Hyperactive Ninja

Coffee fuels the modern world, as evidenced by the millions of coffee shop franchises that line the high streets of any developed country you care to mention.

Despite the nation’s current love of the black stuff, I never would have pictured it being the poison of choice for a Japanese feudal-era ninja. Nevertheless, that appears to be the case in Hyperactive Ninja.

The evil Shogun has stolen all the coffee of the empire in order to fuel his army of minions. This kick-starts our caffeine-addicted ninja, Kohimaru, who embarks on a retro-inspired platform adventure to retrieve some java.

In fact, “retro-inspired” is a bit of an understatement. Everything from the 8-bit visuals to the bleepy soundtrack and simple side-scrolling platform layout smacks of the kind of games we were playing in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Strangely, the one thing that tells you this is a modern smartphone game is the simplified control-scheme - this is one-button play at its purest.

Kohimaru runs along automatically until he hits a wall, at which point he turns around and sets off in the opposite direction. Touching the screen initiates a jump, and subsequent presses will initiate Mario-like wall hops (where appropriate).

What initially looks like a very traditional platformer is, in fact, a very modern running game.

These two ideals occasionally clash. Some of the precision platforming required of you makes you wish for direct control over Kurimaru. In particular, you have to wait until your ninja opponents turn their backs before you can attack (by running into them). This means biding your time by either running or jumping between two walls repeatedly like, well, a hyperactive ninja.

When in full flow, though, Hyperactive Ninja is a fluid and addictive experience. It’s a shame, then, that it doesn’t run as smoothly as a game of this simplicity should.

On my Milestone, it repeatedly slowed and stuttered. Given the exacting demand for precision the game places on you, this can spoil your rhythm somewhat.

Still, there aren’t all that many stripped back platformers of this kind on the Android Market, and Hyperactive Ninja possesses enough charm, challenge, and solid gameplay to make it one of the current front-runners.