Ninja Reflex review

Like any good party game, Ninja Reflex is instantly accessible. If you can wave the controller and push a button, you can handle anything these minigames throw at you. The tongue-in-cheek presentation is totally charming too: from the tranquil 3D environments and the sensei that spouts hokey eastern wisdom, to the clangs and shouts that erupt from the controller's speaker as you frantically wave it around.

Occasionally, a movement won't register in the sword and nunchuck minigames, causing you to get pegged in the face. It's annoying when it happens, but the scoring tends to be forgiving and the controls will otherwise do your bidding a solid ninety-five percent of the time.

The main thing to keep in mind is that this is one of those social games, like Wii Sports, that relies on the interplay between players to provide the X factor that the minigames lack. So, you'll have loads of fun playing Ninja Reflex with your friends, but you'll be bored stiff when you play it by yourself. It doesn't help that the payoff for playing through the single player mode is simply unlocking tougher variations of the same minigames.

That leads into the one big complaint we have with Ninja Reflex. There are only six minigames included on the disc. Six. Granted, Wii Sports and Wii Play don't cram 'em in either, and everybody loves those, but $40 for six minigames still feels like a rip.

Mar 11, 2008