Cast back your mind, dear reader, and you may remember a lovely little article I wrote about the fabulous game for the Nintendo DS: Ninjatown (if you can’t remember, or haven’t read it, read it here). However to summarise for you; I loved it.

So imagine my surprise and delight when it was announced that a brand new Ninjatown game was coming to the App Store for all the tech whores in the world to play on their shiny new iPhones, iPod Touches and…Urgh! iPads (*vomit*). Fortunately for me, tech whores… I am also one of you! Not even a second after the game was available to download, I had downloaded it myself.

Ninjatown: Trees of Doom, to give it the full title, is an addictive little platforming, endurance test of a game similar to that of Canabalt (review here) and even more so; Doodle Jump (two more excellent games available from the App Store). This time around however you are not jumping off skyscrapers, or from platform to platform. You are in fact jumping from tree to tree (not a huge difference I know), bouncing of branches to launch yourself ever higher in order to get to the top of The Trees of Dooooooooom! (spooky right?).

But of course things are never simple. As you navigate Wee Ninja between trees in a never-ending scramble to reach the top there are all sorts of hazards in your path. These range from evil, purple ooze that leaks out of the trees and is now flowing down their trunks, to sides of the trees that have been sanded down so that poor Wee Ninja cannot grip onto them, leaving him sliding to his death. Of course, what is a platform endurance game without flying enemies that also obstruct your path? Thankfully Trees of Doom has them too. But here lies my first gripe with the game.

Everything is out to get you as you make your way up to the top

With such a colourful, vast array of characters in the Ninjatown universe at their disposal, there just isn’t enough variety in the enemies that you have to overcome. The early enemies are almost exclusively the same flying enemies, admittedly I’m rubbish at these types of games, so perhaps more varied, harder enemies lie ahead. If that’s the case, it’s just bad level design.

Whilst Ninjatown: Trees of Doom lacks variety within its cast of enemies, its collection of power-ups is incredibly diverse. Of course, they all generally have the same effect; getting you further up the tree faster and without harm, but each power up is different, charming and smacks of fun.

Collecting a cape turns you into Super Ninja and sends you flying, Superman style, higher and higher. Or you could just always hitch a ride on Mucho Macho Moustachio, a giant floating mustache you can employ to float up higher, avoiding potential obstacles on your way. The power-ups really help try and distil the enjoyment and fun of the Ninjatown universe in Trees of Doom.

Super Ninja takes to the skies!

As you would expect, graphically the game contains all the cutesy charm of the Ninjatown series. In fact I’d probably go as far to say that it’s one of the best looking games you’ll find in the App Store. The vibrant, lush looking 2D graphics are the perfect match for the high resolution iPod Touch and iPhone screens and bring the world of Ninjatown to life. Couple that with oriental inspired music and some quirky little sounds and you have a recipe for a great little game.

What would a game from the App Store be without social networking interaction? Well don’t worry because Ninjatown Trees of Doom is jam packed with Facebook and Twitter integrated goodness! So now not only can you check where you are within the world rankings via the game’s leaderboard functionality, but you can also irritate and annoy all your friends by spamming their Twitter and Facebook feeds with your latest scores.

Warning: Playing Ninjatown Trees of Doom may lead to a loss of friends

So that’s it. That’s about all I can say about Ninjatown Trees of Doom. It’s a solid, beautiful looking vertical platformer, set in a vibrant, brilliant world. It’s just a shame that Pickle King didn’t try something a little more original.

Don’t get me wrong, Trees of Doom is a fun little game, but I just can’t help but feel like something more than a fairly run of the mill, vertical platformer could’ve been made. Perhaps a return to the tower defence play of the original Ninjatown? After all the fabulous tower defence game, Plants vs Zombies (review here), proves that tower defence games do work on the iPod Touch and iPhone platforms. But Trees of Doom will do for now: proper Ninjatown sequel next please

Review Round Up

Graphics: 5/5 – Brilliant, lush graphics. Some of the best on the format.

Sound: 5/5 – The nice, relaxing music is a perfect fit for the casual style of the game. However the oriental tinge helps tie it together within the world.

Gameplay: 3/5 – Whilst not totally original, still solid and fun.

Longevity: 3/5 – Like a lot of these types of games, you’ll either keep coming back for more or simply give up after a few tries. It would be nice to see some updates, perhaps with new levels, but I’d rather have a full blown Ninjatown sequel please.

Overall: 3.5 Wee Ninjas out of 5 – A solid and fun, beautiful looking game, but it’s also a type of game that is seemingly done to death.

[starreview tpl=16]

Hello and welcome to the third edition of Thoroughly Underrated Games You Probably Should Play; a series of articles in which we attempt to transform you mindless drones into cultured, well informed gamers by introducing you to some under-appreciated gaming goodness. This time we bring to you a lovely little tower defence game (they are mostly rubbish but stick with this, this one is really good!) for the Nintendo DS. Take it away Crofterz.

Welcome to Ninjatown, a bright, vibrant, funny and criminally underrated game in the vastly huge DS catalogue. You may well accuse T.U.G.Y.P.S.P of being a series of childish and cutesy game reviews, but this is mainly due to the fact that games such as these are often overlooked because of their graphical style. Thus, they go unnoticed. Ninjatown is a prime example of this kind of ignorance. That, and I’m an absolute sucker for anything charming. God I’m such a big girl.

I don’t want to get all iRate on your asses but it’s this pig headed ignorance that really gets my goat. I once recall telling a friend about Viva Piñata (another excellent, cutesy game on the Xbox 360) and as I was explaining why the game was so great, he stopped me mid sentence and completely dismissed the idea of playing “a kids game”. So angry was I due to his utter closed mindedness that I then proceeded to garrotte him with his own shoelaces… well, at least I did in my imagination.

“What’s so special about Ninjatown”, I hear you cry? Well, I’m not entirely sure. Let’s be straight here; as a tower defence game, Ninjatown does nothing new. It doesn’t have any unique or brand new gameplay mechanics or do anything fantastically different from any other tower defence game, but what sets it apart from others in the genre is that this is a tower defence game done right.

I wish I'd written this caption

I’ll be frank. I hate tower defence games. Until Ninjatown, I had never played a tower defence game that I’d actually liked. They all seemed to be like RTS games (Real Time Strategy games) minus all the fun, skill and size. And whilst Ninjatown certainly doesn’t have the size or scale of an RTS, it is the first tower defence game I’ve played that is genuinely fun.

Whilst most in the genre seem to test your strategic skill and thus get too hard way too quickly, Ninjatown is far more relaxed, casual and focused on being fun. The difficulty curve isn’t particularly steep. However, that’s not to say the game is too easy. It does get hard, especially on the later levels, but the curve is so finely balanced that you never feel unprepared and don’t really notice the change in difficulty.

What makes this game so great is character. Everything from the brilliantly oddball cartoon graphics to the genuinely brilliant, humorous cut scenes in between levels. Ninjatown works on so many levels that not only can children have fun with it, but adults will also find this game an absolute joy.

You wouldn’t be wrong to presume with a name like Ninjatown, the game itself centres around a town of ninjas because… well, it does (I know, awesome right?!). What’s more, it’s under attack! The evil Mr. Demon and his hordes of evil, devil, monster, creature things are attempting to wreak havoc. As the ol’ Master Ninja, you are the only one who can protect the town… with the aid of various different ninja inspired, tower defence units of course.

There are Consultant Ninjas who inform you of your best plan of defence, Anti-Ninjas who aren’t as fast as regular ninja units but are far stronger and Sniper Ninjas, to name but a few of the different unit types at your disposal. Each ninja type is used to combat the many different enemy types. Ninja and Anti-Ninja units are capable of tackling the Wee Devil and slightly stronger Chubby Devil ground units whilst the Sniper Ninjas take out any aerial threat from the Winged Devils. Ninja huts are used to make your units stronger on the battlefield, it’s all pretty standard tower defence stuff.

The range of different unit and enemy types really add personality.

Ninjatown does however bring something a little bit new to the table. By completing levels not only do you unlock new ninja units and enemies but also ninja powers, which can be unleashed once the power meter is full (it builds up with every enemy you kill). My personal favourite is called “Get Off My Lawn!!!” which blows enemies off the screen by blowing into the DS’s mic. You may well look like an absolute idiot whilst doing this but you can only commend the developers for trying to put a few unique gameplay ideas into the formula.

As a platform, the Nintendo DS is absolutely perfect for tower defence games. The touch screen gives you an intuitive way to assemble, organise and strategically plan defence with just a touch of the screen. Thankfully Ninjatown uses the touch controls, so the controls are absolutely spot on and allow deployment and organisation of ninja units very quickly.

Sound is equally as expertly employed. Quirky and fun with an oriental twist is a winning mix. I would liked to have heard some funny sounds in the cut-scenes, such as the random waffling sounds of character dialogue in Henry Hatsworth and The Puzzling Adventure (the subject of T.U.G.Y.P.S.P episode 1, viewable here: http://rt.nu/dfjvc6) but that is only a minor gripe.

So there you have it, finally a good tower defence game… Such things are as rare as gold dust. Now, as your master I command you to go out and buy it! Go forth minions and I’ll see you next time for episode 4 of Thoroughly Underrated Games You Probably Should Play

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