NINJA ACADEMY
Designer: Antoine Bauza, Ludovic Maublanc, Corentin Lebrat, Theo Riviere | Artist: Jean-Baptiste Reynaud
Open Ninja Academy’s box and you might wonder whether there are pieces missing. This tiny dexterity game comes with just a handful of cards and wooden bits. But its four-strong design team uses them in some inventive ways to create a collection of fast and furious mini-games.
The game casts you and your friends as students in a ninja dojo. Over a series of rapid-fire rounds, you’ll compete in challenges for the honour of becoming the top student.
Each task uses the game’s components in different ways. In one, you’ll each place a meeple in a standing position on the back of your hand then try to shove your opponents’ over without toppling your own. In another, you’ll place a wooden log in the centre of the table before flicking ninjas at it, attempting to place yours closest to the target like a kind of tabletop lawn bowls.
Other mini games see you trying to throw ninjas into the game box from a distance, chucking them at a wall of logs trying to knock as many over as possible, or racing a rival to balance five ninjas on the tips of your outstretched fingers.
Some challenges involve everyone around the table, while others pit two players against each other head-to-head. But even when you’re not included, you can still gain points by betting on the outcome of the contest. And with each mini-game lasting between a few seconds and a minute, the pace of the fun never slows down.
OWEN DUFFY