I can sum up Plain Sight in three words: suicidal ninja robots. Given that — and the fact I have a love of ninjas — I can tell you this title intrigued me from the get-go. After I setup a username and password, I jumped into the list of games for the multiplayer-only shindig. Robot ninja decimation would soon commence.

The first thing that caught me off guard, but I thought was fantastic, was the music — a cool soft drum beat almost beatnik in style that put the idea of robot ninjas into a bit of absurdity. Not that it needed any help, I don’t think. Given the premise mixed with the sudden music, I wasn’t quite sure what oddity I was in store for.

An oddity, I soon discovered, that was a lot of fun. I tried the tutorial to know what the heck was going on and caught on pretty quick. Basically, you’re a robot ninja hellbent on destroying your fellow robot ninja in various game modes from capture the flag to deathmatch, the “usual” fare. Though, what’s different — OK one thing that is — about Plain Sight is the need to kill yourself to kill your enemies to get points.

Using the keyboard to move and the mouse buttons to aim and charge your rush attack, you’ll target enemies and dash at them. If you successfully kill them without getting repelled or killed, you’ll get energy. Armed with energy — preferably lots of it with various kills under your synthetic metal belt — you’ll press the E key (if you’re using default controls) and blow yourself to kingdom come.

Granted, it’s better to blow yourself up with a bunch of opponents targeted on you so they dash madly into the glorious shiny oblivion that was you five seconds ago. That way, you’ll get points from exploding and catching enemies in said blast of fiery death.

Those are the rules for deathmatch for the most part: kill folks, blow up, plan on getting robot ninjas caught in your death. There are other game modes I toyed around with, but I found deathmatch was the most popular and fast-paced fun. Sure, king of the hill and capturing can be great, but I found even with a slew of bots, getting down and dirty with attacking and exploding brought a smile to my face.

Given all this robo-mayhem, I have to say I really enjoyed Plain Sight both after I’d made a huge score with a giant explosion or got narrowly obliterated by a more skilled player. Unfortunately, since it’s a multiplayer-only game, I either had to play with bots or look for/create games to play. I’m used to having to create multiplayer games, but more people needed to get on when I was playing, darn it; there were times the lobby was empty.

Plain Sight a fun and fantastic game that needs more players to join the swift fray of clashing robot katanas in several weird levels. Weird levels that seem to be more about different shapes to jump around and paths to traverse to score the perfect kill than ginormous and gargantuan detail.

There aren’t a gigantic bunch of crazy textures to have to load, which is nice since that makes the game run quick so I can time my strike just right followed by a righteous destructive blast. However, that’s not to say Plain Sight looks bad. The art style is clean and cartoony without going nuts and overboard.

I really liked the simplicity of it all. It took very little time to learn how to get through levels and battle opponents, but it did take some time not to get my butt whooped by experienced folks. Plus, bots (the nonhuman-controlled ninja kind) can be adjusted to provide more of a challenge, so you can better yourself and be more deadly against human enemies.

The one thing I do wish were more present in Plain Sight is music. Sure, I loved the different sort of choice for the main menu, but there wasn’t really any music during the actual battling. I’d like to have seen that kooky soundtrack (I feel justified in saying kooky, remember “suicidal ninja robots”) extended to the levels so I can hear, I don’t know, a jazzy sax solo as I blow up seven other robots.

I suppose, even though I can tell people Plain Sight is all about suicidal ninja robots, those three words don’t mention the clean look, the quick pace and the sheer fun of decimating other ninja robots with the stars shimmering overhead. Go get your robot katanas sharpened so more folks will hop on the servers, so more players are ready to die for robotic ninja honor, and so I can attempt to master the exact moment to raise my score and blow up any in my wake. Or, ya know, so you can have a load of fun in a unique playing experience.