Ninja Town

Nintendo DS
Honor, stealth & cookies above all else... 
I've used this column before to highlight the hard time ninjas get – It's tough work being a super assassin and the pay isn't good. This time however, the Ninjas are getting hassled on their home turf, and most likely at the weekend too. There's no rest for the wicked ninjutsu skills it would seem, and it just isn't fair.
Brought to you by the people behind Shawnimals (purveyors of fine plushies and toys), Ninja Town is in its most basic sense, a re-creation of the classic Tower Defence game. 
Originally seen as a Warcraft III mod, and recently, addictively, as a kajillion flash games like Desktop Tower Defense and also Pixel Junk: Monsters on the PS3, the idea is to destroy wave after wave of oppressive enemies wandering through your base/town/table, by building towers that can shoot, or in this case, houses that generate ninjas. Stopping the enemy from reaching the exit point is goal to the game. How it is done, is where your own strategies come into play.
Translating the Tower Defense genre to a cute, pastel coloured world of ninjas obsessed by cookies works a charm, infusing the gameplay with far more character than is usual for the abstract strategy genre.
Differing towers are replaced by differing ninjas – some are strong, some can shoot, some can freeze, all have different cookie costs. Managing these costs, and the network of upgradable houses throughout the town is key to surviving, especially when the enemies become more capable of fighting back.
The DS' touchscreen works a treat for games of this ilk, ensuring quick and intuitive controls, and there are unique DS style powers like being able to blow into the microphone to knock enemies back, in the guise of an overseeing Master Ninja.
Admittedly, the game starts off at quite a sedentary pace, probably aimed at easing in those new to the genre, but its worth sticking with as the gameplay gets more rewarding (unfortunately not through real cookies) and those ninjas could really do with some help for a change.
7.5/10