While the review for the Wii version of Ninja Reflex sits proudly in the Wii review section the DS version hid like a ninja, waiting to pounce, until now! The portable version of Ninja Reflex is in essence a port of the Wii game with some minor adjustments for controls and graphics and other ninja like things.

For those who haven’t read the Wii review (maybe because you hate me, don’t have a Wii or weren’t interested in the game then), the game consists of small WarioWare style games with an Asian twist. The games are as follows:

Catching Fish/Koi - this involves players waiting for fish to pop out of the water and quickly catching them by touching them on the lower screen, involves precision, slow movements and fast reaction times.

Samurai Sword Fighting/Katana – defend against ‘Oni’ (Warriors basically) by moving the stylus to the side of the screen, blocking attacks and then slashing to kill them. probably my favourite mini-game.

Fly Catching/Hashi - similar to the fish mini-game, catch flies with the stylus and put them in a bowl, requires precision and a good amount of speed.

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

Fireflies/ Hotaru - when a firefly appears on screen, tap it with the stylus. 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 stylus, tap an enemy to lock on to them and then throw a shuriken at them. Gets a bit boring after a while.

While the games are by no means terrible, their ‘twist’ soon wears off to reveal 6 short mini-games which don’t really change the further you get on, apart from ramping up the difficulty level. All of the mini-games work perfectly well on the DS in fact I would say they work better than the Wii’s due to the easier input method, but they don’t have the same effect as Brain Training which pulls you back to play more everyday.

I would have liked to have seen some kind of integration between the Wii and the DS versions. For instance possibly taking over your character profile from one game to the other or how about an extra unlockable game for people who have both copies? It’s a shame EA missed this simple but effective trick for people who have both titles in a similar way Geometry Wars did.

While there is a multiplayer mode, it limits the players to the games Koi, Katana and Nunchuaku. While you only need one copy of the game and one DS (as its one at a time) this doesn’t make for an enjoyable experience and overall will bore those looking for a bit of handheld fun.

Closing Comments
While Ninja Reflex on the DS stays faithful to its Wii counterpart, it fails to have the same enjoy in the games which all feel too similar and makes them annoying and infuriating. While control is easier and more precise than the Wii version, the DS version just gets too tedious, too quickly. Out of the two versions I would recommend the Wii version over this, not because the Wii one is fantastic, just that it tried to do a little more with the control methods.

Score 5.5

+ Same content as the Wii version (nothing removed)
+ Works on the DS well
+ Good controls

- Same content as the Wii version (nothing added)
- No real advantage for having both copies
- mini-games are too similar and therefore get boring quickly