Ninja Camp Review

There are a lot of games that promise dragon sized gaming in rabbit sized boxes these days. At best, most can be described as functional. They work fine I suppose; the game is fun while you’re playing, but you can burn through all that’s exciting about it in a few places before moving on and deflect criticism by taking some sort of “well it’s good for how much it cost” stance. I think that’s pretty weak; there is no reason a small game can’t pack the punch of a big game which is why I love coming across the kind of small box game that can fight it’s way to the top of the pile. Ninja Camp is one of those games.

Ninja Camp is undeniably simple. Your three ninja meeples get placed on a large grid of cards that are also the board’s spaces. They’ll run, hop, jump, and flip their way across the board as you play cards from your hand and pick up the card they started on. Not only do these cards provide different movement patterns, but they also determine final scoring. Generally speaking, the more freedom of movement the card provides, the fewer points it gives you at the end. Because the board shrinks and develops pockets of empty spaces that you can’t normally cross, choosing where to go requires a careful balance of point scoring and maintaining flexibility.

That simplicity belies a deeper game however. Much of what makes Ninja Camp a lot of fun to play comes in the ever-narrowing field of options. The structure of a traditional board game is often one of expansion. At the start of the game you have few resources and thus few options; by the end of the game you have many options, and though you may have a strategic focus, you can do almost anything. In Ninja Camp, the opposite is true. At the beginning of the game you can move all over freely, but as the board shrinks so do your options. The game gets tighter, and tighter, and you’re forced to get creative and really think ahead to out combo your opponents. There is a very real tension that comes from watching your options evaporate as the board shrinks.

Every turn you will remove at least one space from the board as you send your ninja flipping around your opponents. This means that the game is as much about influencing the playing field as it is gathering points. It might be more points now to run straight over to the five point card, but then your opponent can push you onto a trap, or pin you in a corner by taking the cards around you. Your ninja clan power can be used to get you out of a tight spot, or conversely to put your opponents into one, but since it’s limited to being used once per game, you’ve got to make it count.

That narrowing of options gives the game a tense pace. The board quickly becomes claustrophobic and requires you to think quickly to escape from a bad situation. When you finally see a path out you’ll light up like Rocky, Colt, and Tum Tum’s stuffed mannequin. Similarly, figuring out a way to pin your opponent against a wall or on a trap card that costs them points before flipping away to sweep someone else’s leg feels like you’ve accomplished something clever in a game short enough to not ruin the other person’s experience.

If Ninja Camp trips up anywhere, it’s that a player can find themselves out of the game while everyone is still running around collecting points. It’s hard to remain engaged or feel like you have a chance when others are still dashing around the board and you either have to pass or walk around your lonely island of cards going through the motions of playing. Hopefully the game ends shortly after someone is out, and having three meeples to choose from certainly helps ensure that you have plenty of options but it can happen. What makes Ninja Camp fun is zooming around the board and jump flipping your way to victory. Getting stuck kills it and no amount of cute cartoon art will make up for it.

There’s a lot of cleverness in Ninja Camp. The cards pull triple duty here, acting as the board, the points, and the actions all at once and it works remarkably well. The tension is constantly ramping upwards ensuring that the game never outstays its welcome, and it’s easy to get to the table. In short, the game kicks butt.