Ninja –noun, plural -ja, -jas. (often initial capital letter) a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination.

This is the dictionary definition of a ninja, unfortunately you wont quite find anyone fitting that description in this game (apart from the stupid looking fella on the front cover), this is Ninja Reflex on the Wii and its as close to ninjas as i am to being a wealthy retired cheese farmer living in the Canadian mountains with my 3 goats Billy, Bob and Thornton.

Although you don’t see any Ninjas in the game, you do get the distinct feel that EA are trying to pull off a Japanese style game here, the art in the game is done very nicely using shades of brown and yellow to give the ancient Japan look, or as I like to call it ‘70s sofa beige’. It isn’t as artsy as say, Okami but it tries to follow in the same footsteps, even if its about 3 years behind.

The game has 4 character slots, you make your ninja trainee by choosing a combination of 2 preset words, that’s right, no keyboard for you! After you choose your two words (I chose Solid and Snake, I see Konami having a problem with that..) you are given a talking to by your ‘Sensei’ or the guy from Kill Bill with the long white beard. You then go through and play tutorials of each minigame plus the easiest level of each game, there are 6 in total each very different, but none of them are fantastic. You have;

• Catching Fish/Koi - this involves players aiming at the screen with the Wiimote, waiting for fish to pop out of the water and pressing A quickly to catch them, involves precision, slow movements and fast reaction times.

• Samurai Sword Fighting/Katana – defend against ‘Oni’ (Warriors basically) by moving the Wiimote to the side of the screen, blocking attacks and then slashing to kill them, works pretty well while standing up but sometimes fails at detecting Wiimote movement.

• Fly Catching/Hashi - ah reminds me of my youth and the Karate Kid movie. Using the Wiimote like a pair of chopsticks, catch flies and put them in a bowl, requires precision and a good amount of speed.

• Nun-Chuck/Nunchaku - moving the Wiimote in a figure 8, smash objects that are thrown at you with a flick while continuing a constant speed on movement, requires focus and timing.

• Fireflies/ Hotaru - when a firefly appears on screen, press A. that’s it. It gets a little harder in later games introducing different coloured fireflies. But still not overly fun, Requires speed and focus.

• Ninja Stars/Shuriken - paper cut outs of ninjas and what I can only assume are geisha, appear on screen. Using the Wiimote press A to lock on to your target and flick the Wiimote to throw a shuriken at them. Unfortunately the Wiimote doesn’t always sense the movement, requires.. urm, speed?

In each minigame, there are several variations which get harder and harder as the game goes on, its all pretty fun and after playing for a few hours I was actually enjoying some of the games while hating the others. The sword fighting was my favourite game, maybe because im a nut case and like samurai swords, but it was also the most exciting game out there. Fly catch was probably the most boring game even though the controls used were clever as it just wasn’t interesting. But the biggest disappointment was the Shuriken game which was a car wreck of a minigame. I have no problem failing a minigame because I’m rubbish, but when I lose it because the game just doesn’t work is a no no.

After you have successfully complete a variation on each of the 6 minigames you get to take a exam. Exams give you 3 random games with increased difficulty and if you pass you get a belt of a higher grade. With the belt you unlock more variations of games and new words to change your name with (thrilling huh?).

As the game progresses the minigames do get a little tired as its just doing the same thing, but a little different. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun, I did enjoy playing them for the most part, I can tell they just aren’t to everyone’s tastes unfortunately.Mutliplayer is featured in the game for up to four people but its little more than an after thought by EA, giving the players the ability to take turns on a minigame and see who has the highest score. its hardly as fun as some other Wii games out there, but there could be a small percentage out there who enjoy comparing scores with a friend, I’m just not one of them.

The games performs fairly for what it is and make no mistake about it. this is a minigame compilation. Don’t worry, we aren’t talking Carnival Games, but this isn’t far off from that level. Where the game tries to disguise what it is (I suppose that’s a bit like a ninja) and say it’s a Brain Training game, this game is more like Wii Play or (sorry to mention it again) Carnival Games.

Closing Comments
it’s a shame EA didn’t spend a little more time making more minigames, but the ones we have are fairly good even if they are a little short. for £30 of your money you don’t get a lot of content similar in the way of Wii Play, but that came with a £30 controller. For £30 of your money i would recommend Warioware: Smooth Moves over this for both single and multiplayer fun but if you see this game cheap, give it a try.

Score - 6.0

+ Good art direction
+ Meditation mode is a interesting addition
+ Uses the Wiimote well
+ Minigames are fun…

- But dont last long enough
- More character slots are needed
- £30 price point is too high.