Ninja X-Shot Blasters Review

Thanks to our good friends at Zuru, we were able to take the Ninja X-Shot blasters for a spin and provide our view on the toys. While the blaster game has largely been dominated by NERF, other manufacturers have received the short end of the stick in terms of public perception, most notably that “only NERF blasters are good.” For the most part, that’s a statement I’ve probably agreed with myself over the years, but the second we started putting the Ninja X-Shot blasters through their paces, I was pleasantly – and shockingly – impressed!

We took a look at three different blasters from X-Shot, the No Rez, Turbo Strike, and Justice. Let’s take a deeper dive into each of these outstanding blasters.

No Rez

While not the stealth sized blasters – single barrel blasters with a pull pack launcher – the No Rez is just a step above that. The blaster has the ability to load 4 foam darts into the firing chamber, which is a revolving drum. Each time you pull back on the launcher, the barrel spins loading a dart into firing position. After you pull the trigger, that dart goes and you’ll need to pull the launcher back again. Rinse and repeat.

The No Rez comes with 8 foam darts and a Ninja branded dog tag. The partnership with Ninja is brilliant here. Ninja might be one of the most respected gamers on the planet right now, and while money is nice, he carries a sense of pride in his work that makes him only endorse quality products. And while just a basic gun, the X-Shot No Rez is a quality product.

Turbo Strike

If you are looking to upgrade to a more sophisticated blaster, the X-Shot Turbo Strike might just be the fun for you. The large rotating drum holds enough foam darts to take down an entire swat team, and while loading them one-by-one into the drum can be a pain, the firing power is tremendous.

The Turbo Stroke also comes with a Ninja branded dog tag, but also includes a whopping 48 foam darts, and three target cans that can be used to test your blaster and improve your accuracy. And while the Turbo Strike isn’t the most accurate dart blaster I’ve ever used, it sure is powerful. When pulling back on the slider, you will spin the barrel and load your next dart for firing. And when you pull that trigger, the force is outstanding!

If you half hold down the trigger, you can force the Turbo Strike to rapid fire darts by quickly pulling back and forth on the slider. While I’m not sure the gun is suppose to do this – as it does make a weird noise as you hear the internal spring working overtime – it’s a cool feature if so. You can unload 20+ darts in just a few seconds, which came in handy when playing with the blasters outside with others!

Justice

The most impressive of the three X-Shot blasters is the X-Shot Justice. While also being the largest gun in the X-Shot family, it’s also the most versatile, as it comes with a number of handy attachments which X-Shot claims can create over 1000 different gun combinations. Everything form extended barrels, to a tripod, to a number of scopes, are included in this set, and you can build some pretty sweet blasters!

Regardless of how you put the X-Shot Justice together, the loading mechanism remains the same. The blaster comes with 48 darts, 10 of which can be loaded into a dart clip, with another 10 going into a spare dart clip for quick reloading. The clips are then slid into the side of the gun, and priming the blaster with the slider will move the clip from left to right, loading a dart into the firing chamber as it goes. After pulling the trigger and priming the blaster, the clip will move again, loading the next dart.

Although I wasn’t able to fire the Justice as fast as I could the Turbo Strike, it was still my favorite weapon in the bunch. While many of the attachments are just for show – let’s face it folks, those scopes never work – others are actually really valuable, the best being the included stand! Like with any real sniper rifle, having a steady hand is paramount to making a good shot. Thankfully, X-Shot has included a stand that can slide onto the rails at the front of the blaster, allowing you to set the front end on a stable service, while maneuvering the back of the blaster to get the perfect shot.

It is easily one of the best features I’ve ever had in a foam dart blaster, and will be looking for all my future long-range blasters to have this feature, X-Shot branded or not!

The X-Shot blasters are easily on par with Nerf when it comes to overall build quality, dart quality, and ease of use. They shoot just as good as NERF, the feel just as good as NERF, and have the backing of one of the Internet’s most famous celebrities. If you are looking to purchase new foam dart blasters this holiday season, we highly recommend X-Shot from Zuru!