GungHo Online Entertainment first launched Ninjala in the middle of 2020 on the Nintendo Switch, and since then, the free-to-play title has reached over seven million downloads - no easy feat for a new IP. The action title pits players against one another as they use their ninja gum powers and special weapons in a variety of methods. While it's only been about a year that the game has been out, GungHo has managed to keep Ninjala fans engaged by collaborating with other properties, like video game franchises, and even Japanese music artist Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
Gamers have been treated to lots of new content, and the latest collaboration effort was based around Monster Hunter, specifically Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom's latest entry in the series. For players looking forward to future events, it turns out that Ninjala will not only be getting more collaborations, but GungHo would like to aim for anime or manga going forward. In an interview with Game Rant, GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita spoke about the latest Ninjala event collaboration, and when asked about what kinds of collaborations would come next, he brought up anime.
Both manga and anime have skyrocketed in terms of sheer popularity and viewership/readership in recent years, due to the high number of quality series and streaming services dedicated to anime. Not to mention that streaming services like Netflix have exclusively premiered anime of their own, like Castlevania and Devilman Crybaby. It only makes sense for a Japanese game company to want to collaborate with other types of IP that come from Japan, and Morishita said anime and manga collabs could be on their way:
"Up until now, we’ve mostly been collaborating with other games, but we hope to collaborate with other types of IPs such as anime and manga."
GungHo has already featured other properties in Ninjala like Sonic the Hedgehog and Puzzle and Dragons, and with its other mobile game Teppen the company has ties with Capcom and its franchises as well. However, it'll be interesting to see which other IPs GungHo ends up partnering up with on future Ninjala collabs. As of 2021, anime like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen have all reigned supreme in the anime conversation, and GungHo teaming up with any of those would definitely draw more attention to Ninjala, and maybe even bring in a different audience.
Being that Ninjala is an action game and those anime mentioned previously are all very action-heavy, it's easy to see the potential of the collaborations. There could be new weapon styles based around the swords used in Demon Slayer or costumes themed around the Scouts from AoT. There are many possibilities with Ninjala when it comes to these collaborations, but fans will just have to wait and see what happens in the near future.
Ninjala is currently in its fifth season and is planned to come to an end on June 16, 2021. This season brings in new stylish costumes, soccer battles, loot battles, and a festival to wrap things all up at the end.
Ninjala is now available for the Nintendo Switch as a free-to-play title.