Breakout Ninja review - A one-touch runner with a style of its own

Breakout Ninja is a one touch arcade adventure with enough of a twist that it stands out from most of the other entrants in this already pretty crowded genre.

It might not have the depth of some of its contemporaries, but it’s the sort of game that’s going to hang around on your homescreen for a decent length of time.

Throw in bite-sized slices of play and you’re left with a game that, while it might not change the world, is going to leave you with a smile on your face.

You’re playing the titular ninja, who’s running through a randomly generated series of obstacles. But you’re only in control of certain context-sensitive actions.

You perform those actions by tapping, but the twist comes thanks to a series of circles. These show you when you need to tap.

Hit the screen when you’re in one of the circles and you’ll perform a leap, a slide, a kick, or a landing. Hit the screen when you’re not and your run comes to a sullen end.

The circles also have other circles in them. Tap when you’re in one of the smaller circles and you get a perfect hit, which will earn you more points.

The aim of the game is nailing your high scores. As you play you’ll also level up your ninja skills, but this doesn’t seem to have any real effect on the play.

The longer you’re running for, the faster your pace, and the more difficult your taps become. But each run starts off at the same sedate plod, which can get a little grating.

Ninja-gone

And that’s the main issue with the game. While your ninja title might change, you never really feel like you’re becoming more advanced, just jumping through the same hoops and hoping you’ll get a better score.

It means the game doesn’t stick around quite as long as it should, and with a few tweaks here and there it could become something rather special.

As it stands it’s an entertaining little diversion that you’ll come back to a good few times, but you’re unlikely to rave to your friends about it like maybe you could have done.