Wow.

Let me tell you -- if you've not gotten Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS yet, you really ought to go out right now and buy it. Those with long backlogs need fear not, for it can be completed in under 7 hours -- but it's so delicious that you really shouldn't put it off any longer. Games like this -- so easy to pick up and get absorbed in blade-swinging, wall-jumping, balls-out combat -- are the death of my backlog. Well, games like this and games like Guitar Hero. I've finished the game and I'm geared up to write the review for anothercastle.com, but I actually do want to try the Head Ninja difficulty (analogous to Hard mode) first. The Normal difficulty had me dying a few times, but it wasn't insanely challenging. (I'd say it felt about on par with God of War on normal, whereas the Xbox Ninja Gaidens were definitely more challenging on the default difficulty.)

Anyone who's worried that the controls will be sporadic and don't work -- they do. They work wonderfully. If you liked what you saw in Phantom Hourglass, you have nothing to be concerned about. Anyone who's sampled it and found that it either takes no technique or that your hand started hurting: keep playing, and don't go crazy with the stylus (respectively). In fact, those who think it takes no technique will likely be the ones whose hands end up hurting because you'll be swiping willy-nilly. Don't do that. Just take quick, brisk, controlled swipes with the stylus. You'll be doing Izuna drops in no time. Which brings me to the most important point about this game: anything with a spinning piledriver in it is awesome. Final Fight 2 (SNES), any Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown -- if it's got an SPD in it, it's an 11 out of 10. Maybe if Kane & Lynch had SPDs in it, it would have been something worth touching.

Speaking of anothercastle.com, my Audiosurf review went up yesterday. Please pardon their dust -- something borked the Wordpress server over there I guess, and Jason Dobson's working his tail off trying to rebuild and make sure the front-end works right.

DrFish62 and SophinaK had a few reviews go up on Trigames recently, so you should go check 'em out. Sonicboom will soon be having some stuff posted as soon as I work out some logistical stuff, so look out for him too. Don't forget: We record on Sunday at noon, so send in your questions (mailbag AT trigames DOT net).