See how you measure up against Velociraptors with Ninja Joe

Easy to play, hard to master is definitely one way to describe the Windows Phone game Ninja Joe. It is a nicely animated, slightly addictive, challenging platform game for your Windows Phone.

You play the role of Joe, a ninja in search of mystical gems that will save his master's life. Joe must navigate over harsh terrain and battle various Velociraptor (as in the dinosaur) bosses along the way.

Ninja Joe has twenty five levels of play (first level is a tutorial) that are spread out across three different worlds. Animations are nice, game play fast paced and challenging, and all in all Ninja Joe is a nice addition to the Windows Phone gaming library.

Ninja Joe's goal is to race through each level collecting gems that are scattered about the course. Joe is constantly running and you control his jumps by a series of screen swipes. Swipe up and Joe jumps up. Swipe across the screen and Joe speeds up to jump from cliff to cliff. If Ninja Joe fails to jump up steps or fails to get across the gaps in the course, the game's over.

Well... sorta. When you fail a summary windows pops up with options to return to the main menu, retry the level and a clock. If you tap the clock, you are sent back in time just a few seconds before your demise. A mulligan if you will but choose this option careful because time travel is limited.

In between levels there are nicely drawn up story boards that can be skipped if you're the type that isn't into reading and would rather jump right into the action.  The last level of every world has  you battle one of the Velociraptor bosses.

Ninja Joe has thirty awards you can work towards earning and not a bad soundtrack to play the game by. Each level gets a little more challenging than the last with the pace of the game quickening as well. Jumps become more frequent and you really have to stay on your toes or you'll get squashed by a falling boulder.

We've tinkered with Ninja Joe enough to find it to be really nice platform game for your Windows Phone. There is a trial version to let you try things out and the full version of Ninja Joe is currently running $1.49. You can find Ninja Joe here in the Windows Phone Store.

Thanks, Luke, for the tip!