Not bad, not bad at all!
I played the game a bit, my highest score is 29. Here are a couple of little comments...
The learning curve is quite steep. I suggest that you make it alot easier at first so new players can get the hang of it.
One way of doing so is to be more constistant with the angles of star throwing. Right now, our character can hit at 3 different angles but the star travel at 5 or 6 different angles. Sure, they can be countered with one of our angles but its confusing at first to figure out which stance is going to stop the star.
Another way to do it would be to have very little star throwing during the first 2 levels. Start with horizontal shooting and then slowly incorporate jumping attacks from the behalf of the enemies.
I'd make the ninjas more noticable between them so a player can know right away which are going to shoot or not. As the player progresses, you can toy with the player's mind by having ninjas who usualy shoot not shoot at all and make ninjas that didn't shoot, shoot one simple to avaid star, just to keep the player on the edge.
You can also make the first enemies "hit-able" right away when they land. Too many times I've seen a ninja crouch at almost sword range and I had to wait for it to slide through my blade. By positionning them closer at first, it'll be easier and you can gradually make them land a bit further per level.
Can we use the ninja star against the enemies? I haven't been able to ricochet one to see if they get killed. If not, make it so, it's always more staifying to kill someone with its own weapon
I dunno 'bout you guys but I didn't find blocking on the up arrow very intuitive. I'd make the character hit upward. Of course, I'd add ninjas that would try to land on the player or shooting down when leaping over.
Perhpas jumping could be interesting but that would have a major impact on what you already have so I'm not convinced about this idea.
The transition between levels isn't very clear. Without stopping the action, you could simply change the color of the ninjas or change the color of the background. You start at dawn and you play through all the day and if you survive, you keep on fighting the day afterward. I don't like the colors much, although they have a very nice retro feel to them, they aren't epic enough to me. Maybe I jsut don't plain like brown and orange
. Anywho, having mutliple times of day would fix the two problems, I believe.
Speaking of levels, you should allow player to select the starting level. You should also try to find an alternate game mode. Right now, you have a deathmatch like rule where you must kill as much as possible before you get killed. Perhaps you could have a time-based mode where you fight for a limited time or a kill-list mode where you ahve to eliminate X number of a certain type of ninjas.
The game is fun but it will get boring over time because of it's simplicity. You need to give more reasons to play to your player. Having different goals can almost give eternal life to the game with very small effort.
Anyway, it's a very fun game. Right now it's quite challenging but with a better learning curve, this is going to truly rock.
Well, that's my point of view!
Later!