Over Live, N+ offers a stronger set of options than many retail titles. With play for two to four players, the game offers co-op, race, or survival modes to conquer. Co-op modes allow the players to all play through the same puzzle at the same time, with only one ninja needing to make it to the door alive to move forward. As a result, sending one to the door and the rest searching for gold dots or the switch makes for an effective strategy.
Race pits all ninja against each other, to hit the switch and make it to the door first. Since all racers are on the same board, it is possible to race straight for the door in the hopes some hapless player will hit the switch for you. Survival is the most interesting of the modes over Live, with all gamers beginning with the same yellow-bar timer draining quickly down to zero. The last timer to run down is the winner, making survival matches all about grabbing the gold dots. Most impressive of all is that the game keeps separate levels for the Live modes and separate puzzles for offline play.
With a repetitive soundtrack and grayscale color scheme to the game, is one of the blandest looking and sounding games on XBLA. What N+ lacks in audio and visual flair, it more than makes up for with a slickly animated character and incredibly hard-to-beat levels. That said, N+ does not set out to win any beauty contests. It wins your affections and gaming hours with simple, yet challenging, gameplay that proves incredibly hard to resist.
N+ is a reminder that flashy graphics and high concept gameplay are not necessary to create a killer casual game. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
