The premise seems fair - have the developers do some in-field research across China, Japan, Singapore, and Vietnam to develop authenticity and then give the gamer a variety of reflex-based challenges, a belt-based levelling-up system, and round it off with some good old-fashioned meditation and multiplayer. What could possibly go wrong? Not much, as long as your definition of authenticity involves wooden sandals on tatami mats, your definition of a minigame involves pushing a button in response to a blinking light a few hundred times, and your definition of 'variety' is six.
Congratulations! You've now played longer than our entire test audience!
The six games on offer are Shuriken, Hotaru, Hashi, Koi, Nunchaku, and Katana. They throw in a little variation to mix things up across the six 'levels' within each minigame, such as having to kill as many ninjas with your shuriken as possible compared to killing three of the same coloured ninjas, but in practice, it feels like a throwback to when games on the Atari 2600 would feature '26 games' on the single cartridge, each featuring a slight variation in rules or mechanics from the core game. Being able to play Space Invaders with twice the shot speed, no protective shields, half the movement speed, or any combination of the above wasn't '8 games' back then, and it sure isn't now.
Shuriken sees you, the aspiring Ninja, locking onto a series of cardboard ninja-cutouts with the Wii remote by pointing and selecting with the B button, then throwing a shuriken by flicking the remote. Unfortunately, the on-rails part of the exercise doesn't change from the three or four different views of the same shrine, and at its hardest, it's still simpler than anything Umbrella Chronicles has to offer. Hotaru, in what must have taken whole seconds to design, involves pressing the A button when a firefly appears on-screen. Thirty or so times each round, not including the other five variations. For each belt. Of which there are eleven.
Hashi pulls unashamedly from The Karate Kid by getting you to grab and deposit flies into bowls using the A and B buttons like a set of chopsticks. Koi, one of the more satisfying minigames, involves tracking a fish with the Wii remote until it comes to the surface, then quickly grabbing it for points using the A and B buttons together.
Watch your rice - those aren't raisins ...
Nunchaku involves swinging the Wii remote minus nunchuk in a figure eight pattern, then flicking it to destroy various items being thrown at you by your loving sensai. Or, it would, if the controls weren't even less responsive than the endlessly amusing various hijinks offered by Wii Sports boxing, that is. And, wrapping up the collection is Katana, a simplistic 'Simon says' approach to sword fighting which sees the player move their Wii remote to the left, right, or hold it horizontally to block an attack, then flick it to deliver a death-blow.
Finish enough of these minigames and the player gets an opportunity to take a test to advance to the next belt level. Of course, the test simply features three minigames selected at random, so expect many more fireflies before you're finished. After all of this activity, one might need a quick cool-down to achieve enlightenment or, as suggested by the game, pass the next belt test. Luckily, the game offers a 'guided meditation mode' to help re-balance your zen. In what basically amounts to a screen-saver with voiceover, a heavily 'Engrishfied' sensai steps you through a single exercise in using meditation to achieve true relaxation. Hope you like his single walkthrough, because that's all you're getting.
Should one not have clicked enough fireflies to satisfy their deeper firefly clicking obsession, the game also features a number of multiplayer modes, all of which recycle the same minigames as the single-player mode. Only three of the games actually offer simultaneous play, with the other three using a multi-remote hotseat-based approach.
I think this is called negative reinforcement ...
The real tragedy is that the potential for a great game is in there, screaming to get out. The art design is actually well above average, and apart from the very painful Mr Miyagi impressions, the audio's actually very good. Brain Training, Picross DS, and Wii Fit have shown that a well-inclined difficulty curve, a journaling system to keep track of your development, and the gradual unlocking of new content can make even a relatively small set of minigames that much more enjoyable. In a very hackneyed sense for these types of games, the joy is in the journey, not the destination. Honestly now - who really enjoys doing arithmetic in Brain Training?
Unfortunately, the journaling system in Ninja Reflex is underdeveloped, the challenge plateaus far too early, you see everything the game has to offer within an hour or so, and there's just not enough variety within the minigames to encourage return visits. Without that feeling of progressive development and improvement, the game ends up feeling like a rather expensive collection of repetitive (and easy) flash games. It'll probably amuse the young'uns for a few hours, but if they're already able to play Pokémon, they're probably already old enough to see this for what it is.
To put it bluntly, even a good dose of pirates with the ninjas couldn't save this one. In fact, most would probably opt to walk the plank than grimace their way through the back half of the game. And, to add insult to injury, the inclusion of only six minigames for your dollar is downright laughable, especially given that Wii Play comes with nine and chucks in a remote. However, and more to the point, when your nearest competitor is Wii Play, it's probably time to re-evaluate your design processes. And get rid of the fireflies while you're at it.
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