GungHo talks Ninjala origins, gameplay mechanics, player backstories, and more

- Takeshi Arakawa, former co-producer of the Dissidia Final Fantasy series is involved with development
- Kazuki Morishita, CEO of Gungho, wanted to make an action versus game that both children and adults could enjoy
- Morishita watches sports chanbara and remembered that he used to play pretend ninja chanbara
- this lead him to think that sports chanbara and ninja mix would work
- the Switch was chosen because it just so happened to be a good platform that fits well with the genre of the game
- Arakawa joined the project around two and a half years ago
- in the world of Ninjala, the World Ninja Association (WNA) has invented a Ninja Bubble Gum
- this lets children with ninja DNA become capable of using ninjutsu
- in order to find people with the potential of being a ninja, the WNA hold a ‘Ninjala’ tournament
- there are several bad guys who want to use this for their own schemes
- eight main characters in the story mode, but they only differ based on their character background
- Berecca is the WNA scientist who invented Ninja Bubble Gum
- when she eats it she turns into a child form
- you can have up to eight players facing off at once
- the quickest way to score points is by getting an ‘Ippon!’
- this is done by attacking opponents with different weapons shaped through bubble gum
- weapons made from smaller bubbles are easier to use but don’t do much damage
- larger bubbles make stronger but slower weapons
- Morishita wants to release Ninjala simultaneously across all regions