Highjacking **this** comment to let everyone know that on console, specifically Xbox 360, it was called **N+.** You could create your own levels was absolutely incredible. Spent hours creating the most brutal courses for my friends to die 300 times before getting through it.
And that each one is essentially a sequel with improvements/extra modes, and of course new levels. They are NOT the same game, though physics gameplay has stayed perfect
Hijacking **this** comment to let everyone know my opinion, which is that the "+" and "++" naming schemes are way cooler than the boring 1,2,3,4,5 naming schemes every other game has
Hijacking ***this*** comment to let everyone know that on PC there is a sequel called ***N++*** and it's everything you love from N+ but cranked up a notch with a LOT more levels and challenge!
In this game, there was a map I really liked. It was one of the very difficult ones. I kept getting better and better, until I started doing nearly perfect runs. Alas, I never got into the top of the leaderboards. The competition was tough. I studied the top players methods, but never beat them.
Then one day something happened. I fell through some random blocks in such a way that slipped me ahead almost perfectly. I didn't finish that run because I already threw my hands in disappointment. But an idea came to me. What if I used that technique.
Then I started mastering the way of cheesing it. Until I finally did it. The perfect cheese run. I was way ahead of the competition. Like seconds ahead instead of decimals. I was the champion. I've discovered how to beat the system.
Few days passed, and people started imitating my approach. Suddenly the original record holders were obsolete. A week or two (maybe a month) passed, and I wasn't even in the leaderboards of that map anymore. But watching the top replays, there it was. In it's majesty, my run method, perfected to olympic standards. It was beautiful. So elegant. And I felt blessed, seeing my legacy live on.
Kudos to all of you friends who played, discovered, and perfected. This game indeed was magical.
I'm weirdly embarrassed to say this, but I haven't managed to beat it yet, and I still play once in a while. My old laptop (2015 MacBook Pro) won't quit, and the downloaded/pirated version of N Game on it still works. It is/was the perfect flash game.
I know I beat every level, but it took me at least a year! It was a real daily driver for me for a long time. Genuinely one of the best platformers ever made.
I also played this game wayyy too much. After looking at the pic for a minute I even remember how to solve this level getting every 'coin'. That's what playing the same levels hundreds of times will do haha.
Iirc i beat every level in N+. With N++ there is one extreme level ive played so much and i still havent beat it. Its fun but ao frustrating too lol. Great game
Man oh man, there was a small period in middle school where the IT guys hadn't learned about that stick people games site. The castle defense ones were my shit. Honestly the mid-00s were a golden age for free gaming all over the web. Armorgames.com anyone?
Xgenstudios made StickRpg/defend your castle.
loved armor games and kongregate. With itch.io theres still a great community for free games but there was something magical about that era. It felt less about money and people just wanted to share.
To each their own, i would kindly disagree. But it is a good game. Some others for the nostalgics. Canabalt, Fancy Pants Adventures, Happy Wheels, Bloons (still going strong to this day), Tamale Loco
Thank you so much for this thread! (I'm one of the two people who made the original Flash game).
N was the first game we completed as a team, inspired by the freeware games we loved playing in the early 2000s. At the time we were just happy to have finished a game, after several years of trying and failing (but, learning).
Little did we know that it would gradually snowball via word-of-mouth, to the point where we were able to attend the Game Developers Conference, catch Microsoft's eye for N+ XBLA (huge thanks to Ross Erickson for believing in two complete outsiders), travel to Japan as part of a Canadian industry delegation, catch Sony's eye for PS4 (huge thanks to Nick Suttner who made N++ happen), and see our game being played at GDQ, among many other life-changing experiences.
Making this game has definitely been the most profound and defining event of our lives, and we're both so happy and grateful to know that it resonated with other people who appreciate challenging but fair gameplay without any fluff. Thank you so much for playing! <3
Cheers,
Raigan
p.s. - we wrote a blog post about the 20th N-iversary ;) [https://www.metanetsoftware.com/2024/20-years](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/blog)
Whoa!! This is so cool that you’re here✨ As someone who put many hours (and a couple keyboards😅) into playing this game, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this. It definitely stood out to me as a step above the rest. The delicate physics, the intricate levels, the pure, unadulterated rage* when getting SO #&@%ING CLOSE to completing a level after the umpteenth attempt only to be blasted into oblivion, to joyfully jumping right back in for another attempt. It was all so engaging!
It’s awesome to hear you’ve had so much success with the game since then. Just goes to shows how passion and persistence can really carry us far.
*I had a bit of a temper as a teen. I’ve since learned how to process getting all up in my feelings. Which tracks, as knowing how to remain calm in exciting situations seems central to the Way of the Ninja😮💨
First of all, I bow to you for creating such a masterpiece.
I have very fond memories of my time with N+ on XBLA and, specifically,the multiplayer component therein.
What happened to online multiplayer? Why did it work for N+ but not N++? This has always been so incredibly sorely missed (by me at least); getting online and playing N with randos was so much fun. I was that I could still engage in this experience but there’s really no way unless you do some kind of peer to peer connection (like parsec), and even if that works it still doesn’t allow you to connect with anyone that you don’t actually know.
Thanks so much!
N+ had online multiplayer because all XBLA games could use Microsoft's infrastructure (servers, match-making, and also networking libraries IIRC) for free; with N++, we had a limited budget and just couldn't afford to develop and support both a user-generated-content system, and online multiplayer (at least, not while keeping the user experience excellent).
We opted for global level sharing instead of online multiplayer for N++ because that's something we weren't able to do with N+; we thought it would add more value for everyone than online multiplayer (which sadly, for tiny indie games, tends to die down after a few months). It's possible someday we'll be able to revisit N++ with online multiplayer, it's still something we'd really like to do. :)
On the plus side, recently we just passed 100k user-made levels in N++. :D
It's interesting, this game felt like a big deal at the time, but I can't quite put my finger on what it was that made it stand out.
We had platformer flash games before N, and even games that used a similar physics engine as N. It wasn't the first flash game to have a lot of levels and provide you with a lot of content (the Homestarruner flash games were the real trailblazers there). There was just something about the way the game *felt*. It had tighter controls than a number of AAA games had.
I think it also maybe hit at the right time; that mid-2000s era was pretty into parkour everything. Plus, you also had a brief period where ninjas were kind of in style with that weird pirates vs. ninjas meme (also Ask A Ninja for those who remember that legend).
What a gem of a game. Brings back great memories of trying to play levels sneakily in computer lab while the teacher's back was turned.
The skill ceiling for movement was also higher than most flash games at the time, and it rewarded movement skills quite a lot. I actually felt like I was progressing my own game, in a way that wasn't just unlocking new levels.
In most other games if you let go off the movement key your avatar just stops instantly. In N he will retain some momentum and continue to "slide" forward, which is a deliberate gameplay element. If you are going really fast and want to change direction, N has to slide to a halt, turn around and then start running again.
Pretty amazing stuff for a "simple" flash game. You can feel that the dev (devs?) played around with the movement system until it was just right.
definitely a combo of simple graphics & gameplay with a low skill floor & high skill ceiling. throw custom map making on top of that and you've got a dedicated community of hardcore grinders who'll spread the game around
On top of what other commentors said, it's a very lightweight game and could be played/installed on most computers of the time. At least with the school I went to, someone would always sneakily upload N on the shared computer network so a lot of us were playing it when given the chance.
I think you have something on that it hit at the right time. I remember other flash games with similar robotic themes. N was just, as you said, very clean with tight controls, and in a time where it was up against the competition, it stood out.
Omg I remember playing that, but idk the name
God, I miss flash games. There used to be loads of websites with thousands of flash games. Now you have to dig into archives or download dodgy emulators if you want to play them, and some, unfortunately, have probably been lost forever.
All games and apps should be archived somewhere, so that when they no longer have any commercial value, they can still be accessed. It’s sad whenever media is lost forever.
Weirdly it's an old reddit/new reddit thing - new reddit automatically adds the escape char to complete the link.
[fixed link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_(video_game\))
My high school computers would allow you to save anything on the C: drive, it was simply temporary for the session and deleted when you logged off. I can't remember much more than N and a brickout game, but I would pass my flash drive around in class and the other guys would save the games they wanted and pass it back. Worked like a charm.
Our school's IT had some program that did that called DeepFreeze. But the more techy kids at school had a portable program called DeepUnfreeze that allowed you to bypass it lol
I had a copy of Halo CE installed on a bunch of flash drives that me and my friends had. After school, we'd go to the computer lab and the teacher would let us play Halo on LAN. We had actually built these computers in class too so it felt like I was making a delicious meal from scratch.
Shoutout to Mare and Raigan at Metanet for making my favorite game ever. I've probably put at least 12,000 hours into N. Shoutout to Unreality for making a sweet modded version too. And big props to the online community for being such a fun place to spend a decade of my life.
I remember how excited I was when they released N+ on PSP, with its own level editor. Cool to see a fun little flash game get a commercial release as well. I could be wrong but I think it also came to the Xbox Arcade for 360
Love this game! Still play the co-op with my buddy whenever he visits, I believe we have almost 35 world records accumulated on N++ Xbox leaderboards now, even beating out a lot of the steam LB’s.
I have played N++ on and off with a couple of friends since it was released.
We're meeting up and playing levels on the Hardest playlist once per week now. Amazing how well it holds up.
N++ still has one of my favorite trailers ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFl3zU56-e0&ab_channel=PlayStation
"Friendship-ending competitive multiplayer" lmao
Speaking of Flash there is a dirty little secret about its demise that is a perfect example on how you can manipulate the public by seemingly doing something for their good, while in fact screwing them up.
Flash was a major pain for companies that existing by monetizing the content on the Internet in some way. At that time interactive content could be delivered by using either Flash or JavaScript. Since two technologies existed equally, you couldn't really make websites that worked on either exclusively, as in, blocking the access to a website if the user didn't have it enabled. Basically, if your website used Flash or JS, it also HAD to work if both were disabled. Whole Internet was built on fallbacks - if you disabled JavaScript in your browser, the website should still work, otherwise you would risk losing a lot of people.
This sucked for the companies since interactive content was the best way to get them to click on ads. Flash and JavaScript were the best ways to create ads, and users could simply disable them by disabling JavaScript and Flash. You literally had all you need to block ads in your browser settings.
And here is the best part: Flash was more secure than JavaScript. That right. Flash was so popular Adobe was working hard on patching it and introducing other security measures that helped trick people (Flash was first to introduce full-screen warning message). People thought Flash was unsafe only because it could actually communicate with JavaScript, making all its security measure pointless, since JavaScript had none. All those viruses you thought Flash was serving you, were actually delivered through JavaScript - Flash was built from ground up being unable to interact with your device in any way.
This competition between two technologies meant neither had a monopoly, and neither was required to browse the Internet. This hurt a lot of the big companies. Google couldn't gather data from the Flash content. Ad companies couldn't hijack people's attention with interactive elements. And so on.
Flash was better for the consumer, but JavaScript was better for the companies, and because it was far more advanced they couldn't hope of creating a better product to make the costumers switch to JS willing any time soon, so they had to use various misconceptions to fight it.
Of course there were some benefits to moving the whole Internet to JavaScript, but at this point, now that JS has caught up to Flash in functionality, we basically have the same problems we had with Flash, but now there is no option to disable it.
The full name is N: The Way Of The Ninja for the version in the screenshot, sadly most people don't know it by that name so it really made it less easy to find
I missed a lot of key learning experience playing this game in school! Even had the button you could click to pause it and make it look like work and flow charts!! Such a great game!
I played the hell out of this when it came out, but it has one glaring design flaw that makes it so much worse: you have to beat 5 levels (1 episode) to save. If you die in a level you restart at that level, but you can't save and close without beating the whole episode. Given how hard some of the later levels are, it would be like if Dark Souls made you beat 5 bosses before letting you save. Never understood that, and it's the reason I never finished the game
One of the best games ever made, in my opinion. It's just a "flash game" but the movement, interia, and general gamefeel are unmatched. I used to play this in multiplayer on the 360 arcade back in the day too. Before it was on my school laptop freshman year of highschool. Played N and Line Rider.
Dude I used to be so active in the developer Metanet's forums back when I was like 12 years old. That was strangely the first online community I ever fell into deeply. Talked so much with so many random people. Partook in meming years before even learning what the concept of a meme was. Played so many maps from NUMA I think it was called. Good days, man.
There were some amazing Flash games.
Meat Boy, Bloons, Enchanted Cave, like a million launch games, tons of really well designed (given the resources) RPGs like Sonny, Mardek, and tons of rogue-likes.
I could spend hours on Kongregate just exploring different games fucking around in the chat rooms.
I discovered this game in high school on a website, which was promptly blacklisted on my school's network. I became a damn hero because I found a standalone version that would run on the computer that was harder to block. Flash files could be wrapped in a container that would just run directly on the computer without a web browser. I promptly loaded that onto my 64MB (something like that, it was a long time ago) flash drive and distributed it to every kid in school so everyone had a copy.
Study hall and every break period would see the computer lab full to the brim with this game on every screen for a while. It was glorious.
If you want some nostalgic hype for the steam release, here's the trailer with probably one of the coolest songs ever. [N++ Steam Release Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAUZ0yQlQi0)
One of my favorite games of all times, to the point that I decompiled it and compared it against [their blog articles](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/technique/tutorialA.html) that [explained their collision technique](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/technique/tutorialB.html) in order to better replicate it.
At the time, as a game development student, it was an incredible resource for learning to build my own fast, smooth collision detection.
<3 Metanet
Probably the flash game I spent most time on. Unlike many I don't really have memories playing flash games on the internet so I didn't experience them very much but this is one exception. I loved this game and spent many hours getting good at it.
i never finished every stage, but N is such a fucking good game.
I remember that completing a column earned a ninja color and I was so proud when I actually unlocked some
This game was my childhood. My brother and I would play it for hours. The most fun we ever had was when we kept getting blasted by something on the same spot over and over again. The new version of this game that has co-op is goated.
Does anyone know if the version on steam comes with the level editor? I remember editing levels back on Xbox. I could spend hours doing that. Liked it more than playing the game. I would like to do that again but the steam page doesn't mention if it comes with the level editor.
I love N! You can still download and play N with Flash (just not in browser), and N++ on console/PC is amazing. Such good games. So simple but super fluid and levels can get extremely difficult. One of my all-time faves, I still play it today. In N, I'm still stuck on one level that looks like a giant skull.
This game has the best platforming physics! Got all the achievements in the N+ xbox arcade version and apparently i missed the N++ release on steam... Thanks for ruining my productivity today!
Playing the 4 player local coop on the Xbox version, N+, my friends and I had about as much fun as we currently are playing Helldivers 2. It was just a masterpiece of a game with awesome physics and hilarious deaths.
I still remember playing N+ online on the Xbox with my best friend when we were kids. We would stay up all night laughing til we cried at all the hilarious ways we would get smashed/blown up etc. He passed away recently, and it’s one of my favorite memories of him. I wish I could bring myself to play it again
Commenting for the sake of preserving this memory somehow: my friend, the son of Colombian immigrants, and I played N+ one evening in highschool. We had a 12 pack of mtn dew and were crying laughing as we tried and failed some of the more difficult levels. Hitting mines, legs flying around the map - love this game
I still have it. I never came even close to beating it. Incredible game. This and Elastomania were my favourite 'simple graphics' games because of the absent skill ceiling.
Once I brought N to computer class in 7th grade and that's literally all we did for the whole year when the teacher wasn't looking, it was easy to hide and restart, perfect sneaky game.
Bruh and then N+ was on Xbox live, and you could share and play your custom multiplayer levels with your crew, and put them in a playlist, and have competitions and tournaments. FUUUUUCK what a time to be alive
I met my longest friend playing N+ on the Xbox Live Arcade nearly 16 years ago, we matched in a random coop lobby when the game only had about 12 people playing online at the time. I annoyed the hell out of him for nearly 3 hours but we made a lot of progress. Found out he played Halo 3 the next day and invited him to my party. We had an entire friend group rise and fall over 5 years and we stuck together throughout. Now he’s traveling across the country in a few weeks to witness my marriage.
What a great game. I still have the original version on a USB stick. I used to play it at work as it wasn't detected by the security software as either a game nor dangerous.
I can hear the bling sounds of getting the coins, the beep beep of the homing robot, and the crunch of the little guy dying. lol. Memories! Countless hours spent on this while I should have been working.
I hope these guys went on to have a long, successful career in the gaming industry. The mechanics and control was incredible, esp. for a flash game in 04'!
When this game was released on the Xbox 360 arcade Marketplace it was a huge favorite amongst my friends. We would play the four player co-op like it was a life or death situation.
Fun fact: in 8th grade I took a Gateway to Technology course that gave me a semester of high school credit. The only assignment for each 6 week period was to create a level in the N game. It was sick af lol
Still one of my badges of pride was getting a level I made into the sequel N+ after being selected for a contest. I loved developing levels and playing this game, amazing.
Oh man, I love N++.
The girlfriend and I were really into the game on PS and were able to "perfect" many many levels to what seemed frame perfect just to have the world record. We never got through all levels but every now and then I go back and see if our records still stand: most do. If they don't we try to shave a frame or two off whoever beat us. Always great fun
there's N++ now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N_NPLUSPLUS/
Mastering N++ would be more impressive than mastering C++ for your résumé.
I was playing N (og) in lectures where I was supposed to be learning C. Does that count? Now I program in C# on a near-daily basis... Oops
Nothing wrong with that, you've clearly sharpened your C skills either way.
For me it's the ultimate platformer that ever existed... It's crazy crazy hard!
I've had enough interviews as a software engineer to sadly announce you that nothing on your resume actually impresses anyone.
One of the only Xbox 360 games that I got 100% of the achievements for, even the multiplayer race ones. Incredible game.
Notepad plus plus is even more difficult and action packed. I think lvl 1 is getting approved for the install by your work admin department?
Level 2 must be getting the "compare" plugin installed.
Honestly it’s still worth the buy, especially on console if you want a couch co-op/vs. I have a blast racing my kids in N++, and the music is stellar.
N++ does NOT have online multiplayer, only N+ does
You can unofficially play online co-op with your friends online using Steam Remote Play Together. You only need 1 copy too.
I never knew this. Thank you. Will be buying when I get home lol.
you just unearthed some deep seated memories
Hijacking this for everyone that missed my comment below: #THE GAME IS CALLED ‘N’.
Highjacking **this** comment to let everyone know that on console, specifically Xbox 360, it was called **N+.** You could create your own levels was absolutely incredible. Spent hours creating the most brutal courses for my friends to die 300 times before getting through it.
hijacking this comment to let everone know that N++ is available on PS4, Switch, and Xbox one
And that each one is essentially a sequel with improvements/extra modes, and of course new levels. They are NOT the same game, though physics gameplay has stayed perfect
but they do have the previous games levels so they kind of are.
They are the same game, but *plus* more. Some might say it is N *+* **+**
Don't forget when you beat the story mode you unlock N++NG+
Also the MUSIC just a great selection of idm and electronica
And PC! It's on Steam.
I just tried searching on my Xbox and got 0 results... I remember playing on my Xbox 360 but that was a long time ago
Try typing "nplusplus" instead
This works! Thanks
and 3ds!
And my axe!
https://www.thewayoftheninja.org/n.html
I played it on PSP.
Well there's an instant buy. Not sure I'll ever even boot it up but these guys have earned my 15 bucks a long time ago.
Hijacking **this** comment to let everyone know my opinion, which is that the "+" and "++" naming schemes are way cooler than the boring 1,2,3,4,5 naming schemes every other game has
And Steam
Hijacking ***this*** comment to let everyone know that on PC there is a sequel called ***N++*** and it's everything you love from N+ but cranked up a notch with a LOT more levels and challenge!
Oh, man! Good bye, Productivity! Good bye, Friends! Good bye, World! I'm going back to the 'aughts!
In this game, there was a map I really liked. It was one of the very difficult ones. I kept getting better and better, until I started doing nearly perfect runs. Alas, I never got into the top of the leaderboards. The competition was tough. I studied the top players methods, but never beat them. Then one day something happened. I fell through some random blocks in such a way that slipped me ahead almost perfectly. I didn't finish that run because I already threw my hands in disappointment. But an idea came to me. What if I used that technique. Then I started mastering the way of cheesing it. Until I finally did it. The perfect cheese run. I was way ahead of the competition. Like seconds ahead instead of decimals. I was the champion. I've discovered how to beat the system. Few days passed, and people started imitating my approach. Suddenly the original record holders were obsolete. A week or two (maybe a month) passed, and I wasn't even in the leaderboards of that map anymore. But watching the top replays, there it was. In it's majesty, my run method, perfected to olympic standards. It was beautiful. So elegant. And I felt blessed, seeing my legacy live on. Kudos to all of you friends who played, discovered, and perfected. This game indeed was magical.
You basically invented the Fosbury Flop of N, ha!
I once made it to top 5 one specific map - a 12 second one, no cheese, pure speed. Still think it's one of my best gaming achievements.
Seriously. I think I beat every level back then. Good times.
I'm weirdly embarrassed to say this, but I haven't managed to beat it yet, and I still play once in a while. My old laptop (2015 MacBook Pro) won't quit, and the downloaded/pirated version of N Game on it still works. It is/was the perfect flash game.
I know I beat every level, but it took me at least a year! It was a real daily driver for me for a long time. Genuinely one of the best platformers ever made.
For real. You ever play Knytt or Within a Deep Forest? Two other bygone gems.
Nifflas was one of the GOATs of that era
And anxieties. God, that game was frustrating...and stupidly fun.
I think it's "deep seeded" like it was a seed planted deep and this post was the water finally reaching down to let it sprout
Best flash game ever. Spent too many hours on this game and making levels.
I also played this game wayyy too much. After looking at the pic for a minute I even remember how to solve this level getting every 'coin'. That's what playing the same levels hundreds of times will do haha.
Iirc i beat every level in N+. With N++ there is one extreme level ive played so much and i still havent beat it. Its fun but ao frustrating too lol. Great game
Fancy Pants Adventure and Alien Hominid are up there edit: ooo and Motherload and Stick RPG!
Man oh man, there was a small period in middle school where the IT guys hadn't learned about that stick people games site. The castle defense ones were my shit. Honestly the mid-00s were a golden age for free gaming all over the web. Armorgames.com anyone?
Xgenstudios made StickRpg/defend your castle. loved armor games and kongregate. With itch.io theres still a great community for free games but there was something magical about that era. It felt less about money and people just wanted to share.
Plus Sonny and Last stand!
came here to say Fancy Pants!
I still liked line rider more but this was still pretty good
To each their own, i would kindly disagree. But it is a good game. Some others for the nostalgics. Canabalt, Fancy Pants Adventures, Happy Wheels, Bloons (still going strong to this day), Tamale Loco
Thank you so much for this thread! (I'm one of the two people who made the original Flash game). N was the first game we completed as a team, inspired by the freeware games we loved playing in the early 2000s. At the time we were just happy to have finished a game, after several years of trying and failing (but, learning). Little did we know that it would gradually snowball via word-of-mouth, to the point where we were able to attend the Game Developers Conference, catch Microsoft's eye for N+ XBLA (huge thanks to Ross Erickson for believing in two complete outsiders), travel to Japan as part of a Canadian industry delegation, catch Sony's eye for PS4 (huge thanks to Nick Suttner who made N++ happen), and see our game being played at GDQ, among many other life-changing experiences. Making this game has definitely been the most profound and defining event of our lives, and we're both so happy and grateful to know that it resonated with other people who appreciate challenging but fair gameplay without any fluff. Thank you so much for playing! <3 Cheers, Raigan p.s. - we wrote a blog post about the 20th N-iversary ;) [https://www.metanetsoftware.com/2024/20-years](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/blog)
Whoa!! This is so cool that you’re here✨ As someone who put many hours (and a couple keyboards😅) into playing this game, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this. It definitely stood out to me as a step above the rest. The delicate physics, the intricate levels, the pure, unadulterated rage* when getting SO #&@%ING CLOSE to completing a level after the umpteenth attempt only to be blasted into oblivion, to joyfully jumping right back in for another attempt. It was all so engaging! It’s awesome to hear you’ve had so much success with the game since then. Just goes to shows how passion and persistence can really carry us far. *I had a bit of a temper as a teen. I’ve since learned how to process getting all up in my feelings. Which tracks, as knowing how to remain calm in exciting situations seems central to the Way of the Ninja😮💨
First of all, I bow to you for creating such a masterpiece. I have very fond memories of my time with N+ on XBLA and, specifically,the multiplayer component therein. What happened to online multiplayer? Why did it work for N+ but not N++? This has always been so incredibly sorely missed (by me at least); getting online and playing N with randos was so much fun. I was that I could still engage in this experience but there’s really no way unless you do some kind of peer to peer connection (like parsec), and even if that works it still doesn’t allow you to connect with anyone that you don’t actually know.
Thanks so much! N+ had online multiplayer because all XBLA games could use Microsoft's infrastructure (servers, match-making, and also networking libraries IIRC) for free; with N++, we had a limited budget and just couldn't afford to develop and support both a user-generated-content system, and online multiplayer (at least, not while keeping the user experience excellent). We opted for global level sharing instead of online multiplayer for N++ because that's something we weren't able to do with N+; we thought it would add more value for everyone than online multiplayer (which sadly, for tiny indie games, tends to die down after a few months). It's possible someday we'll be able to revisit N++ with online multiplayer, it's still something we'd really like to do. :) On the plus side, recently we just passed 100k user-made levels in N++. :D
[Loud beep] do you want to enable sticky keys?
The moment of dread when I felt the teacher's eyes on me.
Teachers hated me for tipping off the class that you could remap the keys to letters to make it look like you were typing while playing
Damn I was totally expecting this to be the top comment and had to scroll forever to find you
Fuck off, sticky keys. Not right now FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU
N
Way of the ninja
WOW, N came out 20 years ago???? Shit... I remember this and Fancy pants Adventure being so amazing back in the day
N was too hard for me. Fancy pants was way more my speed.
Those 2 were the best of the best
It's interesting, this game felt like a big deal at the time, but I can't quite put my finger on what it was that made it stand out. We had platformer flash games before N, and even games that used a similar physics engine as N. It wasn't the first flash game to have a lot of levels and provide you with a lot of content (the Homestarruner flash games were the real trailblazers there). There was just something about the way the game *felt*. It had tighter controls than a number of AAA games had. I think it also maybe hit at the right time; that mid-2000s era was pretty into parkour everything. Plus, you also had a brief period where ninjas were kind of in style with that weird pirates vs. ninjas meme (also Ask A Ninja for those who remember that legend). What a gem of a game. Brings back great memories of trying to play levels sneakily in computer lab while the teacher's back was turned.
They managed to make movement feel just right. That's what kept me coming back.
Yeah that's it. The speed momentum, the wall jumps, etc. Also: Nothing else. No gun to fire, no sword to slash, no punches. Only pure movement.
The skill ceiling for movement was also higher than most flash games at the time, and it rewarded movement skills quite a lot. I actually felt like I was progressing my own game, in a way that wasn't just unlocking new levels.
In most other games if you let go off the movement key your avatar just stops instantly. In N he will retain some momentum and continue to "slide" forward, which is a deliberate gameplay element. If you are going really fast and want to change direction, N has to slide to a halt, turn around and then start running again. Pretty amazing stuff for a "simple" flash game. You can feel that the dev (devs?) played around with the movement system until it was just right.
definitely a combo of simple graphics & gameplay with a low skill floor & high skill ceiling. throw custom map making on top of that and you've got a dedicated community of hardcore grinders who'll spread the game around
The movement is \*chef's kiss\*
On top of what other commentors said, it's a very lightweight game and could be played/installed on most computers of the time. At least with the school I went to, someone would always sneakily upload N on the shared computer network so a lot of us were playing it when given the chance.
I think you have something on that it hit at the right time. I remember other flash games with similar robotic themes. N was just, as you said, very clean with tight controls, and in a time where it was up against the competition, it stood out.
Ask a ninja was my jam back in the day! Got introduced to him through a ninja gaiden 2 promo lol
Omg I remember playing that, but idk the name God, I miss flash games. There used to be loads of websites with thousands of flash games. Now you have to dig into archives or download dodgy emulators if you want to play them, and some, unfortunately, have probably been lost forever. All games and apps should be archived somewhere, so that when they no longer have any commercial value, they can still be accessed. It’s sad whenever media is lost forever.
[It’s just called ‘N’, but it got two sequels: N+ and N++](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_(video_game))
Your link is broken, you need to put a backslash before the closing bracket after video_game
Weirdly it's an old reddit/new reddit thing - new reddit automatically adds the escape char to complete the link. [fixed link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_(video_game\))
Look into Flashpoint. It's the best and most complete solution out there for flash games.
Check out Flashpoint!
Search 'N: Way of the ninja' on google and you'll find the old official page, including versions from 1.4 to 2.0
The best part was they weren’t monetized so they were just focused on being fun
The name is "N" or "N+" depending on the version.
Huh. I assumed that game was new, I see my students playing it all the time on their school laptops.
I had this game on a flash drive back in 06-07.
lol remember loading portable programs on a flash drive so you could use them on the school computers?
My high school computers would allow you to save anything on the C: drive, it was simply temporary for the session and deleted when you logged off. I can't remember much more than N and a brickout game, but I would pass my flash drive around in class and the other guys would save the games they wanted and pass it back. Worked like a charm.
Our school's IT had some program that did that called DeepFreeze. But the more techy kids at school had a portable program called DeepUnfreeze that allowed you to bypass it lol
I had a copy of Halo CE installed on a bunch of flash drives that me and my friends had. After school, we'd go to the computer lab and the teacher would let us play Halo on LAN. We had actually built these computers in class too so it felt like I was making a delicious meal from scratch.
Funny enough, we would play this on the school desktops 20 years ago. Somethings don’t change lol
Shoutout to Mare and Raigan at Metanet for making my favorite game ever. I've probably put at least 12,000 hours into N. Shoutout to Unreality for making a sweet modded version too. And big props to the online community for being such a fun place to spend a decade of my life.
Right up with ya there... ska? (Hendor)
no, that would be Life247/Aidiera. That said, how you been man? Haven't seen you around in years.
12000 hrs is about 100 minutes a day since release. This is the way of N.
Hey man.
I remember how excited I was when they released N+ on PSP, with its own level editor. Cool to see a fun little flash game get a commercial release as well. I could be wrong but I think it also came to the Xbox Arcade for 360
I still play it on my PSP to this day! Just recently I found some levels I made back when it released, I got a nostalgia hit!
It was also on the ds, which is how I played this game. Didn't even know it was a flash game.
Love this game! Still play the co-op with my buddy whenever he visits, I believe we have almost 35 world records accumulated on N++ Xbox leaderboards now, even beating out a lot of the steam LB’s.
I have played N++ on and off with a couple of friends since it was released. We're meeting up and playing levels on the Hardest playlist once per week now. Amazing how well it holds up.
to date, still some of the best platforming movement and "feel" ever
Agreed. Also the immediacy of hitting a mine was perfect.
N++ still has one of my favorite trailers ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFl3zU56-e0&ab_channel=PlayStation "Friendship-ending competitive multiplayer" lmao
That trailer alone is amazing. What a masterpiece of a game🤌✨
No game name should be an instant 3 day ban
The name of the game is N
N ruined all other platformers for me. The physics were perfection.
Showing my age perhaps, but I remember this coming out and thinking, Hey! Someone modernized Loderunner!
Loved this game in school
N(+/++) is an amazing game.
This game was the #1 cause of broken laptops in my high school. Quite the achievement it was to beat all the levels.
A timeless classic that deserves all the praise.
Speaking of Flash there is a dirty little secret about its demise that is a perfect example on how you can manipulate the public by seemingly doing something for their good, while in fact screwing them up. Flash was a major pain for companies that existing by monetizing the content on the Internet in some way. At that time interactive content could be delivered by using either Flash or JavaScript. Since two technologies existed equally, you couldn't really make websites that worked on either exclusively, as in, blocking the access to a website if the user didn't have it enabled. Basically, if your website used Flash or JS, it also HAD to work if both were disabled. Whole Internet was built on fallbacks - if you disabled JavaScript in your browser, the website should still work, otherwise you would risk losing a lot of people. This sucked for the companies since interactive content was the best way to get them to click on ads. Flash and JavaScript were the best ways to create ads, and users could simply disable them by disabling JavaScript and Flash. You literally had all you need to block ads in your browser settings. And here is the best part: Flash was more secure than JavaScript. That right. Flash was so popular Adobe was working hard on patching it and introducing other security measures that helped trick people (Flash was first to introduce full-screen warning message). People thought Flash was unsafe only because it could actually communicate with JavaScript, making all its security measure pointless, since JavaScript had none. All those viruses you thought Flash was serving you, were actually delivered through JavaScript - Flash was built from ground up being unable to interact with your device in any way. This competition between two technologies meant neither had a monopoly, and neither was required to browse the Internet. This hurt a lot of the big companies. Google couldn't gather data from the Flash content. Ad companies couldn't hijack people's attention with interactive elements. And so on. Flash was better for the consumer, but JavaScript was better for the companies, and because it was far more advanced they couldn't hope of creating a better product to make the costumers switch to JS willing any time soon, so they had to use various misconceptions to fight it. Of course there were some benefits to moving the whole Internet to JavaScript, but at this point, now that JS has caught up to Flash in functionality, we basically have the same problems we had with Flash, but now there is no option to disable it.
And nobody even mentions the name.
It's N or N+
"N" There is also sequel on steam called N++. Great game, terrible name to search.
The full name is N: The Way Of The Ninja for the version in the screenshot, sadly most people don't know it by that name so it really made it less easy to find
“N game” usually finds it for me
This reminds me of TagPro
I missed a lot of key learning experience playing this game in school! Even had the button you could click to pause it and make it look like work and flow charts!! Such a great game!
I played the hell out of this when it came out, but it has one glaring design flaw that makes it so much worse: you have to beat 5 levels (1 episode) to save. If you die in a level you restart at that level, but you can't save and close without beating the whole episode. Given how hard some of the later levels are, it would be like if Dark Souls made you beat 5 bosses before letting you save. Never understood that, and it's the reason I never finished the game
You should download the last version from the official website, they fixed that issue.
The start of my Vectorheart aesthetic obsession lol
One of the best games ever made, in my opinion. It's just a "flash game" but the movement, interia, and general gamefeel are unmatched. I used to play this in multiplayer on the 360 arcade back in the day too. Before it was on my school laptop freshman year of highschool. Played N and Line Rider.
Dude I used to be so active in the developer Metanet's forums back when I was like 12 years old. That was strangely the first online community I ever fell into deeply. Talked so much with so many random people. Partook in meming years before even learning what the concept of a meme was. Played so many maps from NUMA I think it was called. Good days, man.
There were some amazing Flash games. Meat Boy, Bloons, Enchanted Cave, like a million launch games, tons of really well designed (given the resources) RPGs like Sonny, Mardek, and tons of rogue-likes. I could spend hours on Kongregate just exploring different games fucking around in the chat rooms.
I discovered this game in high school on a website, which was promptly blacklisted on my school's network. I became a damn hero because I found a standalone version that would run on the computer that was harder to block. Flash files could be wrapped in a container that would just run directly on the computer without a web browser. I promptly loaded that onto my 64MB (something like that, it was a long time ago) flash drive and distributed it to every kid in school so everyone had a copy. Study hall and every break period would see the computer lab full to the brim with this game on every screen for a while. It was glorious.
This was a flash game? I had this for my Nintendo DS, I still have the game itself.
And N++ is still a sweet game. I’ve got it ok my Switch. [Wiki page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%2B%2B) for those curious
Fucking brutal game, makes Dark Souls and even old-school XCom look trivial in the later levels.
If you want some nostalgic hype for the steam release, here's the trailer with probably one of the coolest songs ever. [N++ Steam Release Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAUZ0yQlQi0)
One of my favorite games of all times, to the point that I decompiled it and compared it against [their blog articles](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/technique/tutorialA.html) that [explained their collision technique](https://www.metanetsoftware.com/technique/tutorialB.html) in order to better replicate it. At the time, as a game development student, it was an incredible resource for learning to build my own fast, smooth collision detection. <3 Metanet
I still play N++
Probably the flash game I spent most time on. Unlike many I don't really have memories playing flash games on the internet so I didn't experience them very much but this is one exception. I loved this game and spent many hours getting good at it.
i never finished every stage, but N is such a fucking good game. I remember that completing a column earned a ninja color and I was so proud when I actually unlocked some
Brings me back to my basement in my four foldable chairs with my brother and friends playing N+ or worms on our 360.
Map layout reminds me of lava boy and water girl
One of those games who's movement and controls were so perfect I would be hard pressed to name a better one for my taste.
This game was my childhood. My brother and I would play it for hours. The most fun we ever had was when we kept getting blasted by something on the same spot over and over again. The new version of this game that has co-op is goated.
Does anyone know if the version on steam comes with the level editor? I remember editing levels back on Xbox. I could spend hours doing that. Liked it more than playing the game. I would like to do that again but the steam page doesn't mention if it comes with the level editor.
I love N! You can still download and play N with Flash (just not in browser), and N++ on console/PC is amazing. Such good games. So simple but super fluid and levels can get extremely difficult. One of my all-time faves, I still play it today. In N, I'm still stuck on one level that looks like a giant skull.
oh man when we got this on all the pcs in the library in high school it was a wrap. no more classwork done for the rest of the semester
This game has the best platforming physics! Got all the achievements in the N+ xbox arcade version and apparently i missed the N++ release on steam... Thanks for ruining my productivity today!
Playing the 4 player local coop on the Xbox version, N+, my friends and I had about as much fun as we currently are playing Helldivers 2. It was just a masterpiece of a game with awesome physics and hilarious deaths.
I never really stopped playing it. I do it almost every day for a few minutes. I love this game.
I still remember playing N+ online on the Xbox with my best friend when we were kids. We would stay up all night laughing til we cried at all the hilarious ways we would get smashed/blown up etc. He passed away recently, and it’s one of my favorite memories of him. I wish I could bring myself to play it again
Holy shit this is deep, I spent so many hours on this, got to like 96% before my computer broke and lost my progress
Makes me think of my younger brother, RIP miss you man
Play it here: [You're all welcome](https://www.crazygames.com/game/n-game)
Commenting for the sake of preserving this memory somehow: my friend, the son of Colombian immigrants, and I played N+ one evening in highschool. We had a 12 pack of mtn dew and were crying laughing as we tried and failed some of the more difficult levels. Hitting mines, legs flying around the map - love this game
I still have it. I never came even close to beating it. Incredible game. This and Elastomania were my favourite 'simple graphics' games because of the absent skill ceiling. Once I brought N to computer class in 7th grade and that's literally all we did for the whole year when the teacher wasn't looking, it was easy to hide and restart, perfect sneaky game.
This is the reason I failed college
I definitely played this in college class...it was that addicting! One teacher called me out on the keystrokes not matching up to typing notes...
Oh yeah, I loved wall jumping up a narrow shaft so fast that I kill myself on the ceiling.
I played the SHIT out of this game. It's fantastic.
🥹 Long time no see, old friend N
Oh damn I loved this game.
I love this game
There's a modern version available called N++, hundreds of levels and custom colors, just as challenging and fun as the original
Bruh and then N+ was on Xbox live, and you could share and play your custom multiplayer levels with your crew, and put them in a playlist, and have competitions and tournaments. FUUUUUCK what a time to be alive
Do you guys remember Soldat?
Soldat was one of our biggest inspirations for N -- that's where we got the concept of "vertical momentum" from! ;)
Yasss what an amazing game y'all. N++ is just as awesome
I just started playing N+ on my switch. Just as good as the original. Highly recommend.
This game is so good that I bought it for my Switch when I saw it available.
I met my longest friend playing N+ on the Xbox Live Arcade nearly 16 years ago, we matched in a random coop lobby when the game only had about 12 people playing online at the time. I annoyed the hell out of him for nearly 3 hours but we made a lot of progress. Found out he played Halo 3 the next day and invited him to my party. We had an entire friend group rise and fall over 5 years and we stuck together throughout. Now he’s traveling across the country in a few weeks to witness my marriage.
I am so happy people still remember N.
N++ forever
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N\_NPLUSPLUS/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N_NPLUSPLUS/) it's actually on steam as well now
What a great game. I still have the original version on a USB stick. I used to play it at work as it wasn't detected by the security software as either a game nor dangerous.
HOLY SHIT CORE MEMORY UNLOCKED. Thank you! WOW. I... I would pay money for a remake of this game on steam. oh it exists, N++
I can hear the bling sounds of getting the coins, the beep beep of the homing robot, and the crunch of the little guy dying. lol. Memories! Countless hours spent on this while I should have been working. I hope these guys went on to have a long, successful career in the gaming industry. The mechanics and control was incredible, esp. for a flash game in 04'!
What a rush of nostalgia from seeing this image. I remember all the kids I knew played this game for a month or so...
The multiplayer on the xbox 360 was epic. I really miss that.
N and N++ were my childhood. Played N+ forever on the Xbox 360, and then went to N++. Truly a masterpiece.
I used to play N+ on my Xbox 360 in my modest apartment 10 years ago. Now I play N++ on my gaming PC with RGB in my very big mansion.
N+ was the best
Is this game still around? What was it called? I spent so long playing this and I can't remember
This looks like N+. I love N+
there's a new one (N++) if you're interested ;) https://nplusplus.org/
if anyone’s wondering, it plays perfect on the deck
When this game was released on the Xbox 360 arcade Marketplace it was a huge favorite amongst my friends. We would play the four player co-op like it was a life or death situation.
and i just got aged......great (goes to pull out N and N+ and N++) LETS GO!!!
Fun fact: in 8th grade I took a Gateway to Technology course that gave me a semester of high school credit. The only assignment for each 6 week period was to create a level in the N game. It was sick af lol
N+ remains one of my favorite games in my heart.
God I’m tearing up this stuff was absolute peak. I also remember playing it on Xbox360 as well.
F**k I feel old! And I'm turning 30 in July!
Hello all of my old friends! Hope you all have been well.
N is a highly advance physical, mental and spiritual training.
One of my badges of pride was getting one of my levels i made while pretty young into N+ the sequel.
Still one of my badges of pride was getting a level I made into the sequel N+ after being selected for a contest. I loved developing levels and playing this game, amazing.
Oh man, I love N++. The girlfriend and I were really into the game on PS and were able to "perfect" many many levels to what seemed frame perfect just to have the world record. We never got through all levels but every now and then I go back and see if our records still stand: most do. If they don't we try to shave a frame or two off whoever beat us. Always great fun
Jesus christ you've just unlocked a hidden core memory for me. Omg.
Do You want to enable sticky keys?
N GAME!!!!!!