Video Game / Ninjala

Ippon!!

Ninjala is a free-to-play Competitive Multiplayer online arena brawler video game developed by Soleil and published by GungHo Online Entertainment for the Nintendo Switch, released on June 24th, 2020.

The year is 20XX. In an alternate Earth, being a ninja isn't just about learning the skills. Being a ninja is also a trait carried deep within the blood. But as the centuries went on and the old ninja clans spread out across the globe, their bloodlines have thinned and these silent warriors started gradually fading from sight.

Until now.

Enter the descendants of these ninja clans who, seeking to preserve their heritage, formed the World Ninja Association in the hope of carrying on their legacy through schooling and the brand-new extreme sport of Ninjala: a competition wherein children descended from ninja take part using Ninja-Gum; scientifically-engineered chewing gum that has the ability to awaken the dormant strength of the Shinobi within anyone who chews it, form weapons of all shapes and sizes, and help one disguise themselves as inanimate objects to ambush opponents. Not that adults can't also chew bubblegum and kick ass... just expect some side effects.

Oh, and ninja aliens are also involved with all this... somehow.

Ninjala's gameplay boasts similarities to other Free-Floor Fighting titles such as Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker and Dissidia Final Fantasy, having a focus on melee combat and parkour. The game has two main multiplayer modes: Battle Royale and Team Battle. Battle Royale is an eight-player free-for-all where combatants duke it out to score the most points through knocking out opponents and breaking drones. Additional points are awarded for "Ippon", which are flashier KOs accomplished after winning a parry state, beating a player that's in a Gum Bind, or using Gum Ninjutsu. Team Battles follow the same scoring format, but divide players into teams of four.

The game was first unveiled during E3 2018 for a Spring 2019 release, appearing in a montage of third-party titles during the event's Nintendo Direct, and with a multiplayer demo available on the convention floor. The game was subsequently delayed and re-introduced in March 2020 with new gameplay footage, a release date, and the announcement that the game would be free-to-play. This was followed soon afterward by a new CGI short, which began to establish aspects of the game's lore and main characters, and the beginning of time-limited multiplayer beta sessions entitled the "Exclusive Ninja Club" on April 28th, 2020.

On November 10th, 2021, it was announced that game would be getting its own anime adaptation, produced by OLM Incorporated. It follows the story of Burton and Berecca, as well as the rest of the cast, during their time at the WNA Academy and builds on the series' characters and lore. It premiered on January 8, 2022 on Tokyo TV, and each episode is available for a limited time on the official YouTube channel.

Not to be confused with the ninja fighter Ninjara from ARMS.

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This game provides examples of

• Aerith and Bob: The names of the characters range on a spectrum of this. The most Aerith-Sounding ones among them would have to go towards Berecca.
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: A few of the outfits in the game, particularly female ones, might seem a bit too risque for the ages the characters are (or seem to be), with miniskirts and thigh-high boots in particular being rather common.
• Allegedly Free Game: The multiplayer is completely free and purchasing/earning clothes and other cosmetics do not give player an edge. The only feature that is monetarily locked is the Story Mode, but it is not necessary unless you want to unlock more cosmetics and learn about the game's characters and lore.
• All Webbed Up:
  • When an opponent takes enough Gum Damage, they get caught in a Gum-Bind, which makes them temporarily immobile and makes them susceptible to an IPPON if KO'd in this state.
    • The Iron Bind Shinobi Card upgrades it to be even stronger, making it so opponents cannot be launched away.
  • The Tenchi Muyo Gum Ninjutsu is a gum-net that insta-IPPONs anyone caught in its range.
  • The Gum Net gum-shot is a gum net that gradually gums up and ensnares enemies in its area of effect.
• Alternate Timeline: The game takes place in an Alternate Universe of Earth where ninjas had a major influence on global history and their imagery dominates pop culture. The names of many geographic locations are different but based on real life locations, such as Eagle City, Komerika (New York City, USA), and the country of Oedo (Japan).
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Completing the Story Mode chapters and tutorial unlocks various cosmetics, including outfits for the player to wear in battle. Completing every mission in a chapter with a high rank unlocks more.
  • Special limited headgear items also had a random chance of dropping during Featured Battles for a time.
  • Some official tournaments and events reward an exclusive Gumchi t-shirt.
• Background Music Override: If the "Shinobuzz Sound Playback" option is enabled during a match, the music changes to the selected song of the player in first place every so often. The song for your character is always heard at the start, then changes every to the song of the player in first place at the time mid-game. If more than one player has the same song, it simply restarts for the leading player. This keeps going until the final 30 seconds, which has its own track.
• Badass Longcoat: The in-game clothing brand of Sydney James has trenchcoats as one of their signature items a player can have their character wear.
• Balloonacy:
  • When a player has 8 or more S-Energy, their gum bubbles turn huge, which allows them to cling on to it and float to slow their fall. This can be used to float down as a vantage point, or to glide down to get the jump on an enemy.
  • The Gum Balloon Gum-Shot consists of two floating gum mines that target the locked-on opponent and explode. When S-Energy is at eight or more, it turns into three, which is an instant gum bind for the poor target assuming all three hit.
• Battle Royale Game: Unlike the regular "Battle Royale" mode, Season 7 introduces a Featured Battle called "Last Ninja Standing" that plays this straight. Eight players fight until only one remains. Respawns are disabled, and the stage adds in two consecutive layers of electricity as time passes to isolate the remaining players to smaller spaces and damages outside stragglers overtime.
• Big Applesauce: Eagle City is Ninjala's version of New York, with a Statue of Liberty pastiche, lots of skyscrapers, and several street-level shops and restaurants.
• Bland-Name Product: One of the products advertised on the in-game billboard in Eagle City is a clothing store called "Hacy's." There's also a fast food place called "May's".
• Blown Across the Room:
  • A successful IPPON will swat the recipient to a wall (or even floor or ceiling) adjacent to the direction of the blow, gluing them to the wall with ninja-gum upon impact.
  • Certain Gum Ninjutsu moves, such as the Shinobi Beast or Ninja Tornado, send the target flying if they don't finish it off.
  • Break Attacks send the target flying if they don't break their weapon.
• Bragging Rights Reward: While the costume at the end of the Ninjala Pass could be considered this in itself, there are also special, extra-difficult missions, such as defeating ten opponents (KO and/or IPPON) in one battle, that unlock once the pass is completed and linger until the end of the season. Completing certain missions nets you a special Medal Sticker for that season.
• Britain Is Only London: Fort Riverdale takes place in Ninjala's version of Great Britain, known as Great Kisten, which contains the London Eye and a Big Ben-like clock tower.
• Bubblegum Popping: All over the place! Blowing bubbles is needed to boost, launch gum-shots, craft new weapons in case they break, and craft bigger weapons and float down slowly when you get enough S-energy. That being said, there is a risk of being left in a Sticky Situation if your bubble is hit too many times (certain attacks can instantly burst bubbles, leaving players in a bind).
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Though the Punishing Blade Gum Ninjutsu is extremely powerful, it doesn't make the wielder invincible and doubles any damage taken. Therefore, one can try and take down someone holding the Punishing Blade. While this usually goes about as well as you'd expect, sometimes someone can actually get the jump on a player with the Punishing Blade, turning this into Mugging the Monster. The 2.0.0 update notes point out that this actually happens in the Elite Ninja rank, in which people who use the Punishing Blade get targeted and knocked out, causing a sharp dropoff in usage and effectiveness from that point and higher.
  • Same thing goes for the Shinobi Beast; two claw swipes are an instant IPPON, but it can't parry and still takes damage from normal attacks; it's also tied to the Matsuri Board weapon, which has subpar health. Like the Ninja Tornado, it's meant for clearing out crowds, so if one person manages to get the jump on the Beast, they're pretty much a sitting duck.
• Calling Card: IPPON Decorations come in all shapes, sizes, and animations, letting opponents know shortly after who IPPON'd them.
• Cards of Power: Shinobi Cards can help players or hinder their opponents when equipped. These include gaining heath when defeating opponents, gaining power for S-Energy or Ninjutsu or moving faster when satisfying certain conditions, turning decoys into gum bombs that can bind opponents, or speeding up enemy damage or slow down your own damage during parries. They can use these cards and their "assist codes", which add additional effects for each cards, as long as they do not go over the points limit. Players can also increase the assist codes power by using medals (bronze, silver, and gold) earned from games.
• Chew Bubblegum: No one actually says the line, but there's more than enough gum to chew/use while kicking butt.
• The Conspiracy: There are a lot of implications that the WNA has some hidden motives.
• Critical Hit: Of a sort. When an opponent is trapped in a ninja gum shot and then KOd, the player who dealt the killing blow scores an IPPON, which is worth more points than a standard KO; in addition, an opponent who gets defeated while gum-bound will always result in an IPPON, as will a defeat by Gum Ninjutsu or gum-shots.
• Dash Attack: The Katana weapons' Special is one of these, which causes the user to rush towards the closest opponent, allowing you to deny escape in a pinch. It goes faster then the standard Gum Dash, but tends to leave one skidding for a bit if it doesn't connect.
• Deadly Gas: The Gum Gas Ninjutsu releases a cloud of gas that gradually damages any enemies inside and results in an IPPON if someone's health goes down to 0 while in the gas.
• Decoy Getaway: As akin to a ninja, players can transform into items in order to blend into the environment, though they can still move around as long as they do not use a Gum Guard or Gum Boost. They can also leave behind Ninja Log items called Utsusemi, and even make them into bombs with the right Power Card. The effect doesn't last forever and, since battles are hectic, it's rarely guaranteed that players can stay hidden.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Piercing Mixer is a Ninjutsu attack with a relatively small hurtbox and leaves the user a sitting duck vulnerable to ambushes. However, if one goes up to a high place, such as the monitors in WNA Academy, and knows what they're doing, they have a vantage point from which they can reach most of the map and potentially rack up several [[IPPONs in a row.]] In addition, the Ninjutsu allows you to see enemies through walls while its active, so you can take note of players' positions and go hunt someone down after the attack ends.
• Double Take: In the CGI prologue, while Burton is explaining Ninja-Gum to Berecca, he turns into a child half-way through the explanation. Berecca looks at him for a moment while wondering if her father knew about the gum, then immediately looks back at Burton in shock.
• Eagle Land: One of the game's maps is outright called "Eagle City" and is located in "Komerika", Ninjala's equivalent of North America. There's also a skin for the IPPON Gum Katana that decorates it with stars and a red-white-and-blue color palette; and two outfits were available via the Gumball Machine during the first season with a similar theme.
• Eaten Alive: Any player that's unlucky enough to step on a Baiting Shark scroll is eaten by the shark it summons, resulting in an IPPON for whoever set the trap. Don't worry, they respawn perfectly fine a few seconds later.
  • Also happens in Chapter 2 of the story mode, where a Shadow Ninja is willingly comsumed by a Space Ninja, who proceeds to take control of their body and attack Berecca in its new form. The same thing happens at the end after Kappei figures this ability out, and tells Gumchi to swallow him in front of Berecca to demonstrate. He's perfectly fine afterwards, of course.
• Egypt Is Still Ancient: Sphinx Valley in Coshapt is the "Egypt" of the Ninjala world and plays the trope incredibly straight. It contains a Set-Drone that, unlike the regular types of drones in the game, fights back against other players. The one who destroys it gains a power boost for the redt of the match, but can lose it to the opponent that defeats them.
• Emergency Weapon: Suffered a weapon break? Use the Ninja-Gum bubble to make another.
• Explosive Stupidity: The Fujiyama Rocket Gum Ninjutsu is a missile with a huge explosion radius. You can also blow yourself up in said explosion (although it thankfully just knocks you down and doesn't hurt you.)
• Eyepatch of Power: An accessory specifically worn by Lucy to hide her Magic Eye, but can also easily be a choice for the player's customized avatar. The details make clear it's not the kind made to cover a damaged eye and is worn more for fashion-based intentions. There are many other cosmetic items like this as well.
• Fairytale Motifs: Season 5's theme is "Fairy Tales", with numerous costumes based on characters from various fairy tales and folklore such as Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Sun Wukong, among others.
• Fantastic Nuke: The Fujiyama Rocket Gum Ninjutsu is, well, a gum rocket which travels in a straight line from where you aim and explodes upon contact with terrain. It's relatively slow, but it's usually an instant IPPON on anyone trapped in the blast radius. You get stunned when it hits you, but not harmed, meaning that you can jump into the fray with a full gauge and explode yourself, since there's almost no delay when you shoot at the ground, and score tons of [1] at once.
  • The black X-marked gumballs in Fort Riverdale are significantly weaker than Fujiyama Rockets, but have the same blast radius and does not damage the player that summons it.
• Fille Fatale: Between the various skimpy or form-fitting outfits and several very flirty poses, it's not hard to make any kunoichi avatar into one of these.
• Flash Step: Several attacks make use of this trope.
• Flavor Text: Taken almost literally. Most weapon descriptions tell what flavor their gum form has. There's also descriptions of the various cosmetic items, and loading screens have this as well about various subjects including the characters, locations, game mechanics, and lore.
• Flechette Storm: The Gum Kunai Gum-Shot launches three to four kunai at the nearest opponent. It deals small gum damage, requiring two sets to perform a gum bind but has a lower cooldown than most other Gum-Shots.
• Forced Transformation: The Beyond the Gum Special move turns whoever gets caught in its radius into an ice cream-shaped statue with Gumchi's face, only allowing them to run, jump, and dodge. This leaves them helpless and open for follow-up attacks.
• Fountain of Youth: A side effect of the ninja gum; any adult who chews it turns into a child for some reason. This is what happened to Burton, Berecca, Ron, and Jane.
• The Four Gods: As of Season 4, there are four different potential teams for Team Battle based on these: Tiger, Dragon, Tortoise, and Phoenix.
• Fragile Speedster: The Board weapon class is built around this. They have the second-lowest health of any weapon, but they make up for it with their mobility; the Camu-Camu Plate and Festival Board are blisteringly fast and agile with their Sweet Ride special, and the Home Run Surfer and Ninja Calibur can rule the air with their Overpowering Wave special's ability to surf through the sky.
• Gathering Steam: The Sweet Ride special lets the user speed around on their weapon and do tricks by jumping and double-jumping; with each trick, the user's next attack grows stronger. At maximum power, it can KO an opponent with one attack combo!
• Gay Paree: Croissant Arena takes place in Liberty Republic, the "France" of the Ninjala world. The stage itself is located between two structures resembling the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triomphe respectively.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The main cast consists of four males (Van, Ron, Burton, and Kappei) and four females (Berecca, Lucy, Emma, and Jane). In addition, two each are actually adults turned into children by the Ninja Gum^note Burton and Ron for the males, Berecca and Jane for the females.
• Gender-Inclusive Writing: There's no actual gender option in the game's customization, instead allowing the player to pick between male and female faces. The player can also equip their avatar with any outfit regardless of gender and the shape of the character's body is the same for everyone, the latter of which can be justified as the player character is a child.
• Glass Cannon:
  • The Punishing Blade turns the wielder into one of these; two shots from its Sword Beam can inflict Gum-Bind, and up to two direct hits can Ippon, but the user can't use an S-Burst and any damage they take is doubled.
  • The first sub-class of Board weapons (the Matsuri Board and Camu Camu Plate) are this. They have the second-lowest health in the game, but their special allows them to build attack power by performing tricks, which when fully charged can do devastating damage.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Every time an Ippon is scored, whether by or at you, the announcer will not only yell "IPPON" and "NINJALA", but other random Japanese words like "IBUKI", "SAMURAI", "GEISHA", and "ANIMANGA", just to name a few.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Before Seaosn 5, information about major mechanics such as the parrying system (Up > Down, Down > Side, Side > Up, and L button to escape the encounter), the fact that your health regenerates faster when transformed (did you even notice your health regenerates in general?), and even the ability to lock-on to specific opponents (R3/right stick to start targeting, L3/left stick to switch targets) are only found within the online manual accessed via the "Help" menu, as opposed to being taught via a tutorial or the Story Mode DLC. A proper tutorial was added in Season 5 to alleviate this issue.
  • Ninja Medals. The online manual notes that the medals you get are influenced by your current tier in the ranked battle modes. It's slightly more complicated than that. In free battles, all medals are random drops, with Gold Medals being the rarest. In ranked modes, the amount of Bronze and Silver medals you receive are directly linked to both your multiplayer rank and your battle performance, with you receiving a set amount based on those factors.^note For example, getting 1st place in a Team Battle match as an Elite player will always get you 10 Silver and 20 Bronze. Meanwhile, a higher multiplayer rank simply nets you a greater chance of receiving any Gold Medals, meaning it's wholly possible for an "Apprentice" player to have a gaming session where they get more Gold Medals than an "Elite" player, even if they play badly.
• Gum In Hair: When Ippon'd.
• Hammered into the Ground: The Tenchi Muyo Gum Ninjustu ensnares an opponent in a large gum net, then throws them into the ground for an instant IPPON.
• Healing Spring: The spring in the middle of the Shinobi City stage gradually heals and increases the max S-Energy of whoever's soaking in it. It's an effective way to get S-Energy fast, but you don't get points like with destroying drones.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Players can transform into various objects like crates and signs, and can blend in with the various objects scattered around the stages. Players also recover health faster while transformed.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Most of the costume and accessory options are bright and vivid outfits, although there's some more traditional "anime ninja" items among them too, including masks, hoods, and a Naruto-like headband. Justified, as the playable characters are descendants of ninja with the attached abilities, long after ninja were driven into hiding.
• Immune to Flinching: Shinobi Beast has temporary Super Armor while attacking to make the user virtually unstoppable, but it is still susceptible to gum damage.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: You can purchase or earn your avatar some really impressive clothes, like classic ninja threads, spy suits, Super Sentai-style spandex, and even wedding dresses.. Some are more expensive than others however, and Gumball Machine-exclusive and collaboration outfits are only available for a limited time. In-Universe, each clothing brand carries a specific theme.
  • Cyberpunk: The Alter Lapse brand is focused around Sci-Fi and technology-themed gear. There are even helmets with wire cables hanging in the back (the descriptions say they serve no functional purpose).
  • Far East/Good Old Ways: Xinobi appears the closest brand to resemble traditional/classic Japanese attire, including yukatas, kimonos, and battle armor. Most ninja outfits and masks are tied to this brand. The game's purchasable "starter pack" comes with a black outfit reminiscent to ninjas of the past.
  • Hip-Hop: The Beat Jungle brand centers around old school Hip-Hop culture.
  • Impractically Fancy Outfit: Sydney James gear seems to be the fanciest or most elegant of all fashion brands, with luxury items equivalent to Real Life brands like Gucci. Some outfits don't look like they belong in an extreme sport focused on gum.
  • Good-Looking Privates: The Next Navy brand centers around military-style clothes, but is primarily Navy themed. Most camo-colored outfits apply here.
  • Rollerblade Good: The 1080 brand is an extreme sports-theme brand based on skater gear.
  • Rummage Sale Reject: The Honeypunk brand specializes in a mixture of Punk and Kawaii themes. The crazy clash of colors and design vary for each piece as a result.
  • Themed Party: The Trick In The Pack brand is said to specialize in clothes fit for costume parties and special events.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The Freedom & Peace brand specialize in American-style outfits, including cowboy sets, though a handful of clothes sport the stars and stripes of the American Flag.
• Improbable Weapon User: The weapons available in this game are unconventional at best, resembling everyday foods and objects. Lucy is depicted carrying a stop sign as a melee weapon in promotional material and the anime, with a similar-looking weapon called the Scrap Saber in the game introduced in Season 4.
  • Batter Up!: Katanas and Scroll Bat serve this purpose. The former is shaped like an inflatable bat, while the latter is a giant scroll.
    • Paper Fan of Doom: The Shinobuzz Paper Fan is this.
  • Cool Board: The weapons in the Board class all share this trope. The first subclass (the Matsuri Board and Camu Camu Plate) in particular increases your attack power temporarily after performing tricks.
    • BFS: The Ninja Calibur is a giant sword that can be ridden as a Cool Board instead of the conventional way.
    • Shaped Like Itself: Some skins of the Camu-Camu Gum actually resemble a stick of gum.
  • Shoe Slap: Cerberus is a hammer class weapon with a shoe for a head.
  • Killer Yoyo: The Yo-Yo class, which consists of an actual yo-yo, a fidget spinner, a basketball, and even a doughnut, falls under this as they're attached to string and attack from a distance. Later updates introduced a new subclass that resembles a motercycle.
    • Basketball: The Trick Ball (basketball) and Mellow a la Mode (Donut) share a "dunking" attack,complete with a basketball hoop.
    • Rolling Attack: The third subclass of Yo-Yo, consisting of the DJ Scratch and Extreme Motor, are wheel-like yo-yo weapons. Appropriately, their Special allows you to ride on them similar to Wheel Kirby.
    • Teleport Spam: The first sub-class of Yo-Yo can warp the user to the weapon left at a given spot.
  • Rockers Smash Guitars: Chewing V is a guitar weapon, smacking on opponents and using shockwaves as a wide-range attack.
  • Telephone Polearm: Similar to Lucy's stop sign weapon in the promotional art and anime, the Scrap Saber resembles a stop sign glued to a pole by gum.
  • This Is a Drill: Drill Beast has the look and function of an actual drill; Corn Bats are giant corn cobs that work the same way. A third variation resembling a bird, called the Bird Drill, was introduced later.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The Piercing Mixer Ninjutsu is a precise gum laser that pierces terrain, similar to the Sting Ray from [2].
  • Wolverine Claws: Season 7 introduces the Paw-xing and Ogre Gloves, clawed glove weapons that allow for hand-to-hand combat.
    • Spinning Piledriver: A unique Break Attack is included to these weapons (by hitting the Break button while holding down on the control stick), allowing players to do this and instantly IPPON a gum bound opponent in the process.
• Informed Attribute: You'd be forgiven for thinking that the drones are based on apples, due to coming in red and green colors and having a similar shape. However, they are apparently supposed to be based on daruma dolls, as evidenced by the name for the standard-size ones and the markings on the big ones.
• Involuntary Dance: The Shinobi Disco Ninjutsu forces close-ranged opponents to dance, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
• Kill Sat: A player who grabs a rainbow-colored "Judgement" gumball in Fort Riverdale can summon a group of massive "gum lasers" from above that deal considerable damage to their targets. Those caught with low on health can be K.O'd or IPPON'd instantly, depending on gum damage.
• Le Parkour: Players can run up walls thanks to the Ninja-Gum. The movement is a fluid transition from running on the ground, with no change in controls or physics.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Combined with Shock and Awe, the Echoing Scream special, exclusive to the Iron Noise and Drum Beat Hammer-type gum weapons, put out a damaging field of dreadful sound that electrifies and stuns any enemies caught in it. The weapons themselves also have a special side attack that stuns nearby enemies and blows them away after being hit three times, and their front attacks spew out an electrical orb that homes in on the nearest opponent.
• Mana Burn: The Ninja Ghost gum-shot locks onto a target and instantly drains five of their S-Energy on hit. This can be devastating under the right conditions, as the now-crippled target won't be able to S-Burst or Gum Boost away, leaving them easy pickings for you to swoop in and beat them up.
  • Gum Searcher works the same way, but instead drains S-Energy overtime and can remain stationary if it doesn't hit an opponent.
• Mighty Glacier: The Hammer weapon is built around this; while it has the meatiest health bar in the game, it has the lowest movement speed, while also lacking anything for mobility. However, the SK8 Hammer and Sushi Axe can break weapons as a special instead of having to perform a Break Attack, while the Iron Noise and Drum Beat can block drones off from enemies and stun foes.
• Mythical Motifs: Season 3 had a dragon theme, with the season pass rewards featuring many dragon-themed stickers, outfits, and emotes.
• Ninja School: WNA Academy is this, and one of the smallest stages in the game.
• One-Hit Kill: While most Gumjutsu attacks can deal heavy damage, or all if hit enough times, the Tenchi Muyo attack is an instant IPPON if it connects just once. This makes it one of the only two attacks in the game that's able to kill in one shot.
  • The Baiting Shark Gum Ninjutsu is the second one; it IPPONs anyone who steps on the scroll it lies down, which summons a Threatening Shark to attack them.
• Playlist Soundtrack: One of the categories of customization items is music tracks. In matches, the music tracks selected by all players are shuffled together, and when one track ends, the track chosen by another player is played.
  • The green gumball in Fort Riverdale increases a player's S-Energy gauge the same way as destroying a drone.
• Power-Up Food: Ninja-Gum is known to unlock "the power of the Shinobi" to any ninja descendants who chew it and provides them with many new abilities. It also has a mysterious Fountain of Youth effect on any adult who chews it, but the reasons for this remain unknown.
• Precision F-Strike: In the CGI prologue short, after avoiding Ron's attack, Burton asks, "Who the hell are you?!"
  • In the actual game's story mode, there's a bit in the second chapter where Berecca yells "Damn it!" after being surrounded by Shadow Ninja.
• Ray Gun: The Laser Gum special fires one to three stationary lasers that can bind opponents in about two hits. However, the hits are not constant.
• Regenerating Health: Some time after getting hit by an attack, players' health will start to regenerate passively over time. Morphing speeds up the process.
• Retcon: A lot of the scenes in the webtoon are changed/retold in the official anime, effectively rendering it obsolete.
  • After the introduction of [[Leonard]] into the anime, it seems the in-game story mode has been retconned as well.
• Resting Recovery: Players will recover health when not under attack after a few seconds. Recovery speeds up when morphed and is even faster when equipping certain Shinobi Cards.
• Revenue-Enhancing Devices: The game has a currency called Jala, which can be used to purchase clothing and emotes for your character or spin a Gumball Machine to gain cosmetic weapons skins or clothing exclusive to that section. While you can get small amounts of the currency by playing normally and advancing through tier levels, Jala can also be bought directly using real-world money. The game even keeps tabs on how much paid and free Jala you have.^note This is due to Japanese gambling laws, which dictate that purchased virtual currency must have an experiation date. While this has no affect on the game outside of Japan, any paid Jala purchased with the Japanese eShop expires after 150 days.
• Rewards Pass: Like other free to play games, Ninjala has this, allowing players to unlock cosmetics, medals to power up cards, and even spare Jala for shops and the Gumball Machine. Purchasing the premium version can unlock even more items. Completing missions can reward experience points which increase the pass's tier levels.
  • The first 5 missions per day have an increased amount of experience points to boost levels faster. Exaggerated during Ninjala Pass Matsuri (Festival) events.
  • After reaching Tier Level 100, completing new missions can unlock special stickers and additional medals. These last until the end of the season.
  • Season 3 onward allows premium Ninjala Pass players to make Gumball Machine skins permanent choices until the end of the season.
  • Season 6 introduced the Ninjala Pass Mini, a budget version of the premium pass that gives that all the perks of the full pass, but locks premium rewards past Tier 30.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: If two players use the same attack against each other, a parry will commence and a prompt with red, green, and blue markers appears (chosen using the left analog stick), activating a rock-paper-scissors-like attack sequence for a chance to counter-attack.
• Scoring Points: This is the main goal of the Battle Royales as opposed to being the last player standing. Players are given a nice 500 point bonus for the most drones destroyed, and a heftier 1000 point bonus for the most Ippons. If there is a tie, every tied player gets the bonus together.
  • This can make a huge difference in Team Battles should more than one member of a team earn a bonus.
• Space "X": The story mode has the player character fighting Space Ninja.
• Sword Beam: The Drill Beast's Punishing Blade Gum Ninjutsu sends out a wave of energy that causes any opponent caught in the projectile's path to be trapped in gum.
• Situational Sword: The Giant Killer Shinobi Card gives you an IPPON if you KO an opponent who's made a big weapon, and it resets when you get knocked out yourself. Essentially, it gives you a free IPPON every respawn in the middle or end of the match.
• Squishy Wizard: The Yo-yo weapons are built around this. They have the lowest health of any weapon in the game, but the Shinobi Spinner and Ninja Yo-yo can pester opponents from a safe distance and teleport into a skirmish, knocking out everyone, while the Trick Ball and Mellow a la Mode can momentarily stun opponents with its attacks and can neutralize them with its Beyond the Gum special.
• Sticky Situation: Gum is the main element of the game. You'll be using lots and lots of it for all sorts of tricks, so it's inevitable that you as well as your opponents will be sticking to the walls, floors, and ceiling one way or another, whether you want to or not. In fact, players are given more points via "Ippon", by enforcing this trope on each other.
  • Some gum-shots perform "Gum Damage", which is separate from regular damage from weapons. The more gum damage accumulated this, the stickier and slower other players become. Max gum damage leads to "Gum Binding", leaving them helpless and vulnerable to attack and Ippon. Attacking opponents while they are slow and sticky, with webbed traces of gum all over their bodies, almost guarantees an Ippon.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Promo material describes Van as being like the hero in a kids' manga, and carries some traits of the shonen protagonist archetype such as being an Idiot Hero.
• Summon Bigger Fish: The Dragon Lord Gum Ninjutsu summons a giant gum dragon to home in on the nearest opponent.
  • The Baiting Shark Gum Ninjutsu takes this literally by planting a scroll which summons a giant shark.
• Summon to Hand: Some yo-yo class weapon attacks have the yo-yo disconnect from its string and stay in place mid-air, and can then be summoned back to the user from anywhere on the map. The first subclass of the Yo-Yo class has the Yo-Yo Leap special, which the player can use to leave the weapon at one spot and teleport to the yo-yo's location to attack.
• Super Mode: The Shinobi Beast Gum Ninjutsu temporarily turns the user into a hulking, three-eyed gum monster. Two of its claw swipe attacks result in an IPPON, though it swats the recipient away in doing so.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: While she doesn't exactly become a villain, this is partially why Lucy is depicted as Cute and Psycho:
  • In the past, she unleashed an untapped power to save her friends on two separate occasions: two from bullies and a newer one from an out-of-control car. The friends she saved from the bullies ran from her and called her a monster after seeing her in action. While her other friend later didn't see the connection (Lucy tried to hide it in order to avoid this), other bystanders asked "what kind of monster is responsible" due to the collateral damage made while saving her, though she ran off before anyone noticed. Upon attending WNA academy, encouraged by her parents, she embraces her power and "monster" motif as her own way of being herself.
  Lucy: I'm exactly... who I'm supposed to be!
• Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: Shinobi City plays this straight in Oedo, Ninja's version of Japan. The modern buildings surround an older, more traditional town, with an onsen/hot spring at the center.
• Threatening Shark: The Baiting Shark Gum Ninjutsu allows players to place a ninja scroll on a surface, similar to a land mine. Anyone who steps on it will summon a giant shark that chomps at the victim, instantly Ippon'ing them. Others who are too close are swatted away.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: In Team Battles, one team is represented by a yellow tiger while the other team is represented by a blue dragon. They're not the only teams anymore as of Season 4, but the two sides can still end up as this.
• Title Scream: The announcer screams the game's title upon hitting ZL and ZR together on the title screen and at the start of each match.
• Too Awesome to Use: Cosmetic weapon skins are this to an extent, as they are consumable items if you don't have the Season Pass. If you got a cool or even rare weapon skin, you're probably not gonna want to use it in a match as it will disappear from your inventory afterwards. This is especially true for skins obtained in an event or special physical cards that are limited-time or have a chance of not returning.
  • As of Season 3, players can personally subvert this if they purchase the Ninjala Pass or Ninjala Pass Mini, which grants them unlimited use of obtained weapon skins for its duration. Newly obtained skins also count to this, but it's important to buy a pass or choose another, more common skin to prevent yourself from accidentally using up a skin obtained from physical codes or events.
• Virtual Paper Doll: While there are named, preset characters, you can mix and match features such as hair, face styles, clothing, and accessories between them (including those of other characters, and others not specifically tied to specific characters) to make your own custom avatar.
• Vocal Dissonance: The Fountain of Youth effect of Ninja Gum seems to barely affect a person's voice, so a kiddified adult can still sound like an adult. This is most notable with Ron, whose voice is really deep.
• Weapon of X-Slaying: The ability of the Trick Ball and Mellow a la Mode weapons deals more damage to gum-morphed opponents.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the CGI short, Berecca is less than pleased to find out that the gum she had been helping Burton to make could be used to make weapons and calls him out on keeping such a fact a secret from her.
  Berecca: But...how could keep that a secret from me?!
  Burton: Because I knew you'd object to working on weapons technology.
  Berecca: Of course I object! This isn't what we set out to achieve! Are you trying to start a war, man?!
• World of Technicolor Hair: Unnatural hair colors seems to be a common trait in the Ninjala universe as Berecca has naturally pink hair, while Kappei and Lucy have light blue hair. Van has white hair with a purple streak, but it's unclear whether the streak is part of his natural hair or dyed.
• Wormsign: The Special of the Drill Beast and Corn Bat allows you to dig underground and go up walls while in this state, unleashing a powerful attack on the nearest enemy if ZR is hit before the timer runs out. While underground, your location is denoted by a small blob of ninja-gum and a bamboo snorkel.
• Wrecked Weapon: Break Attacks can break through guards and S-Bursts (sacrificing S-Energy to trigger a parry), while a couple of hammer weapons with a special attack can break regardless; both resulting in breaking those weapons. Opponents are left vulnerable to attack until they are KO'd/Ippon'd or can craft another weapon, whichever comes first.
• X-Ray Vision:
  • The Discerning Eye Shinobi Card allows you to see drones through walls or see enemies when destroying said drones.
  • The Piercing Mixer Gum Ninjutsu reveals the locations of enemies behind terrain while you're using it, allowing for easy targeting.
  • The Stealing Hyena Shinobi Card reveals the location of enemies low on health, encouraging you to swoop in and KO them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The lore reveals the ninjas were hunted down once their services were no longer necessary in Japan. The remaining ninja scattered across the world to escape before fading away from history.