There's not a lot that we can say about Card Ninja, because it's essentially a one trick pony. However, the trick it has got is fast, chaotic, arcade action - and that, for 59p, makes a worthwhile purchase. Upon loading the game, you'll find the main menu contains only a question mark and a button to start the game. The question mark only contains who made the title, and so there is no actual help in there. When starting the new game, you'll be presented with a series of challenges. Overall, the goal is to retain as many cards as possible - fail to do this, or lose too many and it'll be game over.

Starting a round throws down a pile of cards onto a raised platform - these are subtracted from your total. Playing the game is easy - you must flick your finger over the card and in the direction you want it to go. The destination for these cards are various gates with different colours and symbols at either side of them. Depending on the requirement, you'll be flicking similar cards through different gates - flick too fast (or through the wrong gate) and you'll lose the card, successfully direct it and you'll win the card back into your pile. At the end of the round comes a fruitful bonus if you've played well.

The game eventually becomes more complex - with more gates, more colours, wild cards and moving targets, and here's where the problems start. Once more targets start to appear, it's difficult to work out what needs sending where, especially when symbols come into play. Because they're not simple geometric shapes, you may have to pause for a second to take the playing field into consideration - this is not helped by small icons either. We reckon a larger gate symbol (perhaps making it into a large coloured circle) would help dramatically, or if the objects were made less alike. We can't help but feel that the diagrams were pretty similar intentionally to trick us, but when you have a short countdown timer breathing down your neck it's all too easy to blame the game and not our own skill levels.

With it being a score based game, the lack of even a local leader board is a little off putting. Nor are there any achievements. The presentation otherwise is fantastic - great arenas that have an oriental feel to them, and fun ninja quips when you hit a card successfully through a gate. The developers over used the gong sound though, perhaps some chimes, flute or monk choir could add variety to the opening sequence before a level. You can't play your iPod music in this game, and save state is only available after you finish a round.

Card Ninja is not a deep game, nor is it perfect. Some presentational aspects of the game could be improved upon, and we think the game would be a lot fairer if it's targets were more obvious - then the fast paced nature of the gameplay could really come to the foreground. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a fun title with ninjas, there's no better place to start.

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