Ever since Team Ninja’s Tomonobu Itagaki decided to resurrect the Ninja Gaiden franchise, Ryu Hayabusa has risen to fame as the greatest action hero in gaming. Making the transition from the calm seas of 2-D to the vicious 3-D waters was never going to be easy, but Itagaki’s sunglass powered foresight made it happen. It is still a mystery why Itagaki-san bet his chips on Ninja Gaiden instead of making some sort of X-Men game…he is the Japanese cyclops after all (never wondered what was behind those glasses?)

Two remakes later (Black and Sigma), we will finally witness a new chapter in Ryu’s saga until Ninja Gaiden 2 hits the Xbox 360 sometime next year. And who would have thought that the graphically intense, action-heavy, extremely mature Ninja Gaiden will see its next chapter unfold on the Nintendo DS? Doubts fogged my mind as a Ninja Gaiden on the DS seemed almost next to impossible (unless it was another cheap 2-D rendition, that’s what all the other devs do, don’t they…the lazy bastards). But here I am, with an early build of Ninja Gaiden DS tucked neatly in my DSLite. So lets take this Ninja Dog out for a stroll and find out if it only barks or bites as well?

First things first, we all know that the Ninja Gaiden stories suck. The usual mish-mash of revenge with some top-heavy babes thrown into the fray, and some chap trying to take over the world with some kick-ass magical hoopla. So just for the record, even though no one is really going to care, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is not a remake (thank god for that, I never thought Itagaki will stop… and what’s with those lousy subtitles? Black? Sigma?). Dragon Sword will take place after the events of Ninja Gaiden 1 and build up a link to Ninja Gaiden 2, due for release in 2008. While the build I have been slashing through is painfully short, it sure does give a pretty good picture of what the final game is going to play like.

The first thing that you will notice while playing Ninja Gaiden is the amazing visuals; the backgrounds are just images, but what really makes a difference are the character models and the effects. All this is complimented by the best animation I’ve ever seen in a DS game; this is the DS owner’s Assassin’s Creed when it comes to animation. I’ll elaborate on this more when I speak about the controls in a bit. The sound effects are mostly re-used bits of the past Ninja Gaiden games, and I’m not complaining. The *chink* of the shurikens, the weird, constipated battle cries that Ryu frequently mouths, the feudal Japanese music and the wind whooshing sound when you power up your attacks…its all in here, maybe down sampled a bit, but comparing it to the console versions would be foolishness. And tell you what, I’m a complete foolish twit, because that’s what I am going to do.

It’s simply mind-numbing that Ninja Gaiden DS can actually stand up to its console brethren. While the audio-visual department is nowhere near the console versions (c’mon lets cut the DS some slack), it’s still a very stellar looking DS title. But what really closes the gap between the console and DS version, is the animation and gameplay. No compromises were made by Team Ninja in the jump to the DS. Almost all the well-known moves that Ryu pulls off are packed into the cartridge. Slash your way through enemies, hurl shurikens, unleash your power attacks, fly in the air and rain death from above, use powerful Ninpo and my personal favorite…smash the enemy with the fucking, sweet-looking Izuna drop. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Trust me, it will even look amazing once you actually see it in action. But didn’t any of you wonder why the weird title for this article? It will make perfect sense once I talk about the controls.

Controls are easily the part of the game that will make or break Dragon Sword. For starters, if you even have a slightly scratched DS touchscreen, don’t bother wasting time on Ninja Gaiden DS…you will be in for a frustratingly unpredictable experience. So, clean up your DS screens and order those Hori screen-guards (no, we haven’t been paid for advertising). Those of you lucky enough to have a squeaky-clean, unscathed DS… you are in for a fairly fun time… though the inevitable touch screen issues will rear it’s ugly head. You basically control Hayabusa by touching anywhere on the screen, Ryu will immediately run towards that spot; its a delight to watch the super-ninja run fluidly with his ninja bandana (what are they called?) waving in the wind. Tapping anywhere on the screen fires shurikens to that particular place. Jumping is pretty easy; you just have to slide the stylus upwards to perform a jump, and repeat that in the middle of a jump to perform a double jump. Attacks basically consist of slashing the stylus horizontally from left to right, and vertically. The interactivity almost feels natural and the moves that are translated from your stylus into the game make perfect sense.All this is helped by the fact that the player is expected to hold the DS in a book style (read Brain Age); the result of which is more vertical space for Ryu to jump around. This really comes into play while using the jump attack (slash the stylus downwards when in a jump), or the Izuna drop (did I mention how cool this looks?).

Team Ninja has succeeded in nailing the controls right for a DS game, but things start going haywire when there are more than 2 enemies on screen. Often, the game confuses the jump with the vertical slash, which leads to some infuriation. Also sometimes while trying to throw shurikens at enemies while mid-air, Ryu tends to perform a slash from above. While it is frustrating that the game tends to read your moves all wrong many-a-time, I’m not saying that Dragon Sword is a bad game. No sir, it is truly a great experience… but in a game that is notorious for its difficulty and punishes you for the slightest of mistakes, messy controls can stab you in the back. Lets hope that Team Ninja has enough time to do something about those control issues… I suggest giving the player more space to move around so that he can run into free space and perform his moves without enemies attacking him every 2 seconds.

What balances this issue out a bit are the powered-up attacks and the Ninpo. Remember how you used to throw off enemies and hold a button long enough to charge up your attack and then wreak havoc? Things haven’t changed much, except the fact that your wrists will get a thorough workout if you lean more on these attacks. You can slide the stylus repeatedly across Ryu to charge up his attack to two levels, and then remove your stylus from the screen to send Ryu in a fit of rage that usually cleans up the screen of any enemies. On the other hand, the Ninpo, which is capable of disintegrating waves of enemies, is kicked off by tapping on the Ninpo icon and then writing down a Sanskrit letter in a fairly sparing time limit, to unleash a furious and marvelous looking attack. In the version I played, I had access only to the fireball Ninpo, and I could control the path of the fireball, hence resulting in the aforementioned house-cleaning. Many fans will cry foul that I haven’t yet mentioned about blocking, which is the backbone of any Ninja Gaiden fight. Well, do not fear… it’s all in here. Blocking can be done by pressing ANY button on the DS, which is fine by me, as its easy to alternate between defense and offense with this control scheme.

At the end of that day, nothing I mention here will truly make sense unless you play the game for yourself. I fear that Dragon Sword will be the victim of drastically diverse review scores, because the experience may differ from person to person, depending on a lot of factors. So do not lean much on reviews, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is game that you should experience first-hand and decide if it hits the right chord with you, or not. Our verdict is that this is going to be one of the biggest DS releases since The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Dragon Sword surpasses every other DS game in technical aspects and also brings a lot of new things to the plate with its whole new take on the level of interactivity in an action game. If you happen to own a DS, be sure to pick up Dragon Sword when it releases… if you don’t, then Itagaki’s sunglasses come off… and that means Armageddon!

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By N2H

• Cpl. Hicks Says:
  November 20th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

  Cooking Mama 2 anyone?

• Reginald Miranda Says:
  November 20th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

  YESSSS!! I knew that my investment into a DS would pay off SOMEDAY!!

  Is this title ever going to be officially available in India though? Oh how i’ve looked for Metroid

• Aiman Anwar Says:
  November 20th, 2007 at 9:07 pm

  Well I do hope it releases here, one of the most anticipated DS titles man…

• Cpl. Hicks Says:
  November 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

  I doubt we’ll ever see this in India. Itagaki-san is some piece of work though, it’s like he just walked off the sets of Mohra or something. *90’s flashback*

• Aiman Anwar Says:
  November 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pm

  (mohra’s theme starts playing…oh wait…why does it sound so awfully familiar to the terminator theme…viju shah, you cheeky son of a bitch :P)