Every Bunny Was Kung Fu Fighting: A Review of 'Ninjitsu'

If you like the idea of cute little animals pulling off some karate moves while helping you crush the souls of your friends and family at the gaming table as you horde up all of the riches, then look no further than this furry and fun filled family hit. Sadly, although I tried to make it work in the title, there are no bunnies in Ninjitsu!, but maybe they'll add that in at some point. Take notes though: add chickens too, because there is a phenomenal Youtube video that makes Chickens and Ninjas a forever match made in heaven for me. And yodeling. But let's get on topic here. Ninjitsu! is a game by Peter C. Hayward and Jellybean Games. The same group also produced a great little game called Scuttle! which can actually be combined with this one to make an even more dynamic card game. Yes, you can have both Ninjas and Pirates (but not Wizards, Zombies, or any of that... at least not yet).

Ninjitsu! is extremely simple and easy to learn. It's so easy that gamers of any level--newbies, oldies, kiddies, and fogeys--will be playing in no time at all. It can play anywhere from 2-5 players and has two variations of length of play (as well as the variation that adds in Scuttle!). Each player begins the game with 4 cards, and a turn is simply done by choosing one of three actions. You can play a card from your hand, swipe a hidden treasure from in front of another player, or draw 2 cards from the deck. Ninjas are, after all, that fast.

If you choose to play a card, there are a few card varieties to note. Cards in and of themselves resemble a standard deck of playing cards in terms of having both a symbol (or suite) and an identifying number or letter. Any card that has a letter in the corner (Kings, Queens, Jacks, Jokers, and Aces) must be played directly into the discard pile where you can utilize the ability text written on them. Other cards in the deck will consists of numbers (which represent Treasure value/worth), text, and, on several of the cards, a mask symbol. The cards with the mask symbols are your hidden treasures. When playing one of these cards, they are played face down in front of you where only you can see them. The benefits of such cards are that no one really knows what they are worth and how close you may be to winning the game. The only way to find out would be to swipe them from you, but many of these cards also serve as traps making the player who swiped them pay a steep price. All other cards in the deck will have both a number and an ability text. You can either play these face up in front of you claiming their number (treasure) value for yourself, or you can play them into the discard pile sacrificing the treasure to instead use the action that is written upon it.

So, turns are very fast and fluid with players either playing one of the above cards, stealing and revealing treasures from in front of another player, or drawing two cards. Gameplay continues until someone claims to have 21 points of treasure in front of them (the extended variant goes to 30). The complication is that special abilities on cards that are played can and will work to dissolve you of your good fortune while feeding the greed of those other sneaky saboteurs at the table. This is a Take That! game at it's core, but if you're a player that doesn't really care for such a thing, Ninjitsu! is so quick, that it doesn't let you stew very long on your sadness and despair.

Here at WYLD Gaming, we played it with a good variety of people, even some who are notoriously known for hating Take That! games, but honestly, we all had quite a bit of fun. It did play very, very fast however, so we ended up going the 30 point route more often than not as there were many games where someone would say that they won, and it seriously felt like the game had just started. This was more apparent in the games that were played with less player amounts. Aside from the speed, the only other drawback was occasional text confusion. There were cards like the "Climbing Hook" which would allow you to "Reveal Any 1 Hidden Treasure", yet when that hidden treasure ended up being a trap, we weren't sure who, if anyone, would pay the consequences. Therefore some things need firmly established in the text. Reveal is different than Swipe. Revealing a trap nullifies the trap text while Swiping the trapped card and having to turn it over in the swipe makes the trap go off. Some cards will give you the chance to swipe cards from other players. Where the text alludes to swiping "cards" and not "hidden treasures", there was confusion as to whether this meant taking cards from other players' hands or from the hidden treasures in front of them. To clear the air there, swiping is always a term referred to in reference to taking a hidden treasure. Peter was very communicative in clearing these questions up, and once that was understood, the game went very, very smoothly. There were some deeper thoughts about the symbols/suites, which consist of shurikens, katanas, fans, and bombs. From what we could tell, they don't really seem to have function in the game. The only difference is that all of the bomb cards (maybe because "they're the bomb"?) stand apart from the other suites which replicate all of their numbers and text across similarly valued cards.

All in all, we enjoyed the game, and it will serves as a reoccurring "filler" game in our collection when we need something fast paced and fun. The simplicity makes it approachable and easy to teach, the variety of actions as well as card text make for interesting strategy and decision making, and the abundance of traps make it unpredictably exciting! And I really want to give kudos to the artist behind the designs on the cards. They are really cute and fun to look at. Your kids will love this game as will most of the adults in your family. WYLD Gaming gives Ninjitsu! a HOOVES UP in the family gaming department as a fast and easy filler. The campaign is running on Kickstarter now through August 26th, and at s $9 price point, there really is no reason not to swipe up this treasure! Check it out here!

Please note, this is a review of a game that is in pre-production meaning some mechanics, appearances, rules, and other components may change. WYLD Gaming was provided this copy for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated in any manner, nor were their words, results, or review scores influenced in any way by anyone outside of the author's own opinions and perspective. If you've enjoyed this review, we encourage you to share it with others to help WYLD Gaming get similar opportunities in the future while also helping the game being reviewed get more attention for their Kickstarter campaign. Thank you!