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I’ll admit that when I first caught a glimpse of Mexican Ninja, I was a bit skeptical. A roguelike beat-’em-up set in a weird hybrid new world known as Nuevo-Tokyo that blends Mexican and Japanese aesthetics? That premise either sounded like a wildly ambitious gimmick that’d fail in every way or something truly special.
Mexican Ninja is far more than your typical side-scrolling brawler and it’s a messy, loud, wildly-cool experience that wears its heart on its sleeve. The setting is one of the first things that stood out to me. Nuevo-Tokyo has this perfectly realized garish vibe where elements of Mexican culture are blended in with stereotypical Japanese elements.
You’ve got mariachi guitars and sombreros colliding with anime style and samurai aesthetics. The neon-soaked dystopian city is ruled by the Narkuza clan, a demonic fusion of Narcos and Yakuza, and you are the titular Mexican Ninja who seeks to bring them to justice.
The narrative themes aren’t just about a simple revenge story either. It feels like you’re leading some kind of guerrilla resistance where you use your wits and the blade to bring down an entire corrupt empire built on betrayal, murder, and unchecked power.
It’s how the game plays that made me a fan of Mexican Ninja. It’s basically a side-scrolling beat-’em-up at its core, but it doesn’t play like an old brawler with stiff animations or a lack of player movement. Character movement is fluid and responsive, designed with showy mobility in mind.
The action encourages you to link combos and try out your movesets, instead of just hammering a few buttons. It’s not a button masher, it’s a rhythm, timing and creativity game. Enemies also aren’t just standing around taking it. They swarm, flank, and attack in ways that demand your attention. You can be air-juggling a grunt, only to be forced to dodge a shotgun blast or flip over a sword swipe a second later.
There’s a constant ebb and flow to fights, as you toggle back and forth between offense and defense in a split second. It keeps encounters from ever getting stale, which is something many beat-’em-ups struggle to maintain.
The roguelike elements bring an additional layer of hook. Unlocking new upgrades and abilities for the Way of the Donkey each run makes you feel like you’re unlocking new ways to approach combat. Some focus on strength, letting you trade blows and pound through foes with great impact. Others are about speed, letting you move like a blur of chainsaws and slicing before enemies can react.
The skill tree, known as the Way of the Donkey - allows you to customize your playstyle in different runs. Do you want to be an all-out powerhouse, a quick-reflex ninja, or use spiritual abilities tied to the Mexican-Japanese spirits that power your ninja magic? Experimentation and playing around with different builds gives the game that “just one more run” quality that a good roguelike needs.
Then you have the spiritual abilities, flashy jutsus imbued with all of that Mexican-meets-ninja spirit we mentioned. They’re not just for show, either. Dropping a spiritual on a boss at just the right moment is the sort of move that can completely reverse the momentum of a fight. Bosses, too, look like they’ll up the ante even further. They look like they’ll be more than just damage sponges, but actual showcases for the mechanics.
They will force you to adapt, learn their attack patterns, and put your build to the test, and in a roguelike like this, that sort of design is key. Mexican Ninja seems to have put some serious thought into making those encounters memorable without being just frustrating to deal with.
Combos are super satisfying to pull off in chains and keeping multiple enemies in the air never seems to get old. There’s a good sense of risk-reward with waiting for the right moment to strike, using your environment to your advantage, or using those flashy “ninja jutsus” that clear the room in a few seconds flat. It also seems like the runs will have great replayability.
And in the end, if you like twitchy action, roguelike nonsense, and games that don't take themselves seriously, then Mexican Ninja could be a hidden gem when it releases in early 2026.
