Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword Review - DS

8

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Audio: 5
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is the handheld in-between not-really-a-numbered-sequel to the Xbox masterpiece, which itself was a sequel to the original NES trilogy. In Japanese, the term 'Gaiden' roughly translates to 'side story', so I guess Ninja Gaiden is a side story side story? Handhelds have never been known for their canonical sequels.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword continues the story of Ryu, Super Ninja, curiosity shop owner and head of the Hayabusa clan. After the Dark Dragon Blade incident in the Xbox title, Ryu returns home and sets about rebuilding his hidden ninja village, but the game opens with the player taking control of Ryu's young female friend, Momiji. The first level is a tutorial, and once it's over, the story kicks into gear, though it never really gets to a high speed. Obvious plot twist aside, once the player gets their hands on Ryu, any doubts about the gameplay will fly right out the window.

The way the story is told is beautiful. Dragon Sword is played in the vertical position “open book” position, like Brain Age. During cut scenes, the two vertical screens become the pages of an animated comic book, and as functional as the story is, the way it is told is beautiful. The sharp lines and subtle but elegant animation is wonderful, and much preferred to cramped full motion video often used on the DS.

The story, and the game itself, retreads some old ground in regards to the previous Xbox title. Old bosses and arenas have been recreated and remixed, but a new set of villains of risen from the ashes of the Vigoor Empire, a devilish pair of female fiends. And yes, they do have large breasts and skimpy clothing.

This is an Itagaki game after all.

While the story won't win any awards for originality or beautiful, heart wrenching moments, it is beautifully told and filled with supernatural monsters, ancient foes and a whole lot of ass kicking.

It is Ninja Gaiden.

Gameplay

As the retro lover that I am, when I heard that a Ninja Gaiden game was headed to the DS, images of beautiful 2D action platforming gameplay in homage to the NES trilogy I hold so dear filled my head like thought candy.

When the direction of the game was revealed, 3D gameplay on pre-rendered backgrounds using solely the stylus controls, I was disappointed.

But then I played it.

Stylus controls are awesome. The action is so fluid, so speedy, and the controls are so intuitive and, I admit, occasionally frustrating, that it feels at once familiar and yet fresh. Other games, like Phantom Hourglass, have used touch screen combat controls before, but never like this.

Slice the stylus across an enemy to cut them up, tap them to riddle them with shurikens, drag the stylus over the screen to move. Blocking attacks is done by pressing any button, and you can tap the screen to roll. Slide the stylus upward to jump, perform attacks in midair, slice, dice, twirl, all with a flick of the pen.

Beautiful.

Signature moves, such as ...