When Nintendo first debuted the Wii’s innovative technology at E3, the internet swiftly burgeoned with articles and forum contributions speculating on ways in which the novel Wiimote and nunchuk controller could reinvent how we played everything from platform games to first-person shooters. Some fantasised a Jedi simulator complete with motion-sensitive lightsaber duals, while others anticipated a more immersive FPS experience. Oddly enough, few pre-Raving Rabbits seers predicted that the Wii would be host to a new breed of party game involving four drunken buddies (and grandma) performing ludicrous physical locomotions in the name of jocular competition.

Ninja Captains, a party game from Lithuanian developers Nordcurrent that also sees release on the DS, transparently aspires to the trademark irreverence that made Rayman’s cotton-tailed antagonists so agreeable, with 20 minigames involving four ninja felines and their various misadventures around the globe to thwart a giant robot mouse. The initial level, which requires you to present barf bags to vomiting passengers aboard a turbulent plane, is as good an example of the game’s tomfoolery as any.

Ninja Captains offers only two variations on the one mode: a single player Story Mode in which up to four players can participate, and a Party Mode offering a free selection of the same minigames. The story mode features some deliberately cheap but charming cut-scenes which will appeal to fans of The Behemoth’s Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, but must be completed to unlock all of the games in Party Mode. This is somewhat against the social nature of this style of game, though the story will take even the most unseasoned of gamers little longer than two hours to complete. More severely, the story mode features no points tally system or tournament option, making each small victory feel rather inconsequential.