Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword Review

"It’s a safe bet that none of us will ever throw shuriken, swing blades or disappear with the aid of a smoke bomb as did ninja, black-clad stealth assassins from Japan. We can, however, experience this fantasy with Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden franchise — first on the Nintendo Entertainment system, with protagonist Ryu Hayabusa’s wall-scaling abilities, then on the Xbox and PlayStation 3 where quick, brutal and precise sword combat took center stage.

In bringing Ryu’s adventures to the Nintendo DS, developer Team Ninja takes the series a small step towards grace and fluidity – specifically with regards to how you physically interact with the game — with Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Perhaps more importantly, Team Ninja has also proved that the action for which Ninja Gaiden is known can be translated successfully to the DS touch screen.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword tells of the events that transpire between the Ninja Gaiden re-incarnations on the Xbox and PlayStation 3, and its upcoming sequel. The Fiends from the Vigoor saga and the Black Spider clan, rivals to the Hayabusa clan, are seemingly in cahoots. In order to quell a potential fiend uprising, Ryu sets about collecting the Dark Dragonstones scattered about the land. In what is one of the game’s disappointments, minor though it may be, many of the locales you’ll visit are simply retreads of those found in Ninja Gaiden: To complete the quest, you will have to guide Ryu through such familiar areas as Hayabusa Village, The Monastery and its underground passage.

Despite the familiar environments, this adventure in fact manages to feel quite fresh, something easily attributable to the smooth control mechanics. With the exception of blocking and accessing the inventory screen, not a single button is used. Running to a location is a simple matter of pointing at it with the stylus and holding that position. Jumping requires an upwards swipe, and attacking the myriad creatures you’ll encounter needs only a simple swipe — or tap, if you prefer to use a shuriken or arrow — on the enemy itself. These are quick, short and relaxed strokes we’re talking about here — wild scribbling will likely get you killed.

Those worried about the lack of direct control over Ryu’s movements in the midst of combat need fear not. Swiping on an enemy to attack sends Ryu dashing and swinging in the appropriate direction, and you can’t fall off of a platform unless you specifically jump off of it, making the quibbles of indirect control a near non-issue.

The focus on stylus controls also means that Ryu’s arsenal of techniques — all of them two-button combinations performed in a manner similar to fighting games like Virtua Fighter — are mapped to vertical and horizontal swipes. It’s regrettable in the respect that you’re not afforded the same grocery list of combos, but you’re still able to do many of the powerful attacks from the console versions. Swiping horizontally in the air has Ryu flying across the screen in his Swallow Swipe, blades extended; swiping up twice — one to lift an enemy in the air and another to follow it — executes the powerful Izuna Drop, a ninja’s version of the Spinning Pile Driver.

Even without the set list of combo moves, or perhaps because of it, chaining together attacks with a variety of horizontal and downwards swipes feels organic. Your thumbs are no longer performing tap-dancing numbers on face buttons; rather, you’re a conductor orchestrating death and destruction with your stylus. There are other DS-exclusive tricks, such as blowing into the mic to put out flames or make fans spin. Ultimately, though, it’s the elegant combat that makes Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword a tactile experience that’s simply impossible to replicate on any other console with the same effectiveness — the Wii included.

Team Ninja has also managed to create an aesthetic experience that is faithful to Ninja Gaiden’s console offerings. The DS can’t be expected to handle the high-resolution polygonal worlds that are offered on the Xbox or PS3, so only characters are rendered in three dimensions — the backgrounds are completely pre-rendered, save for boss battles where everything is polygonal (at an unwavering 60 frames per second). It looks excellent for the most part, though a little grainy dithering and pixelation in some places might pull you out of the experience a bit. Whatever little slack this represents, though, is picked up by the excellent audio work. The music follows the Eastern- and Industrial-inspired work that you might be familiar with in the console games, and Ryu’s battle cries sound as frenzied and intimidating as ever.

If only the game offered the option to start off with the same brutal challenge that Ninja Gaiden is known for, it would truly have something for everyone. As it stands, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword’s default difficulty level goes easy on the challenge and the harder difficulty isn’t available until you finish the game once. While it still takes technique, timing and evasion to complete the game, the seven hours it takes will still go by rather quickly. It’s not that the game is too short — in fact, it’s a perfectly digestible chunk for a portable game. Rather, especially with the boss battles being a dodge-dodge-swipe affair, there won’t be as much of a sense of accomplishment as you’d like if you’re in it for a gritty challenge. To be fair, the difficulty is perfect for the majority of the DS audience, and unlocking Head Ninja mode will give you a worthy challenge. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t available at the outset.

Nevertheless, with the potential issue of challenge being Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword’s most noticeable shortcoming, the game couldn’t be easier to recommend for those looking for some brutal hack-and-slash action. It takes the example of execution set by The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass and adds a healthy injection of speed and viciousness, confirming that the Nintendo DS is indeed a viable platform for intense action titles."

From: anothercastle.com