The Way of the Squirrel Assassin is a treacherous path, indeed. For starters, there isn’t an actual path. In this mission you must travel to the forest canopy a mile above you. The only way to reach your victim is to jump from falling leaf to falling leaf, but there will be power-ups along the way to help you out. Success means achieving the greatest height. Failure will send you crashing to the forest floor below.
Objective
In Ninja Squirrel, you’re primary focus is reaching the top of a tree, so you can assassinate your target, by means of bouncing off leaves and other objects. Using the mouse, you left click once to begin the action. Once you do this, you must bounce from object to object, using the mouse button to steer left or right. The controls are very simple, yet the gameplay is very addictive.
Powerups in Game
Below are all of the possible things that can start falling from the tree. You can bounce an all of them to be propelled upwards, but most of a special bonues or penalty associated with them.
This is your generic leaf, and can be used to bounce up on. These are the most common and award 10 points.
This leaf has the same bounce up effect of the first one, but it awards extra points.
This leaf awards 15 points and has the same bounce up as the regular leaf, but it causes more leaves to begin falling, increasing your chances of climbing further up the tree.
This delicious treat allows you to propel yourself up incredibly quickly for a short period of time (by means of farting, how else!).
This has the same bounce up effect as a regular leaf, though it grants you a parachute. Next time you begin to fall, it will be slowed for a brief amount of time.
If your lucky enough to land on this, it will grant you wings to fly up for a brief period. If you touch another falling object, however, the wings will disappear.- [Send us a Sooty the Cat Image] If you run into this crazy cat, he’ll mess up your path. Hope you can find another leaf to break that fall!
Achievements
Ninja Squirrel contains three regular achievements and two secret achievements. You can find full information at our Achievement Database.
- Faceplant – Fall over one hundred meters in Ninja Squirrel – 5 points
- The 1609m High Club – Reach the top of the tree while playing Ninja Squirrel – 15 points
- Neither Up Nor Down - Get half way to the top of the tree in Ninja Squirrel (roughly 804 meters). – 5 points
- The Musical Fruit - While playing Ninja Squirrel, successfully collect a tin of beans, consume said beans, and then use the gaseous by-products of digestion to propel yourself upwards. – 5 points
- In Ur Game Skarin Ur Skwirlz - Bounce on Sooty the cat in Ninja Squirrel and make a safe landing on a leaf after doing so. – 10 points
Secrets
If you click on the pupil of the squirrel’s left eye at the title screen, Ollie (the game’s designer) will pop up from behind some leaves.
Tips/Tricks
Below are the tips and tricks we have compiled from the community for you to enjoy. Most are from the player Sarine Bakkal, who is the elitest squirrel tree climber there is.
- The best thing to keep in mind is that the squirrel can only reach the 2nd leaf above the one he bounces on. He can almost, but not quite, get to the third leaf.
- The can of beans can be pretty helpful for a nice height boost; just keep an eye out for where the leaves above you are, and go ahead and hit them as you are flying through. It won’t slow you down, but you’ll have a better feel for where to land once you stop.
- The wings are a great help, as long as you avoid leaves. After you pass 4 or 5 leaves, head for leaf #6 or 7, so you control when you stop flying rather than suddenly finding wingless yourself plummeting to the ground.
- Once you get to about 800m (or maybe 1000m, can’t remember…. you may wish to check with other top scorers), the background changes. It gets brighter, since now you’re out of the dense lower foliage. It can be difficult to see the leaves– the greens of the background are closer to the green of the leaves, and the spaces between the trees are yellow. Don’t freak out! You just have to prepare yourself to the shift.
- If you have an older/slower computer, the dynamic changes entirely. It’s not strictly easier, but some might find it so. The bonuses don’t help all that much, because you move more slowly; however, graphics get choppier and it might skip a few frames here and there. You have a bit more time to think before acting– half a second instead of a split second– but you have to act swiftly. Your worst enemy is indecision.
- Aim your mouse for the center of the leaf you’re going for. As much as possible, don’t get thrown off by the graphic of the squirrel. It may look like you’re going to miss, and it might spaz a bit (twitching left and right), but your mouse placement is what’s important.
- Take the center leaves if you have a choice. Don’t get yourself stuck on the right or left end if you have a choice, because you might get one far from that end that, if you hesitate at all, you’ll miss.
- Try to skip leaves as often as is safe; that way, if you fall you have the chance to hit upon a leaf you left untouched. Every other leaf is what you should go for. If you’re not comfortable doing that, every leaf is fine– just make sure that you can make it to the next leaf. For example: you are bouncing up, and there’s a leaf at about the middle of the screen. The next leaf is at the left edge, and the 2nd one up is just to the right of center. Go for that one. That way, if the next leaf is at the middle/right, you can get to it easily, and if it’s at the left, you can go left to it; if you miss it, you’ll hit the lower one you skipped, and make it to that 3rd leaf.
- One is that, if you get the parachute, pretend you don’t have it. Don’t let having it change where you aim. It might mean waiting an extra second as you fall onto the leaf you aimed for, but it’s better than over-estimating its effect.
- Second, you really can go farther than half a dozen leaves with the wings on a faster computer. Again, better to under-estimate than over-estimate.
- Third, keep an eye at the top of the screen. Glance occasionally at the location of your mouse to make sure you’re not drifting out of the window, but keep an eye on what’s coming.
- A regular mouse is the best thing to use. Trackballs and touch-pads make things much more difficult.
- Finally, I find it easiest to scroll down so that the NS window is near the top of my screen. Experiment a little, and see what window placement works best for you.
Game Play Screenies
