In Shadow Ninjas, one player takes on the role of two samurai corgis who must protect the shogun’s koi fish while the other players are ninja cats who will do anything to get those tasty koi.
This competitive board game will test your memory and bluffing skills and also proves that roll and move games can still be a ton of fun.
Disclosure: Big thanks to Kedric, the designer of Shadow Ninjas, for teaching us the game and hooking us up with sample copies. Some links in this post are affiliate links, using them costs you nothing extra and helps support this website. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Shadow Ninjas is a cute team based, semi-cooperative, bluffing filled, board game.
Shadow Ninjas comes from designer Kedric Winks. We had the pleasure of learning the game from Kedric himself during an awesome morning at Origins Game Fair where we spent a lot of time with Kedric and the folks from Outset Media who publish this game.
Other games we learned that day include The Crooked Crown and Cadaver but Shadow Ninjas sticks out as the most fun. A big part of that was the fact that we had Kedric totally fooled as to where our cats were hiding.
This stealthy roll and move plays two to five players, of almost any age, with most games taking under half an hour. Every now and then you get a group that’s really good at misleading each other and it can go longer, like in our learning game.
In Shadow Ninjas, one player is trying to defend the shogun’s koi while the other players are trying to steal them. This epic conflict is recreated through using two sided tokens for the cats and a roll and move system with two dice where the ninja player can use the dice to move any cat token on the board.
The trick for the defender is to figure out which tokens are actually the cats and which are their shadows. Meanwhile the cats are also trying to outplay each other as only one of them can get to the fish first.
This cats vs corgis themed board games features great production quality. The maze filled board is clear and easy to read. The tokens for the cats, their shadows, and the dogs, are thick plastic that feels good in your hand and slides nicely on the board.
The instructions are very clear with lots of examples and the dice are bright coloured and easy to read. Each cat features different artwork which helps for people with colour based vision issues.
How Shadow Ninjas makes roll and move fun again.
In Shadow Ninjas, one player takes on the role of two corgi samurai guard dogs, while the other players control four ninja cats and their shadows. Each character is represented by two sided plastic tokens. The guard dogs look the same on both sides as do all of the many shadow tokens. However the cats show a shadow on one side and a cat ninja on the other, which means no one can tell a cat from the shadows until the token is flipped over.
At the start of the game, each players is assigned one or more cats and a number of shadow tokens based on player count. All of the tokens are then placed, shadow side up, onto two starting rows of the board.
Which tokens are actually ninja cats should be kept secret from both the corgi player and the other ninja players. Once all shadows and cats are placed, the dog player gets to places his two guards on any of the four koi fish spots.
Each round in Shadow Ninjas starts with the guard player and then goes clockwise around the table. On a player’s turn, regardless of which side they are on, they roll two six sided dice and then move two different tokens exactly the number shown on each die. The guard player is forced to move each of their two dogs, but the other players can move any two cat or shadow tokens, it doesn’t have to be their own.
Alternatively, a player can choose to pass instead of moving, which allows them to look at any four tokens on the board. I’ve notice that players often forget this rule, but it’s an important option because no matter how good you think your memory is, you will lose track of something in this game.
All movement in Shadow Ninjas is orthogonal (no diagonal moves) and if a piece would move onto another piece they instead do a do-si-do and swap locations. This can be a great way to confuse the other players, especially if you can manage multiple swaps in one turn.
While moving any piece, if at any point during that move a token showing a shadow is within a straight line of sight to a guard dog that token gets flipped.
When you flip the token, if a shadow is revealed it stays on the board to confuse and misdirect the players, and the active player continues with any remaining movement. However, if the token shows a ninja cat it is removed from the board and the controlling player for that token is removed from play. When all ninja players are eliminated the guard dog player wins.
If a non-dog token ever reaches one of the koi ponds it gets flipped over. If it is a shadow token it returns to the start area, but if it’s a ninja the controller of that cat wins the game.
Shadow Ninjas is light fun for 2 or more.
The rules for Shadow Ninjas are simple enough that even young kids can pick it up right away. While the mechanics and goals are easy enough, what people don’t realize until they actually sit down and play is just how hard it is to keep track of everything in this game.
Also, while at first Shadow Ninjas might sound like a cooperative one vs many game, it’s not. Sure, the cat players may end up working together in the short term, but this is a competitive game where it’s everyone looking out for themselves. Early in the game the cat players can feel like teammates and sometimes they will be forced to work together to stop the dog player from winning, but in the end only one cat player can win.
Playing Shadow Ninjas well requires deception, misdirection, and memory. You don’t want to be too obvious with your moves and give away which token is your ninja cat, because if you do, someone else will just run them right into line of sight of a guard. At the same time, you also don’t want to move a piece too close to a koi pond square if you aren’t certain what it is, as it might be another player’s ninja. Throughout the game it is also likely that you will mess up and forget where your cat is, or be sure a certain piece is a shadow when it is in fact not.
I will never forget one game, where I confidently moved a shadow onto a koi, knowing for sure that it was a shadow. I thought it was a move that would open up an opportunity for me to snag a different koi with my other movement die. I instead discovered that the shadow I moved was in fact another player’s ninja. I’ve also enjoyed many moments of corgi players confidently flipping over tokens they were certain were cats only to find shadows.
During your first few plays of Shadow Ninjas it may feel like the guard player has a big advantage. We found that this dwindles as players get more experienced at playing the ninjas and get better at both deceiving the guards and each other. While I will say I think the guards are still easier to play, the game seems well balanced with experienced players.
One of the advantages the ninjas have is that they all get turns before the guards go. This is the reason players get more than one cat at lower player counts. Once you start losing cats, the guard’s job gets much easier as they get to move more often, which is why players may want to cooperate early in the game, only to betray each other later, like proper ninjas would.
An aspect of Shadow Ninja that does turn some gamers off is the randomness. This is a roll and move game. If the guards roll a bunch of double sixes the cats are going to have a bad time of it. Similarly one player getting a bunch of high rolls can give them an advantage though that does get offset by the ability of other players to also move the same pieces. It’s definitely more of a problem on the dogs side of the board. The fact that you are rolling two dice and having to apply each of them does also help mitigate the randomness.
When discussing this with the game’s designer he pointed out that they tried it with various different set movement values and that the game just didn’t work. In addition to having less thrills and exciting moments the game became a solvable puzzle, and that’s not what they wanted from Shadow Ninjas. A big part of the fun is adapting to the vagaries of the dice.
The other big issue with Shadow Ninjas is that it features player elimination. Players will be eliminated and they will have to sit out while the game continues. Thankfully this isn’t a long game so it’s not onerous, but if you’re playing with younger players in particular, this can be problematic. A house rule from the designer is to adjust the rules when playing with kids, so that if a cat gets caught they just get moved back to the starting rows instead of removed from the game.
With adults, getting knocked out usually isn’t that bad unless you get caught really early in the game. Most of the games we’ve played of Shadow Ninjas have been at our public play game nights, where if you are eliminated you can just go play another game. Even with that option I find that most people stick around to see who the eventual winner is.
The last thing I want to call out about about Shadow Ninjas is a similarity to another cat based bluffing game from my childhood called Cats or Cats’ Mansion which I’ve talked about on The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast in the past.
Cats is a silly game that I still break out now and then. In it there are five cats each trying to get one of four presents, and similar to Shadow Ninjas, no one knows what cat the other players are playing as (or what present they are going for) and when you move you can move any piece. When Kedric first described Shadow Ninjas to us at Origins I couldn’t help but be reminded of Cats, in a good way. If you happen to also remember Cats fondly, think of Shadow Ninjas as an advanced (and much better) version.
Overall I really dig this one vs many, semi-cooperative, bluffing game. The gameplay is lightning quick, it’s easy to teach, and it’s been a huge hit at or local public play events. My kids love Shadow Ninjas and even my mother in law had fun with it. It’s super accessible, kind of silly, and fun. Even the randomness of the dice is just part of the chaos and fun factor for me.
If you are into lighter games that play quick but still have a ton of player agency, games that offer tons of options each turn, and/or games with memory and bluffing elements you will probably love Shadow Ninjas. If you are looking for a competitive one vs many game this is an interesting one with it’s semi-cooperative turning cutthroat nature.
If you don’t like randomness and prefer your abstract games with a more chess-like feel, this probably isn’t the game for you. The same goes if you are dead set against player elimination. Though I do have to say the two player game does give you more of that intellectual challenge than the higher player counts, so maybe give it a shot.
I honestly feel like this is one of those games where everyone should just give it a try. You may like it.
Finally I want to thank Kedric Winks for introducing us to his game. I also want to give a shout out to everyone at the Outset Media booth at Origins for being awesome and showing us a good time with special thanks to Outset Media Guy Paul for getting Kedric to sign our copies of his games, and for actually knowing all about Cat’s Mansion, that was a bit of a trip.
FAQs
Is Shadow Ninjas a One-Vs-Many Game
Yes, and no. While one player is playing a different role in Shadow Ninjas, the other players on the other team are actually also competing with each other. That said, at times they may need to work together to stop the guard dog player from winning. So it’s a semi-cooperative game with two sides.
Is there player elimination in Shadow Ninjas?
Yes, there is. When all of a player’s cats are caught that player is eliminated from the game. In most cases the game usually doesn’t last long enough for this to be a problem, but sometimes a player gets eliminated early and must sit out for quite some time.
How does Shadow Ninjas make Roll and Move fun?
Without the random element Shadow Ninjas would just be a puzzle to be solved with a set solution. It wouldn’t be a game anymore. The randomness is what makes this game fun and challenging and balanced for both sides. By rolling two dice and getting to choose where to spend each one you mitigate the randomness of rolling only once and then having to use that roll on your one piece. With so many tokens on the board to potentially move a lower roll doesn’t hurt much, though a bunch of low rolls in a row as the guard dog player can be frustrating.
Outset Media continues to really impress us. Zensu remains one of Deanna’s favourite games of all time, Psychobabble is a hit every time we break it out, and it’s not often that we don’t pack Shadow Ninjas for our public play game nights.
Which of their games have you played? Do you have a favourite? Let us know in the comments below!
- SHADOW NINJAS: Covert Ninja Cats try to outwit the Shogun’s Samurai Guard Dogs in an attempt to devour his precious koi carp.
- FAMILY GAME NIGHT: In this family friendly game players either take on the roles of Stealthy Ninjas trying to infiltrate the mansion, or they can choose to be the Loyal Guards protecting the fishy treasure.
- LIGHT STRATEGY: Bluffing and observation are key to winning and every player must be strategic in their moves. Nerves of steel and a good poker face are needed to outsmart and outmanoeuvre your opponents.
- A DEVIOUS GAME: Don’t take your eyes off the board as it all could change in an instant in this cuning game of catch and concealment.
One Response
Thanks for the review!