To stop them, simply place various flavours of ninja huts onto the slots on the map, next to the roads that the demons travel along, so that the ninjas can do what ninjas do best and relieve the demons from the burden of existence. Each hut has one or two ninjas in them, with varying levels of attack power, range, defence and recovery speed. Some ninjas work better on some demons and some are specifically matched, such as those that are able to attack airborne demons. As you would expect, the initial roster of ninjas, demons and special upgrades is fairly limited, but with progress to new areas and story elements, all sorts of new toys become available, including hut modifiers (increased-range guard-towers or speedier recovery infirmaries), bonus single-use items (cute baby ninja to distract demons or ninja poo to mess them up). These also go a long way to making each level a little frantic and interactive, over and above simply choosing which order to level up the huts.

Additionally, as demons are vanquished, credits build a special ninja power-bar, along which various levels of power-up can be called upon – leaving it to build longer will provide more powerful options, like the ninja consultant’s efficiency drive, so that all ninjas in the vicinity immediately kick ass.

Whilst in theory the wide variety of ninjas, modifiers, bonus items, demons and power-ups should mix up into a great game, in practice, the vast majority of levels are so easy that most of them will be cleared first time with whatever ninjas you go with, especially since a scrolling display gives a heads-up as to what demons are being thrown at you next, Tetris style.

This is a shame because the storyline is compelling and genuinely funny, especially if you have spent enough time on the interwebs to appreciate a few of the internet-culture jokes. In fact, the story is what keeps Ninjatown alive, ensuring the levels are varied enough to gloss over the easiness factor and makes each one a fresh experience, albeit a little shallow and unfulfilling. The easiness means that kids from the age of 7 will be able to play through the levels, but, conversely, anyone with any interest in strategy will be left a little empty. To bring a little perspective, it should be noted that this is your reviewer’s first tower-defence game and you can count the amount of strategy games he has played on one hand. The hardened strategist will find the performance ranking on the later levels challenging enough and, for beginners, they will come as a bit of a shock to the system. They are worth slogging up to – if only they had arrived a little earlier.

The presentation and love put into the character designs and attention to detail carries the simplistic and overly easy gameplay further than it should. If you want a gentle introduction to the genre, this is absolutely perfect.