The To-Fu Collection

With the dawn and subsequent boom of mobile gaming, Nintendo DS and 3DS developers must really be feeling the pressure from 69p titles.

The issue is never more painful than when ports of iOS App Store games appear on a Nintendo handheld at a ridiculously marked up price - see, for example, the shoddy Cut the Rope port for DSi.

The To-Fu Collection is definitely one of the better ports we've seen, to the point where you can't even really tell it wasn't on DS originally. Unfortunately, the price point will no doubt put off many potential players.

Go-to

The To-Fu Collection brings together To-Fu: The Trials of Chi and To-Fu 2 into a neat package, with over 200 levels to play.

The premise is simple - you grab To-Fu the ninja warrior with your stylus, aim him in the direction you want him to travel by stretching him back like an elastic band, and then let go and watch him fly.

Your goal is to dodge around all the obstacles, stick to the safe surfaces, and reach the flower at the exit, but there are also special orbs to grab along the way.

Completing To-Fu fully will take you a long time, as each level asks you to grab every orb and also try to reach the flower in a set number of flicks.

Later levels really lay on the variety, with spike traps, locked gates, electrified beams, slippery surfaces, and bouncy walls. It's all good fun, and we found ourselves playing into the early hours of the morning.

Price wars

Usually, price wouldn't mean a great deal to us - a game review should concern the quality of the content, rather than the cash-to-content ratio.

However, The To-Fu Collection is a rare exception. Given that the original games are both free (with ads) on iOS, it seems incredible that you need to pay full price to own them on your DS.

If the DS version added some features then the price difference might be excusable. But the second screen is simply used to display achievements and stats, and no new features are added to the gameplay at all.

The To-Fu Collection is a solid and natural conversion of an excellent game. It would be an easy recommendation as an inexpensive DSiWare title, but if you pay full price for it you may well be disappointed.