I feel that there are not enough great platformers on the App Store at the moment. It is a genre that is not represented well enough on the platform and really needs some more good titles. Now, I think I’ve finally found another.

Chop Chop Ninja is a unique platformer with more fighting elements than most other platformers. It is a really great game that despite it’s minor problems, still is a blast to play

You control your character (a ninja) by tapping in the direction you want them to go. You tap on the left of the screen to move left and vice versa. To jump, you tap above your character in the direction you want to go. If you want to attack, just repeatedly tap behind an enemy until they die. These controls are really intuitive and I really think the game would not have worked with a virtual joystick or keypad. The thing I didn’t like about the controls was that when I got a double jump power up, it was really hard to jump precisely. Instead of just moving slightly to the side, I would rocket down into holes, which was really annoying. I think adding an option for swiping to jump could solve this.

The graphics in this game are also top notch. The artwork in this game is really distinctive and I really like the artwork in the comic strip cut scenes. The animations are also quite nice. When you attack some enemies such as skulls or cobras, they just distort, but I find that it just seems to work.

Music in this game is typical oriental (very ninja-ish!) music, which obviously fits really well with the theme of the game. The sound effects are also nice and they aren’t too loud or sharp sounding which is always important for me.

Overall, I think this is a great platformer for the iPhone and iPod touch that is definitely up there with other great platformers like Soosiz and bounce on. There aren’t many levels though the game does end on a cliff-hanger which the developer has promised to extend on. At the current asking price, there is no reason not to get this if you like platformers and own an iphone or iPod touch

Overall score: 4/5 (a great platformer with nice artwork, but has minor control problems)

Chop Chop Ninja on the App Store.