"Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword" for the Nintendo DS. Does it do the series proud or ridicule it?
1: Gorgeous visuals
2: Tight gameplay
3: Punishing difficulty
It's a tough but fair love affair for hardcore gamers, and to complete even one of these titles is a moment of unmatched triumphment. It's a critically acclaimed series that has done much to destroy what confidence gamers have in their hearts as they attempt what seems impossible; actually finishing it from start to finish. Now the game has appeared in the shape of "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword" for the Nintendo DS. Does it do the series proud or ridicule it?
Obviously it's the former because I gave it a great score. Yes, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is without doubt a must own game for the DS. Most of the stuff you'd expect from a Ninja Gaiden game is here. Tight controls and addicitive combat, gorgeous visuals (for a DS at least) but, funnily enough for the first time through, no insane difficulty.
Let's start with the control. The DS lacks a analogue stick. Yet the game still plays great without one. Everything is controlled with the stylus - movement, fighting, casting spells. The block is any face button excluding start and select. Rolling requires you to hold block and tapping anywhere on the screen. And believe me, it's so easy to get used to. You make horizontal or vertical gestures with the stylus on the enemies for various sword combos, certain stylus strokes for Flying Swallow or the Izuma Drop (yes, they're in there!). You tap enemies to throw shurikens at them and you stroke vertically to make Ryu jump. Casting spells is as easy as pie. You simply choose which spell you want (as you acquire them) and trace over the Sankrit characters and use the stylus to aim, with some spells mind you. Even the Ultimate Technique is in this game, except it's a bit too powerful and useful. You simply "scribble" with the stylus over Ryu to build it up and stop to release it. There is, however, some issues that need to be addressed with regards to the stylus control. At some moments in the game there's platforming. But what's the problem? Well, try jumping onto a platform. It's a little fiddly at first. You'd think that by slashing up with the stylus then tapping in the direction gets you to jump that way, but think again. It merely makes you jump up on the spot and then throw a shuriken. You sort of have to do it in a slight diagonal stroke, but not too much otherwise you start attacking. The next issue is the game having slight trouble with figuring out what stylus movements you're doing. But these are minor gripes with what is essentially a perfect control scheme for this sort of game.
Next up is the Ninja Gaiden essentials. All the blue, yellow and red essences are here. Blue is for health recovery, yellow is for shopping and upgrading and red is for charging up your ninpo spells. As always, if you use your Ultimate Technique with essences floating around it'll charge up far quicker. You also have a Karma system that goes towards your overall stats. There's no new weapons to acquire, you just level up your default Dragon Sword. There's new projectiles but nothing you haven't seen before and a plethora of spells to exploit with.
Six months after the events of the original Xbox Ninja Gaiden story (called the Dark Dragon Blade Incident ) a clan known as the Black Spider Clan is attacking the Hayabusa village. You first start off as Momiji, a Ninja Apprentice under the tutelage of Ryu Hayabusa. It's an effective way for players to get used to the control scheme. Anyway, quickly through the prologue you get defeated by a Fiend boss and get kidnapped. Control is then given to Ryu Hayabusa and your mission is to get to the bottom of the Black Spider Clan, rescue your village and Momiji. The story is played out through text conversations and the occasional spoken dialogue (kept in the native Japanese tongue, thank the lord). Instead of glorious CGI cut scenes, the game incorporates 2-D artwork with a sparse animation to convey the story. The story overall won't win any awards for originality, but it's kept short and sweet so you can get back to the game double time.
On a DS visual presentation level, Ninja Gaiden is a technical glorified monster. The game has little to no slow down, the animation on Ryu and the monsters is as slick as the console brethren, the boss battles are absolutely fantastic and stay true to the series lauded moments (the boss battles take place in an enclosed 3-D arena at 60 fps). The game's backdrops harken back to the days of the old Resident Evil. The scenery is pre-rendered, but they look absolutely gorgeous. Visual effects such as rippling water and light breaking into beams do much to convey a convincing world. The sound effects are taken directly out of the console games and are just as sharp. The music avoids the rock music and sticks to upbeat Japanese folklore esque music, another plus in my ears. As said previously, voice acting is in here but is kept minimal. There's cackling laughter, spell chants and screams of pain. It's just an astounding good looking and sounding DS game.
Oh dear, for all the good stuff there's this one horrible thing. The game is short. At 6-7 hours the game is over. Sure there's the always "why do they include it" leaderboard, new difficulties (which actually does add to the game's longevity, but not much, truth be told. This glaring flaw is hard to overlook). What would have made this game truly excellent is the possibility of downloading new chapter missions or something along the lines of that but alas, no.
Team Ninja should be proud of their valiant efforts in getting the NInja Gaiden series to the DS. Rather than cram every morsel from the console games into it, they just picked out the core bits and actually designed it with the DS in mind. The platforming is not that great, but when does Ninja Gaiden do platforming greatly? The combat is rock solid and has nearly everything you'd expect. So the game's a short ride, but what a ride! It's unforgettable and just plain fun. It feels, looks, sounds and most importantly, plays like a Ninja Gaiden game. Rather than cower at the legacy of Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, it stands just as strong on the podium with its console siblings. Comes highly recommended.