Download Games Roundup

Ninjump Deluxe

• Mac App Store - £0.59
• Previously released on iPhone and iPad.

There's only so much fun to be had jumping between walls, right? Wrong. Somehow the inherent monotony of smashing yourself repeatedly against brickwork doesn't get in the way of spending literally hours trying to do the same thing over and over again.

For reasons that never come to light, Backflip Studios dares you to guide a little ninja to previously unimaginable heights. Where's he's trying to get to or what he's running from is by the by. All you know is that you might as well jump. Go ahead and jump (jump!).

Standing in the way of your leap-based glory are a bunch of meanies, each specifically placed to send you plunging into the abyss. Some of them can be sliced out of the way by merely jumping at them as you leap across, while others have to be avoided. Such are the challenges that face today's ninjas.

If you manage to slice up three of the same enemy in a row then you'll barrel everything out of the way at super speed and inch towards the elusive high score that much quicker. But trying to avoid enemies while aiming for others is often a risky enterprise, and the game quickly develops into a furious balancing act that gets under your skin.

With four equally enslaving levels to face, Ninjump Deluxe is a sweet surrender of your free time.

8/10

Williams Pinball Classics

• PSP - £11.99
• Also available on PS3, Wii, 360

If practice makes perfect, then how does one account for my unfathomable awfulness at anything to do with pinball? [Er, lack of practice? – Ed] Whether real or virtual, my talent for ensuring the ball evades the feeble flap of my defences is unsurpassed, and, with crushing predictability, System 3's 10-strong collection of Williams' finest tables proves that mastery of this curious pastime still eludes me.

Assuming that your luck with the silver ball is better than mine though, Pinball Classics offers theoretically good value for your £11.99 – especially if you're old enough to have played the original tables, mostly released during the 1980s.

Without that encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject matter, though, you're left with a clutch of challenging tables that don't scale down especially well onto the PSP's screen, largely because of resolution limitations. You can flip the screen vertically to make the most of the screen real estate, but even then you'll be peering through the fuzzy visual reproduction to pick out what you're aiming for half the time.

With various other superior versions out there on other formats, hardened pinball veterans are better off getting their score-chasing thrills on systems that can do justice to the subject matter. The ageing PSP just isn't quite up to the task.

5/10