Clumsy Ninja Review

Clumsy Ninja is a casual "Tamagotchi-style" game starring an inept ninja and a humorous physics engine. The game has players train their ninja with the hope that, one day, they will no longer be clumsy. Between the rather impressive physics, fun challenges, and relatively innocuous free-to-play design, Clumsy Ninja is actually a pretty fun game.

To play Clumsy Ninja, players can touch the environment or their ninja to interact with it. There are also a couple of menus that allow players to take on challenges for experience points and add new items to their training grounds. Almost everything a player does yields experience points, but the fastest way to move up the ninja ranks is to complete challenges - which can vary anywhere from punching bag training sessions to flinging the ninja on top of a roof.

The challenges are essentially simple mini-games, but each one can be pretty entertaining due to the physics engine and endearing nature of the ninja's character model. Since the titular character is supposed to be clumsy, watching him fall over and flail around is part of the fun when players are asked to place him on a trampoline or toss him through a basketball hoop. There are even in-game items seemingly built for making the ninja flip about the screen; like the tornado potion. In addition to being humorous, the whole experience is also made extremely charming by the wide-eyed ninja as he seeks approval via high-fives and head pats after completing particularly brutal challenges.

Though a free-to-play title, Clumsy Ninja doesn't bother players too much about buying more currency or shilling their game via social media (although it does do each of those things a little). There are cooldown timers attached to some in game items, but that didn't really bother me since I kind of felt like I wanted to have my little ninja rest every once in a while before checking in on him again. The only real problem with any of this is that jumping in and out of the game can be a little tiresome since it does take a while to load, at least on the 4S.

Overall, Clumsy Ninja is a fun, casual experience with a really neat physics engine. Despite the simplicity, the game has enough charm to keep players on the hook for more.