Ninjala

Submission 7,003

Part of a series on Nintendo Switch. [View Related Entries]

About

Ninjala is an upcoming free-to-play online fighting game developed by GungHo Entertainment, to be released on the Nintendo Switch May 27th, 2020. Eight players will compete in an online space using various skills to rack up points in a match, which they can gain via knocking an opponent out or performing moves via magic bubblegum which transforms into different weapons.

History

Ninjala was developed by GungHo Entertainment and features Dissidia Final Fantasy producer Takeshi Arakawa on the staff.^[1] The game was announced at E3 2018 in a Nintendo Direct (shown below, left). Initially planned for a 2019 release, the game was delayed until May of 2020.^[2] On March 26th, 2020, the game's official trailer was released (shown below, right). On April 28th and 29th, the game held three open-beta play sessions.^[3]

Reception

Prior to its release, the game was compared to popular Nintendo titles Splatoon and ARMS. ^[4] At the game's E3 debut, Destructoid^[5] wrote improvements needed to be made, but saw potential in the concept.

Online Presence

Ninjala proved popular upon its beta launch, as many players reported that the game's servers were not prepared to handle the rush of players attempting to try it. User @ShurtugalTCG^[6] used a Surprised Pikachu meme to joke about the game's inability to handle its sudden popularity, gaining over 110 retweets and 900 likes (shown below, left). User @mega_tamato^[7] posted a Galactic Nova Gets Destroyed parody of the Ninjala servers, gaining over 130 retweets and 790 likes (shown below, right).