gobstones, the game flashed a one minute demo ending warning. I raced around, trying to do something so I could figure out what this game was all about. I had just learned about another area of the school when my demo ended. If the game is at all like the demo, it seems like you just walk around and talk to people most of the time. That has never been my favorite part of games. Although this game seemed to faithfully recreate much of the book, I felt that it failed to capture the same sense of fun.

Three demos later, I was not sold on any game. Beautiful Katamari is probably the only game I would consider buying, but I should probably finish the original game first. Despite the disappointment I felt while playing some of these games, I feel that playing demos is hardly a waste of time. I can learn so much so quickly about a game by being immersed in it and playing through several minutes. I was glad to experience three games from series I enjoy without the pressure or expense of a rental.