Awesome Art: The 2020 CGI trailer looks absolutely gorgeous, with the character designs and world rather resembling an Animesque version of a Pixar short.
The fanbase is divided over the strategy of "drone hunting" or "drone farming" (see Cheese Strategy below), and whether it's a legitimate strategy or a cheap method of getting points quickly. Those who practice it say that it wouldn't be possible if the developers didn't indeed for it to be a viable strategy, while those who don't practice it say it's a Game-Breaker that lacks any sort of skill to do. Then there's those in the middle that don't really care.
During Season 4, a featured battle mode debuted that served as a test-run for a new mechanic to replace S-Burst, which many players had shown dislike for, called S-Blast. This new mechanic sends nearby players back in a shockwave instead of trigger a parry like S-Burst did. Some players are all for the addition of S-Blast, as it would significantly lessen the amount of parries (see Scrappy Mechanic below), while others would rather keep the S-Burst and have the S-Blast available as a Shinobi Card or Featured Battle, or not in the game at all.
The Ninja Lab and Research Points introduced in Season 9 created a divide between players who thought the new feature was fine and didn't affect gameplay that much, and those who hate the new feature for giving players an unfair advantage and accused the game of becoming pay-to-winnote (due to the game having a Jala bundle pack with Research Points available for purchase once per season) after the devs promised it wouldn't be. Fast-forward a few seasons after multiple additions to the Lab though, and now almost everyone hates it.
Character Tiers: The various weapons are often divided into this. Two of the most notable consistently "high-tier" weapons are the Drill Beast and the IPPON Katana.
"Drone hunting" (also called "droning") is a common tactic used by players, especially new ones, where they will gather points by specifically targeting the drones spread across the map and often avoiding combat. Drones provide a fair amount of points when attacked and destroyed, and it's entirely possible to win a match solely via drones without fighting other players. This method is usually looked down upon by the rest of the community, who see it as a cheap and easy method of getting high scores that requires little if any skill. Players who do this often are referred to as "drone hunters" or "droners", and many players have asked for drones to be worth less points to discourage this behavior.
Season 6 tried to alleviate this somewhat by increasing the amount of points earned by KOs, trying to shift gameplay more towards combat. It technically worked, but ultimately it didn't do much to stop it.
Before Season 5, the Ustusemi Master Shinobi Card, which turns the usually-cosmetic Utsusemi statues into bombs that explode on contact, had a very low cooldown and the Utsusemi were easily spammable, which lead to a huge number of players using it mindlessly in rapid succession to bind their opponents and score easy IPPONs. Often referred to as "Ustu-spamming", this tactic was absolutely loathed by anyone who doesn't practice it, and the community had been long asking for the developers to heavily nerf Ustusemi Master or at least give it a longer cooldown. The developers heard their complaints, and a heavy nerf to the Shinobi Card came with Season 5 that made Utsusemis harder to spam by greatly increasing its cooldown and shortening the amount of time victims would be binded for.
The IPPON Katana was always popular for being the "basic" weapon, but it has recently become this due to new buffs and adjustments introduced overtime, alongside it already have a very good kit that greatly rewards aggressive play. It has a fast, long range Gum Shoot that takes priority over other shoots and has solid tracking, plus a fast refresh rate (which can be boosted to be even faster by Shinobi Cards and Assist Codes, especially Wall Shooter), plus a fast run speed in general so it can chase others down easily, doubly so with its special that covers ground in a snap. The Gum Tornado Ninjutsu has I-frames throughout the whole thing, and while it's not a guaranteed Ippon, it does enough damage that it's not hard to pick off anyone that survived. All this has lead to the Katana easily becoming one of the most powerful and versatile weapons in the game.
Yo-yo class weapons are also popular due to their long reach, allowing players to attack from a safer distance. Trick Ball and Mellow a la Mode in particular are especially popular thanks to their special attack, which incapacitates players for a short time.
Shinobi Cards:
Wall Shooter, which reduces Gum Shoot cooldown while the player is standing on a wall, is a popular choice because it allows players to gum-bind their opponents faster.
Starting Dash gives the player five bars of S-Energy by default rather than the usual four. This makes it easier for the player to be able to build a big weapon, since they would have to destroy only three drones instead of four, and give them an early advantage. Needless to say, this one was very common to see equipped until its brutal nerf in season 7 which now makes energy slowly recover if the card is equipped.
Ninjutsu Stock is another very popular card because it allows you to store up to two Ninjutsus instead of just one, which can be very useful in battle while in a pinch or if the first attempt misses.
The missions for the season pass get harder as you progress through the tiers, with some of the later challenges jumping annoyingly high in difficulty.
After reaching Tier 100 and completing on the season pass, the player is given special missions that reward Ninja Medals and special Season-exclusive medal stickers as rewards. The first few are fairly simple, such as getting thirty total KOs or maxing out your S-Energy within 100 seconds, but then suddenly become significantly harder while aiming for the silver and gold stickers. Particular examples include getting eight IPPONs in one match, winning a parry after 5 parry combos, scoring 1st place without ever making a big weapon, and taking no damage for the entire match. Let's just say that if you got a Gold Medal sticker for the season, you damn well earned it.
Many of the game's weapons have nicknames among the fandom, usually shorter versions of their actual names. This includes the IPPON Katana being commonly referred to as just "Katana", Drill Beast is called "Drill", Ninja Calibur is called "Calibur" or even just "Sword", the list goes on.
Also for the Ninja Calibur, the nickname "Excaliboard" has been gaining popularity after it was used repeatedly by one of the commentators during North America's Bubble Bobble Battle tournament.
Certain weapon sub-classes have nicknames among the community. Hammer Class B for example, which consists of the Iron Noise and Drum Beat, are referred to as "sound hammers".
Friendly Fandoms: With Splatoon 2. Given the similar art style and musical styles, and new content for Nintendo's Third-Person Shooter darling having ended several months prior to Ninjala's release, a sizable number of Splatoon fans viewed it as a nice companion title that can tide them over until the third installment, though some fans were a bit miffed when GungHo choose to have a Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration first.note It's good to note that some people knew a Sonic collab was going to happen ahead of time thanks to a datamine.
A number of Ninjala fans have also taken an interest in Friday Night Funkin' due to the game's similarly cartoony visuals. This could also be because Boyfriend, the game's main protagonist, looks similar to Kappei, namely their hair and how they both wear a cap backwards.
Game-Breaker: The Gum Research Lab introduced in Season 9 introduces a system that allows you to use a new resource called Resource Points to make your weapons stronger, as well as give you various other buffs such as a shorter time spent in a Gum Bind or additional drone damage. This effectively gives players who decide to invest in it a potentially huge advantage over those who don't, which has garnered a large amount of controversy within the community, which was made even worse when Season 10 added even more to it (see Scrappy Mechanic below). However, these buffs can be disabled for yourself via the Options menu, and are also able to be turned off in Room Battles.
Genius Bonus: Season 4 Pickup 1 in the Gumball Machine, "Masquerade Style," is what appears to be a masked harlequin outfit, and the description makes it sound like Venice. However, it appears closer to the Touloulou outfits of Carnival in French Guiana, the only variant of Carnival to be held in January, when the outfit was available in the Gumball Machine. In addition, the city on the water they're describing also fits Cayenne, where French Guianan Carnival is held, as it was built at the mouth of the river of the same name, then over it as the city expanded.
Utsusemi, on their own, are just cosmetic statues you can morph into or place in front of you. However, the Utsusemi Master Shinobi Card gives them explosive properties, turning them into bombs that explode on contact with any player and doing gum damage. Before Season 5, it had a low cooldown and could be activated immediately upon being placed down. Players who used this tactic would often place their Utsusemi right behind them or on top of a drone for an unexpected advantage, and could lead into cheap combos for easy wins. Naturally, many players used this tactic (sometimes to the point of spamming it), while the rest of the playerbase absolutely loathed them for doing so, to the point of begging the developers to give it a nerf. The devs listened, and Season 5 heavily nerfed Utsusemi Master, giving it a much longer cooldown and shortening the time players caught in the explosion are gum-binded for. Since then it's received more nerfs to balance it more; a more notable nerf coming from Season 9, which took away the ability to deploy Utsusemi while guarding.
The Trick Ball (and to a lesser extent its counterpart, the Mellow à la Mode) and the players who use it are widely disliked by the community even to this day. This is in large part due to its special, which forcefully morphs an opponent into an ice cream statue, leaving them completely defenseless for a time. It also has a long reach, so players using the weapon can use it at a safe distance from their opponent.
Players who use the IPPON Katana are viewed negatively due to the weapon becoming a borderline Game-Breaker thanks to its fantastic kit and good Shinobi Card synergy that rewards aggressive play.
The Iron Noise and Drum Beat, part of a category of hammers called "sound hammers" by the community, have become disliked as of Season 5. Their main gimmick is being able to stun opponents with noise blasts and shockwaves, leaving them very vulnerable. The stunning sound blasts launched by their attacks also interrupt attempts at S-Bursting, meaning the player is essentially helpless unless their reflexes are fast enough to trigger it before the blast hits. As such, sound hammers have become far more popular and players dread going up against them, begging GungHo to nerf the weapon. Unfortunately, Season 6 did not bring any nerfs to the weapon (in fact, it barely got touched at all), and the sound hammers remain an annoying threat.
Just Here for Godzilla: A number of players were drawn to Ninjala from other big-name series the game has collaborated with, such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Jujutsu Kaisen, whether out of curiosity or to be able to dress up as their favorite characters. Unfortunately, this ends up causing a pattern were player numbers increase at the start of a collab, only to plummet once it ends.
"Splatoon, but with ninjas" or "Splatoon 2.5" Explanation Since people noticed a striking similarity between Splatoon and this game's art style, they're quick to shove it into the same pool as the former game. However, this is actually a misconception, as despite the visual and tonal similarities, the two games belong to different genres, with Splatoon being a team-based Third-Person Shooter vs. Ninjala being an arena brawler with Free-Floor Fighting.
G—0—001 Explanation The error code for the Exclusive Ninja Club, which became memetic because players were seeing it so much.
A communication error has occurred Explanation A minor meme in Splatoon 2, due to Nintendo's infamously unpredictable internet services, which ended up being recycled here due the game's servers being unable to handle the influx of players during its first open beta. Ironically, the first Splatoon suffered the exact same issue during its second beta, right down to the company issuing an apology and extending the demo time from one hour to two.
Go to ninja jail Explanation Seeing as how this is a game mainly about bonking other people with sticks of ninja-gum (among other things), it'd make sense that there'd be some comparisons to the "go to horny jail" meme, where a Doge bonks another one with a bat for being horny.
Sans Lucy explanation As explained in the second episode of the animation, the power of the Shinobi running in Lucy's bloodline gives her a Magic Eye. Given that this power manifests as being able to manipulate metal into tentacles and the short ends with her not caring anymore, the comparisons came quite fast.
Season 6 is a JoJo reference Explanation One of the Ninjala Pass rewards during Season 6, an emote called "I'm Going To Unleash My Dark Powers", has the character strike a pose that looks like something out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The season also introduces a stage based on a desert, of which the main theme is called "Golden Wind".
Ninja Re Bang Bang Steve Aoki Remix was used heavily in Ninjala's marketing, and was the end credits theme for the webtoon as well. The song's official music video also features the game pretty heavily and was even released on the same day. Because of this, the song and game are often heavily associated with each other. Interestingly, it didn't actually appear in the game itself until Season 3, with the Ninjala X Kyary Pamyu Pamyu collaboration a little over four months after the game originally launched.
She released another song based on the game, Gum Gum Girl, around the time Season 5 was going on.
Kyary's Maybe Baby is used as the anime's opening.
Tainted by the Preview: The open beta in late April 2020 was incredibly unstable, being so prone to disconnections that some people were not able to play at all. Naturally, this left a sour taste of this game for those it happened to.note Of course, part of the reason for an open beta for online games is precisely to stress-test the servers in this manner, so devs can gauge how to handle the actual launch. Thankfully, the servers have gotten much better since then.
The Tenchi Muyo Ninjutsu. It's a net that, if a player is caught in it, results in an instant guaranteed IPPON and is capable of catching multiple players at once without warning. Its range has been nerfed to be much smaller, but it still remains a one-hit IPPON if it connects.
Beyond the Gum, the special belonging to the Mellow à la Mode and Trick Ball is one of the most hated specials in the game. It forcefully turns any players hit by it into a yellow ice cream statue with Gumchi's face, and while they can still move, they can't attack or use any of their gum abilities until the effect wears off. This makes them very easy targets to pick off if they're caught, and since Ninjala has a long hitstun effect that makes it difficult to escape an attack as is, it can be extremely difficult (if not impossible) for a morphed player to escape once they're caught in a combo, leaving them as a sitting duck while the opponent beats the snot of them. Thankfully it was nerfed in Season 6, but remains annoying to deal with.
The Anime/Story
Adorkable: Burton is often seen as this due to his nerdy and awkward personality, especially in the anime.
Best Known for the Fanservice: All of the adult scientists, especially Berecca and Jane, received such reactions from viewers prior to them getting kiddified. Adult Berecca is especially popular.
Canon Fodder: So, so much. Due to the game's unfinished story mode and limited story content in general, there's a lot to speculate on about the series and gives a lot of fuel for Fan Fiction and headcanons. The anime has since rectified this somewhat.
Crazy Is Cool: Lucy is often referred to as crazy and has the look and personality to match, and she's easily one of the series' most popular characters, if not the most popular, even overshadowing the usual mascots Van and Berecca.
Lucy falling into a depression after her powers awaken and scare pretty much everyone she knows. It gets so bad that she asks her parents if she can transfer schools.
In a brief moment in Episode 11, Emma can be seen crying in her sleep, calling out for her parents.
Emma: Papa...Mama...
Berecca discovering a bell that belonged to her father in the Shadow Ninja mine, confirming his death.
Toy Ship: Between Berecca and Burton, regardless of their age, since the two are almost always seen together in the anime and they're shown to greatly care about each other.
Ron and Jane is starting to pick up traction briefly after the fourth season of the game's intro trailer featured the two dancing in a sequence referencingLa La Land. The two are also partners in the official anime.
Vanilla Protagonist: Van is often regarded as this for being a typical shonen protagonist-like character. Kappei also receives this reaction to a lesser extent, as he at least has his companionship with Gumchi to help keep him interesting. The anime would later rectify this, fleshing out both characters and giving them a rivalry with each other.
The Woobie: Lucy. Everyone who sees her use her powers thinks she's a monster, eventually leading her to believe she's one too, and completely withdraw from making friends; even then, this is to no avail, as she opens up once again and gets ostracized. She gets better by the time she's sent off to the WNA, adopting it as part of her new persona, but still...
and Be@t Jungle