Clan N

If you're the type of person who looks at Ghost of Tsushima and wishes it was a multiplayer beat 'em up with old school pixel graphics, then let me introduce you to Clan N. This debut release from Turkey-based studio Creamative sends us back to a time when ninjas and samurais roamed the countryside fighting evil warlords and mythical monsters. It's a fun and often charming brawler that may be a bit too long and repetitive for its own good, but still prevails thanks to the online and local multiplayer action. But is the game still worth picking up when you're stuck inside with nobody to play with? That's what I wanted to find out.

Grab your swords and shurikens, because Akuji is threatening the peace and prosperity of the Far East. You see, Akuji was kicked out of the ancient samurai group Clan N when he disrupted the balance of peace, knowledge and time, and instead decided to dabble in the dark arts. To make matters worse, this spiritual imbalance allowed him to slaughter villages and quite literally steal the abilities of those he killed, turning him into the most powerful sorcerer in all of the Far East. Now it's up to four of Clan N's bravest warriors to defeat the monsters threatening their land and end Akuji's reign of terror once and for all.

What we have here is a fast-paced beat 'em up where up to four players choose a character and immediately start mashing buttons. We get heroes as diverse as a ninja named Akira, an old man with a scythe, and brother/sister duo Reina and Daiki, one with a sword and the other with a powerful staff. Each of these warriors has a personal story that shaped them and a reason to fight against the evil sorcerer samurai.

You do this by pulling off long combos using two melee attacks, as well as powerful shurikens that can be picked up along the way. Aside from a special ability that will help clear the screen of bad guys and a couple handy evasion tricks, we're basically left to hammer on the attack buttons and avoid getting killed. The good news is that these characters can be upgraded along the way, giving you the ability to improve their stats and even purchase more lives and throwing stars.

One thing that I like about Clan N is how they are constantly adding new villains throughout the seven-stage adventure. Sure, we'll see the same stabbing and spinning ninjas from one level to the next, but the game also adds in wolves, samurais on horseback, massive men with mallets and more. There's also a nice variety of large bosses to fight, including everything from a giant spider to a sea monster. Unfortunately, the boss fights seem to fit into two distinct categories -- they are either way too easy or frustratingly cheap.

Speaking of the level designs, the beat 'em up action is broken up by a series of unique mini-games. There's one in each stage, with each one offering a slightly different challenge. There's one where you're dodging boulders on a grid, another where you don't want to get crushed and even one that wants to be Flappy Bird. I'm not sure I would want to play any of these more than once or twice, but they are a fun diversion from the usual button mashing.

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When you read the bullet points, the developers boast that there are seven levels divided into more than 50 sections. While that's true, I'm not sure I would call it a good thing. Perhaps this is less of an issue when playing with three other players, but going through it by myself, I definitely got the sense that Clan N had a lot of filler. Stages that should have been only ten or fifteen minutes are often stretched out to more than a half hour. That wouldn't be a problem if the stages were constantly changing and fun to explore, but we tend to see the same locations repeated over and over. In the case of the pirate ship and secret enemy lair, we're literally seeing the same rooms repeated, usually with the same group of bad guys. Couple that with the simplistic gameplay and you're left with a brawler that is too repetitive for its own good.

Clan N is also surprisingly easy, even on the default difficulty. While it's true that this is the kind of beat 'em up where you'll be swarmed and take a lot of cheap hits, the enemies are often nice enough to leave behind drumsticks and even full chickens to replenish your health. I'm not sure why everybody is packing so much freshly-cooked chicken, but about half the enemies end up dropping the helpful item. Sadly, it sometimes takes a moment to appear, so a surprising amount of time is spent just waiting for the bad guy to stop flashing and reveal the tasty meat.

It's also worth mentioning that Clan N has a real stability problem. After not running into a single issue in the first half of the game, I found that the final four stages all crashed on me. Straight to back to the dashboard. The good news, I suppose, is that the game has a good checkpointing system, so you won't lose much progress (if any). I can see this being more of a problem when playing with friends, both online and off, so I definitely hope the developers are able to squash the lingering bugs soon after launch.

Although it's easy enough to play through by yourself, Clan N is at its best when you bring friends along for the ride. The four heroes have a cool look and compelling backstory, and I'm a fan of the simplistic pixel art design. What's more, the seven different mini-games show that the first-time developer is thinking about ways to shake up the action. That said, the game is let down by the repetitive gameplay and overlong story. Too much filler and frustrating technical problems keep Clan N from being the next great samurai brawler.