REVIEW | Mexican Ninja

Mexican Ninja is a fast‑paced 2.5D roguelike beat ’em up that isn’t afraid to stand out from the crowd. Set in the bizarre world of Nuevo Tokyo, it blends Mexican culture with Japanese influences to create a colourful and chaotic setting full of attitude and tongue‑in‑cheek humour.

The story unfolds in a world where Mexico and Japan have collided, giving rise to the Narkuzas, a ruthless mix of Narcos and Yakuza who have seized control of Nuevo Tokyo. You take on the role of the Mexican Ninja, a rebellious hero fighting to bring down the Narkuza clan and reclaim the city’s streets.

Visually, Mexican Ninja embraces a bold cel‑shaded style that matches its over‑the‑top personality, while its humour is just as unapologetic. Mexican and Japanese influences collide to create something deliberately ridiculous, and between its colourful world, eccentric characters, and chaotic premise, it’s clear from the start that Mexican Ninja doesn’t take itself too seriously.

With its punchy combat and side‑scrolling action, Mexican Ninja feels like a modern twist on classic beat ’em ups such as Streets of Rage, but with roguelike mechanics that keep things unpredictable. Each run offers new upgrades, challenges, and surprises, ensuring no two playthroughs feel quite the same. It’s a mix of nostalgic brawling and fresh, chaotic energy that keeps you coming back for more. But how well does all of this come together as a game? Let’s get into the review.

Things I liked!

• Core Gameplay | When it comes to gameplay, Mexican Ninja keeps things simple, making it easy to pick up and jump straight into the action. The combat uses a straightforward control scheme, with buttons for jumping, dashing, light and heavy attacks, while the triggers handle your special abilities. The heavy attack also acts as a parry when an enemy flashes purple, and getting the timing right can turn a dangerous hit into a helpful opening. Each special ability has a short cooldown timer after use, so you need to think carefully about when to unleash them. Timing becomes important, especially during tougher fights where using an ability too early can leave you exposed.
  
  A handy guide along the bottom of the screen shows your available moves, and your health bar is always visible, making it easy to keep track of how much damage you can take. It’s a system that feels intuitive and responsive, letting you focus on the fun of the fight rather than wrestling with complicated controls.

• Structure and Progression | Each run begins in the main hub, where you hop on the metro to travel between different parts of the city. Sometimes you’ll have just one route to follow, but other times you’ll get to choose your next stop. That small moment of choice gives each run a subtle sense of freedom, adding variety as you chart your way through the stages.
  
  Once you’re on the move, the rhythm feels natural as you fight through waves of enemies, smash barrels for coins or Sakilas to restore your health, and brace yourself for tougher brutes that keep the action intense. The city’s districts each have their own atmosphere, giving the journey a sense of place as you push forward. Boss fights punctuate the adventure with real tests of skill, standing out as highlights that demand focus and timing.
  
  As you push through each run, you’ll eventually fall in battle, but that’s where the roguelike side of Mexican Ninja shines. You can use what you’ve earned and learned to prepare for your next attempt, gradually improving with every run.
  
  
• Upgrades and Customisation | Outside of combat, progression plays a big role. Before each run, you can visit The Way of the Donkey, a shop where you spend your hard‑earned coins on permanent passive upgrades. These upgrades offer a range of useful boosts, such as increasing your maximum health, improving the damage you deal, and even gaining a small bit of health every time you ride the metro. It’s a satisfying way to see your efforts pay off, giving you a reason to keep coming back and gradually making your character stronger.
  
  Then there’s the Mero Mero Skill Tree, where coins can also be spent unlocking new moves and abilities across three branches: Survival, Martial Arts, and Combo Power. This adds another layer of depth, letting you shape your character to suit your playstyle.
  
  You’ll also unlock different character skins, each with unique perks. Before starting a run, you can choose which skin to use, with bonuses ranging from extra health and increased damage to earning more coins. It’s a fun way to tailor your approach before heading into battle.
  
  
• Abilities and Strategy | At the start of each run, you choose two rewards. The first is a special ability, and one of my favourites is Pedo Enchilado, which unleashes a nasty fart that burns enemies, exactly the kind of ridiculous humour you’d expect from Mexican Ninja. The second is a passive bonus, which can give you helpful boosts like extra health or a bit of damage resistance.
  
  During each run, you can also unlock new abilities, with some being rarer than others. Certain abilities can even be upgraded more than once, giving them stronger effects and making them feel more rewarding to use. At certain points, shrines appear where you can choose from a few temporary abilities or buffs, or spend coins to restore a bit of health if you need it. These moments add a touch of strategy mid‑run, encouraging you to experiment, adapt, and push a little further each time.
  
  The passive abilities are useful, though their effects can sometimes be hard to notice amid the chaos of combat. With enemies dealing different amounts of damage, it isn’t always clear how much of a difference a particular bonus makes. Still, having these choices before each run adds a welcome layer of strategy and lets you fine-tune your character to match how you want to play.
  
  
• Visual Style | Visually, Mexican Ninja was instantly appealing to me. The colourful cel‑shaded art style fits the game’s exaggerated personality perfectly, and the mix of Mexican and Japanese influences gives the world a distinct identity. The bright, bold colours are a real highlight, especially during combat. Explosions, blood, and weapon trails fill the screen, giving each fight a strong sense of impact and energy. It’s chaotic in the best way and full of personality.
  
  Boss fights are introduced with a brief image before the battle begins. It’s a nice touch, though some of these visuals feel a little underwhelming compared with the rest of the presentation. Once the action starts, the game’s style truly shines. Even when the gameplay becomes repetitive, the vibrant visuals keep Mexican Ninja engaging and fun to look at.
  
  
• Audio | The sound effects in Mexican Ninja do a great job of adding weight to the combat. From the satisfying thuds and crashes when attacks connect to the swoosh of weapons cutting through the air, every hit feels impactful. These little details help make the action more immersive and give fights a real sense of rhythm.
  
  The music is a bit more unpredictable, fading in and out rather than playing constantly throughout your runs. When it does kick in, though, it has a funky, jazz‑inspired vibe that fits the game’s personality perfectly. It blends Mexican and Japanese influences in a way that feels fresh and full of character, adding even more charm to the world of Mexican Ninja.
  
  Most of the spoken dialogue is in Japanese, usually heard in passing or during the heat of battle rather than through long conversations. You’ll also catch the occasional Mexican shout, which adds another fun touch to the game’s mixed cultural identity.
  
  Overall, the punchy sound effects, funky soundtrack, and snippets of Japanese dialogue all come together nicely to give Mexican Ninja plenty of personality and energy.
  
  
• Difficulty and Progression | Mexican Ninja keeps things simple when it comes to challenge. There’s no difficulty selection, just one steady level designed around the idea that each run takes you further as you unlock new skills and upgrades. The ultimate goal is to take down the five heads of the Narkuzza clan, and each run brings you closer to that goal.
  
  On my first run, I reached the second boss before being defeated. After spending my coins on upgrades, my next attempt pushed me past that fight and into new areas. That steady sense of progress feels intentional, encouraging you to learn and improve with each run.
  
  Dodging is still your main defence, but there is a parry tied to your heavy attack. When an enemy flashes purple, pressing the heavy attack at the right moment lets you deflect the hit, and learning this timing becomes very useful during tougher encounters. Boss fights can still be demanding, and keeping track of everything on screen is often its own challenge. Health can also be unpredictable, sometimes hard to find and other times appearing more often than you need. 
  
  It all fits well with the roguelike structure. Even when things get chaotic or frustrating, there’s always that feeling that your next run might finally be the one where it all comes together.

Mixed & disliked!

• Repetition and Grind | Unfortunately, this is where Mexican Ninja starts to lose momentum. While the gameplay is fun, replaying the same stages to earn coins quickly becomes repetitive, especially once the upgrade path slows down.
  
  The metro system offers some choice in destinations, but the stages themselves often feel too similar. There’s a bit of visual variation as you progress, yet the constant need to revisit familiar areas makes the grind noticeable and, at times, dull.
  
  The further I progressed, the more this stood out. Jumping back in for another run can still be enjoyable, but repeating the same stages just to earn enough coins for upgrades takes away some excitement. Shorter play sessions seem to help, as a few runs each day feel more rewarding than long stretches where the repetition becomes hard to ignore.

• No Partner in Crime | Mexican Ninja is single player only, and I couldn’t help feeling that’s a bit of a missed opportunity. The game’s wild combat and over‑the‑top humour seem made for sharing laughs with a friend, whether teaming up to clear stages or seeing who can cause the most chaos. Co‑op runs would have been a blast, mixing abilities and strategies to take down enemies together. Even a local mode would have added that extra spark of fun and replay value. Playing solo is still enjoyable, but it’s hard not to imagine how much more lively it could have been with someone else beside you.
  
  
• Out of Frame | The camera generally keeps up well, but there are moments when it doesn’t quite cooperate. Sometimes enemies slip just out of view, making it harder to keep track of the action, and occasionally collectables end up hidden off‑screen. It’s not a constant problem, but when it happens, it can break the flow and make exploration feel a little awkward. A few small tweaks to how the camera follows the player would make a big difference in keeping everything visible and smooth.
  
  
• Bare Essentials | Accessibility options are pretty bare‑bones here. You can choose from six different languages for the text, adjust music and sound‑effect volume with separate sliders, and toggle vibration on or off. There’s also a simple moves list available in the menu. It covers the basics, but players looking for more advanced accessibility features like text size adjustments or control remapping won’t find them here.

• How long did I play the review before publishing? 10 Hours
• How long to beat the story? 8 Hours
• How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 19/42 OR 448/1000G
• How long to get 100%? | 20+ Hours
• You’ll love this game if you like these | Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons and Streets of Rage 4

Score: 70/100

Fun in short bursts, chaotic at heart, and always ready for a fight.

Mexican Ninja delivers fast, colourful fun with punchy combat and a world full of personality. Its upgrade systems and chaotic style keep things engaging, even when the repetition starts to creep in. It’s an easy game to enjoy in short bursts, and while a few missed opportunities hold it back, there’s still plenty of charm and energy for anyone who loves a lively beat ’em up.