GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Little Nightmares vs Mark of the Ninja

Little Nightmares is a horror platformer game from Tarsier Studios (2017) while Mark of the Ninja is a platformer puzzle game from Klei Entertainment.

Little Nightmares

2017 · Tarsier Studios

8.3GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

Mark of the Ninja

· Klei Entertainment

8.3GamingPickz Score

Not listed

Steam: Overwhelmingly Positive

What each one is

Steam files Little Nightmares under Horror and Platformer. In contrast, it files Mark of the Ninja under Platformer and Puzzle.

Little Nightmares

Take on the role of Six, a lone child lost in a massive metal vessel known as the Maw, surrounded by dangerous, distorted versions of adults. You’ll need to do your best to escape in one piece or your fate will be worse than you ever dared dream.

Description from its Steam store page

Mark of the Ninja

In Mark of the Ninja, you'll know what it is to truly be a ninja. You must be silent, agile and clever to outwit your opponents in a world of gorgeous scenery and flowing animation. Marked with cursed tattoos giving you heightened senses, every situation presents you with options.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Little NightmaresMark of the Ninja
GamingPickz Score8.3/108.3/10
Steam ratingOverwhelmingly Positive (95%, 116,529)Overwhelmingly Positive (97%, 15,877)
Critic aggregate81/10091/100
Price$19.99Not listed
Install size10 GB
Steam Deckverifiedverified
Released2017
DeveloperTarsier StudiosKlei Entertainment

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Little Nightmares vs Mark of the Ninja, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Little NightmaresHorror platformer game
    Mark of the NinjaPlatformer puzzle game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Little NightmaresHorror, Atmospheric, Adventure
    Mark of the NinjaStealth, Platformer, Ninja

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Little NightmaresScore 8.3 · 95% on Steam · 81 critic
    Mark of the NinjaScore 8.3 · 97% on Steam · 91 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Little Nightmares116,529 reviews · 9 add-ons · 10 GB
    Mark of the Ninja15,877 reviews

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Little Nightmares$19.99
    Mark of the NinjaNot listed

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Little NightmaresVerified
    Mark of the NinjaVerified

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Across the rounds a number can settle, it is level at 0 each. Which one is "better" is the part no figure decides, so we leave it to what you want from the two.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Little Nightmares and Mark of the Ninja on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Little Nightmares (116,529 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

AtmosphericAdventureSingleplayerDarkPuzzleIndieStory RichStealth

Where they differ

Little Nightmares is also

HorrorPuzzle-PlatformerPsychological HorrorGreat Soundtrack2.5DThird Person

Mark of the Ninja is also

Ninja2DSide ScrollerAssassinControllerReplay Value

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Little Nightmares is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Mark of the Ninja is relaxed, easy to pick up.

System requirements, side by side

Little NightmaresMark of the Ninja
Minimum GPUNvidia GTX 460NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800 GT
Minimum CPUIntel CPU Core i3AMD Phenom 9750
Minimum RAM4 GB2 GB
Install size10 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Little Nightmares · Mark of the Ninja.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Little Nightmares and 1 for Mark of the Ninja. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Little Nightmares and Mark of the Ninja in scope?

Little Nightmares has drawn 116,529 Steam reviews, ships 9 add-ons and installs in 10 GB. Mark of the Ninja has drawn 15,877 Steam reviews.

Is Little Nightmares or Mark of the Ninja better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Little Nightmares rates higher (8.3 to 8.3). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Little Nightmares or Mark of the Ninja?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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