Samurai Defender: Ninja Warfare Review is a fast-paced tower defense game on Nintendo Switch in which you must defend your castle. Learn more about it in our Samurai Defender: Ninja Warfare review!

 

Samurai Defender: Ninja Warfare is an improved version of Samurai Defender which released over three years ago on Nintendo 3DS. The game, as expected, looks great on Nintendo Switch with smooth 2D graphics that have been improved over the portable version, with zero slowdown and a ton of enemies on screen in the later stages in the game. The game looks great on the TV screen and on the Nintendo Switch version, and the bigger screen when playing in Portable or Handheld mode makes this an even more fun experience.

Controls are very simple. You can move a cursor around with the left analog stick and press the B button to make your bowman (and later your bowmen) to fire in that direction. You can also use stratagems by pressing the button to which you have assigned one as long as you have enough MP for it and the cooldown period has ended. You can also use the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen to control all of this when playing in the Tabletop or Portable modes.

As you complete stages you will gain experience to level up, as well as money and gold. Money can be used to upgrade your Power (more attack), Hit Points, Bowmen (more soldiers to attack with), Speed and MP. Gold is used to upgrade stratagems which include calling backup soldiers to attack over the many lanes in a stage, a deadly ninja that deals poison damage, a Princess that raises your attacks for a short period of time, carpenters who can repair your castle, engineers who can setup barriers to stop the enemy’s advance, musketeers who deal massive damage, and artillery which deals ranged damage.

At first you can’t use gold on all stratagems since you’ll first need to reach the required level to unlock each one. You’ll unlock a new one with every five levels you increase, so do keep that in mind! You can’t take all stratagems to battle with you, so be sure to mix and match as you unlock them to find the right combination for the right situation since sometimes a particular combo does wonders for increasing your odds of survival.

 

After every ten stages you will face a boss. You’ll need to learn its movement and attack patterns to find the best strategy to take them down, and even then you might need to replay a stage or two o get some extra coins to upgrade your stats to be able to stand a chance.

Once you have more than one bowman you can press the L button to spread your attack so that their arrows can cover a wider range. You can also press the R button to instead focus your attacks so that all arrows are sent flying in a particular way.

There’s a nice variety of enemies, with regular soldiers who will move towards your castle at a steady pace, spearmen who can deflect some of your arrows, heavily armored foes who are slow and deal low damage but who can hide inside their shell to deflect all damage from an arrow, archers who can attack from mid-range, and more. You will also run into more powerful versions of each enemy type, as well as sometimes having to fight entire formations that can surely do some massive damage to your castle if you’re not careful.

Samurai Defender: Ninja Warfare is a very fun tower defense game on Nintendo Switch that is worth every penny. There’s a lot of content in this one and the later levels get crazy fast-paced and the difficulty spike will keep you busy as you grind to get some extra coins and gold to upgrade your troops to take on the increasing challenge. You’ll never feel as if the game is cheating since you’ll understand you made a mistake or miscalculated how effective your ground support would be against the onslaught of enemies. I’ve continued to play this one well into the late night hours, and I highly recommend that you get it.

Disclaimer
This Samurai Defender: Ninja Warfare review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Flyhigh Works.