Bees Knees Apps: NinJump DX

If you haven’t stumbled across NinJump DX in the App Store or Android Market then you need to click that little blue icon and search for it now. NinJump DX by Backflip Studios is a simple runner game that moves vertical instead of your standard left to right. You play as a small ninja warrior with a voice like a chipmunk that endlessly runs upward, crouching tiger, hidden dragon style. It isn’t as easy as it sounds though.

As you scale upward, they are obstacles that look to hunt you down and send you falling to your death. You can expect arrows, cannonballs, suicidal parrots, ninja stars and all other kinds of crazy shit. The deadliest obstacles of them all are the stationary barriers. Waiting still and silent for you to run right into them. Still and silent.

Your only method of attack is your jump that sends you to the other side of the game. Timing a hit in the air with an obstacle will grant you a power-up point that appears in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Hit three of the same obstacles and you get a boost upward. Each type of obstacle you collect has a different graphical display and height boost. Do not hit another obstacle though. This will reset any current power up you are collecting.

Defense is even simpler. A shield. You gain a blue aura if you run through them in the game and it only grants you one folly. You can purchase additional shields with real cash if you really start to become addicted, or suck.

There are four levels in the game: Classic, Jungle, Pirates and Castle. Each level has its own unique art and music to take away from seeing the same old scenery every time.

Scoring is based on the distance you cover. Each map keeps its own high score too.

NinJump DX is only $0.99 in the App Store and scores are connected to the Game Center. Download and battle for the highest scores against your friends. If you don’t have any friends, you can beat your own high scores I guess.