Ninja Pizza Girl is the story about the teenage-girl Gemma, a super-fast deliverer of the most delicious pizza in town. She lives in a city of the future with her father who's baking those pizzas with love (and an extra portion cheese) and her little brother who is helping out. Run and jump and kick and slide in 24 parcours-like stages to deliver pizza in a vast skyscraper landscape high above the city streets, never even getting near the bottom floors.  It could have a been a peaceful dystopian life for Gemma and her family high up there between the skyscrapers, if there wasn't a mighty pizza company that wants to take over the area with an army of ninjas. And you are the last independent pizza business that's in their way. Take over the role of Gemma, and defend your small, precious family business. Show that you are the fastest by speedrunning through the stages, show that you are the wisest by exploring every corner to collect all the extras and unlockables, and show that you are the toughest by evading and beating the pesky ninjas and ultimately defeating the boss of the hostile pizza company.


The 3D graphics aren't really pushing the Wii U hardware and it appears to be a game that could have been at right at home on a SEGA Dreamcast or Playstation 2 back in the days. The levels are varied and fun, addicting even, and it's atmospheric and not devoid of nice little details, but they are a tad unclean and obstacles sometimes don't pop out enough, especially because the framerate, while stable, is not running at its highest. The soundtrack with ninja tunes, dubstep and moody rave fits for the most part and adds a nostalgic touch that is reminiscent of the underground era from the late 90ies and early 2000s and was found in many games back then. The title and menu tracks especially are pretty neat while some of the dubstep in the game can be a bit too much.


In Story Mode dialog and drawn 2D comic cutscenes drive the plot forward. A few levels in, ninjas cross your path and depending on your difficulty level can really get at you. This results in losing time and happiness - or faith if you will. The stages are full of collectibles, some can refill Gemma's spirit and some give her the ability to buy items and bonuses when she's back at home between stages. Gemma's home acts as a menu that allows you to buy tons of stuff: an obligatory collection of costumes, upgrades to make Gemma happier, concept art, lots of audio interviews with the developers, the games cutscenes, and even some cheats like a  First Person or Big Head mode. From the home you also select your stage or go back to the other menus.

The Speedrun Mode allows you to set your personal best time on each level and on a 24 stages marathon. It's nice to have if you like to run for record times. Unfortunately you can't put in your name or initials. In the options you can change audio settings and the difficulty level. Independent from your progress inside the Story Mode you can always change the difficulty level. The innovation here is that you can change the Time Pressure from "Chill" to "GO GO GO" in 5 steps, the Bullying from "Unkind" to "Really Mean" in 5 steps, and the Game Speed from 0.5x to 1.5x in 9 steps. So there's some customization to make this game playable and fun for beginners as well as expert players. Also, the game can be played on the TV screen or the Wii U GamePad screen by switching the display with a press of the Minus-button.


Ninja Pizza Girl is a nice 2D parcour-platformer that is fun to play for all members of the family and even core gamers. For the most part the game feels fluid and well-designed, though controlling through certain bits of a stage can feel slugglish at times. On the other hand it feels pretty intense when you're in the flow. Completionists and explorers will have a good time exploring all the paths in the 24 stages to find all items that are neccessary to unlock everything, and speedrunners can try to rush through it in under an hour and brag with their personal best time.