 "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword")
When Ninja Gaiden was announced as a handheld game, we frankly didn’t know what was more surprising – the fact that the game is releasing on the DS and not the PSP, or that Team Ninja themselves were developing the game. It’s not until you actually play the game on the DS that you truly understand how the game couldn’t have been done on any other handheld console.
The plotline is as cliched to the videogame universe as can be. Ryu Hayabusa – the series’ protagonist and ninja elite – once again leads the show, chasing after the Black Spider Ninja Clan, who have kidnapped his apprentice, Momiji. Right from the get-go, the game throws you headlong into the action, complete with over-the-top boss fights at the end of every level in true Ninja Gaiden style.
With Team Ninja themselves developing the game for the DS edition of the game, the quality of the overall product is top-notch. The biggest difference in gameplay in the DS version is that the movement and action are completely controlled by the stylus. All other buttons on the face of the DS are for the sole purpose of blocking. Striking across your opponent with the stylus makes Ryu slash him with his sword, and a series of these slashes are automatically turned into combos. If you want to throw a projectile instead, simply tap on the enemy and Ryu will toss a Shuriken in that direction.
The motion too is controlled by tapping at the location you want Ryu to move to, but you wouldn’t even bother using that in a location with enemies, as by striking against them, Ryu will automatically run towards them before delivering the pain. There are a lot of stylus-based fighting combos that you learn through your journey and pick up more skills. There are also special Ninja Magic spells (Ninpo) that Ryu can buy or pick up, which can seriously save his ninja-butt in an overwhelming battle.
Activating Ninpo requires you to draw out a Kanji symbol in a limited amount of time, but thankfully the action pauses at the background while you’re drawing the symbol. Unfortunately you can’t use Ninpo too often as they require quite a bit of time and dead enemies to recharge. So its advisable to save these if you sense a boss battle coming up.
Don’t let that bring you down as Ryu’s signature Izuna drop (a kind of ninja piledriver) is always at your disposal and pretty easy to pull off with a little bit of practice. There’s also an option to charge up Ryu’s attack by scratching the stylus on him for a couple of seconds before he unleashes mayhem on all the enemies on screen.
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Overall the game would have been a complete waste if it wasn’t for the brilliantly tight controls. Ryu responds with lightning speed to your every strike and tap, making it highly gratifying when you clear off a whole legion of bad guys. There are moments where you may not pull off the move that you intended to, but the case is no lesser than any game of this genre using a button-based control system. Team Ninja’s development team ensured that the handheld game got as much attention to detail as the home console version – much appreciated!
Visually the game is as good as you can push a DS to deliver. Everything in the game is true 3D and your character is always played in third person view. To make the game confortable to play, Team Ninja made a great call by making the player hold the DS like a book and keeping the screens horizontally aligned instead.
The character animation is fast and fluid, as per the requirement of the game. The bosses range from brilliant to ridiculous designs, but they are still grand in scale and attacks. Backgrounds and environments are detailed to the right level and the convenient camera angles ensure that you don’t have anything blocking your view. Of couse the blood content has been reduced, keeping the target audience in mind, but frankly I feel its a minor compromise for a game that is otherwise tight in every other department.
Dragon Sword deserves to be played with a good pair of headphones, since the audio is great. Veteran players will find the handheld game a lot easier to complete than the console version. In fact, once you’re used to the controls you will find it challenging but not difficult to beat. Of course the game is a lot shorter than the home console versions, with the playing time being around 6-8 hours, but that’s quite acceptable in a handheld action game.
Before you get this game, I’d suggest you get a decent scratch guard for your DS touchscreen, since you’re going to do some serious amount of slashing all over it. If you’re a fan of console games, you will love this version for keeping the flavor of the series intact, even with the radically different control system and platform. Despite the lack of gore, the action is still intense. Action gamers should definitely give this title a go — it would definitely be a great addition to their collection.