Ninjatown is a creative take on the already vastly explored Tower Defense gameplay
With every passing month the impressive library of games available for the Nintendo DS keeps getting larger and more diversified, even though successful games of various genres can be found on the handheld it is pretty clear that no genre tops strategy titles when it comes to number and quality. The pair of screens allows for a big variety of information to be shown at once, which is something vital for strategic games, and the ease of using the touch screen also contributes to the development of titles of the genre, Ninjatown is just another one among all strategy games, but it stands out due to its originality and peculiar humor.
The world of Ninjatown is a colorful one and everything starts in the city that lends its name to the game. There a mysterious volcanic eruption is followed by the town being invaded by an army of devils whose leader, Mr. Demon has secret evil plans that involve one of the Ninja's best kept secrets. The usually peaceful Ninjas have all of a sudden to defend their beloved home from the attacks, and so an old master Ninja is summoned to the action, too bad he doesn't remember any of the techniques he learned on past adventures.
Ninjatown is basically a Tower Defense games. Each of the game's forty four levels has the same goal, build Ninja Huts surrounding a path through which enemies will attack, killing the enemies before they reach their goal is all you need to do, let ten of them go through your defenses and it will be game over for you and you will have to painfully watch Mr. Demon taking over your town and succeeding on his evil mission, if you succeed then you will receive a rank that goes from A to D and go to the next mission. You control the camera and browse through the landscape using either the D-pad or the stylus, but you will find the former to be much more effective. All other actions are performed on the touch screen with no need to press any other buttons.
In order to contain the enemy waves you will have plenty of options that will increase as the game goes by. There are a big variety of Ninja Huts to be placed, Wee Ninjas are your basic units and they are pretty much balanced while their stronger peers, Anti Ninjas are slower but can deal high damage to enemies. There are also Ninjas who like to attack from far away by using slingshots, fireballs – that will cause the enemies to slowly burn and lose health – and even snowballs – that will slow downs the little devils.
The variety of Ninjas goes on and on, knowing them and building the huts on the correct places are the key to success because as the game progresses stages get harder, more enemy waves may attack at once, and the path through which enemies will try to reach their target will become trickier, on some more advance stages you will even have to deal with two completely different paths that need to be defended.
To go along with the Ninjas you can also build modifier buildings that will alter the status of Ninjas from nearby huts, they can get more attack power, become faster, have a bigger range of attack, or even get more money as they defeat their foes. The enemies also come in different types, some of them are balanced, others are slow and strong, some fly, some are just there to distract your Ninjas while others just run straight through your defenses and need to be finished quick so they don't get to their goal.
Besides, the old Ninja Master can also perform special attacks when the power gauge is filled, these attacks use touch screen commands and even some microphone features. So even though the initial premise of the game may seem overly simple the developers were careful enough to add plenty of content so that you don't get tired of building huts and defending against enemy waves, in fact you will find yourself addicted to the game until the very last of Mr. Demon's attacks has been stopped.
The game differs from other tower defense games due to its amazing art direction, which makes the Ninjas look like merchandise you would see selling on one of those plush stores and the enemy look evil and cute at the same time. Everything is heavily themed from the Japanese songs to the modifier buildings which are very creative and have descriptions that will make you laugh for a few minutes. Such humorous content is also found on the dialogues that will precede each level and on the cartoon-like cutscenes that develop the game's crazy plot.
Ninjatown is a must-buy for those who love Nintendo DS strategy games even though you may already have ten of those in your collection. The game may seem too easy on its early stages but you will find yourself having some trouble defending the attacks as the game goes by. Its unique look may keep some gamers away at first, but it is actually very charming and enjoyable. After about six or eight hours of gameplay you will have the game finished, but trying to get A ranks on all the missions will entertain those who like to fully complete every game they play for some more hours.