Ninjatown - DS

Last year, Pixeljunk Monsters introduced me to the Tower Defence genre, and Ninjatown shares many similarities with the PS3 title.

The basic aim is to stop an increasingly large and vicious procession of dark and evil forces from getting to the opposite side of your village.

To eliminate this demonic threat, the player has to place ninja huts across the map. From these homely quarters, ninja warriors will leap out and attack any aggressive foe that happens to be shuffling past.

The game eases you into the action thanks to a decent tutorial and a healthy dose of humour, but it doesn't take long before nastier enemies appear, which leads to frantic mass brawls.

Luckily, you have a decent selection of ninjas who each specialise in various forms of fighting. Melee ninjas like to get up close and personal with the invading demons, while ranged ninjas - such as the White Ninja - like to throw snowballs at the forces of hell, which freezes them, causing them to move slowly.

There's a fair amount of resource management, too, and decisions about what units to sell, and what ones to build plays heavily in the game. It's also important to upgrade your huts, which in turn increases your ninjas' effectiveness.

Graphics are functional rather than spectacular, but in a game such as this, it's all about the gameplay, and this is where Ninjatown excells. It's a wonderful little game that took me completely by surprise.

It's easy to play, but difficult to master and has been stuck in my DS for weeks. The DS also proves to be a fantastic platform for the game due to Ninjatown's bite-sized missions and well implemented touch screen controls.

Don't let this one pass you by, it's a cracker.

Images courtesy of SouthPeak