Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS) Review

Posted by Jacob Lopez on 04.08.2008

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword marks Ryu Hayabusa’s return to his old friends at Nintendo. For those of you who don’t know, Ryu is one of videogame’s original badasses; he has fought off legions of demons and monsters, made hell his bitch and even ended up rescuing the girl. If Chuck Norris and Ryu Hayabusa got into a fistfight, my money would be on Ryu. Will he live up to our expectations on the DS version?







The Story in a Nutshell
A while back, dragons and humans coexisted, the dragons were nice guys and the humans had no beef with them. All that changed when a big bad dragon, known as the Dark Dragon, decided he wouldn’t have it and turned Earth into a hellhole. The dragons turned to the humans for help, and built them a sword made from their fangs, the Dragon Sword.

With that sword, the humans were able to defeat the Dark Dragon, and restore peace to the land. Now, Ryu carries the Dragon Sword and serves up justice to anyone who messes with his village.



Graphics

Visually, Ninja Gaiden is one of the best games the handheld as to offer, beautiful prerendered backgrounds make up most of the gaming experience, while detailed character models and a few 3D areas make up the rest. It is apparent that Team Ninja genuinely cares about their creations and that Tecmo will not publish anything that is not deserving of the Ninja Gaiden name.



As said before, most of the backgrounds are masterfully prerendered images that wonderfully capture every look and feel from a traditional Japanese village to deep winding icy caves and beautiful beaches. I am glad that the design team decided to stay away from full 3D, as some of the visuals would have suffered. Believe me when I say these are some of the best sceneries you will see on the DS game. The game does switch to full 3D for the boss battles and one other area, but the transition is so quick and painless that most gamers probably won’t even give it a second thought. That said, even the areas that are rendered in full 3D take only a minor graphical downgrade, still, you will probably be to busy hacking away at bosses to even notice the change.



The character models are actually pretty awesome and will often times make you forget that you are actually playing a DS game. Ryu looks just as badass as he does on Microsoft and Sony’s consoles despite his reduced poly count. The character details are pretty apparent even on the 3-inch screen. Most of the minor enemies do lack the details of the main characters, but hey, given limitations, sometimes you’ve gotta’ prioritize. The character animation is smooth, fast and flawless. Everything from sword slashes to jumps look great. If Ryu draws his bow, you actually see him pull it out and fire, then put it away when it is no longer in use.

Then there are the cut scenes. The game does not feature any FMV sequences, what we do get is hand-drawn anime style images to drive the story. I have heard that some fans were turned off by the cartoony cutscenes, but I think they work really well.






Gameplay



Now, before I go on, let me say that I was very excited quite a while back when I heard that a Ninja Gaiden game for the DS was in the works. This was before any major announcements, and it was already said that the game would be fully stylus controlled. This was before Phantom Hourglass had proven that stylus controls work, and I became a little concerned. As much as I love the DS I thought to myself, “Oh man, these guys are just going to make a game and tack-on horrible touch controls.” My other concern with the game was that it was held book style, so I immediately thought about screen real estate. Thoughts of the N-Gage soon started to cross my mind, and I curled up in the corner of my room asking why. Sometime later, I realize that I never should have doubted Team Ninja. Lesson learned, no matter how bad an idea may sound, go ahead and give the game a try.

Let me try to avoid the whole “it plays like Phantom Hourglass, only faster” thing that everyone has been saying, and try to really explain how things work. You hold the DS book style, Ryu appears on and is controlled with the touch screen, the other screen displays an area map. The gameplay is what we have come to expect from the Ninja Gaiden name, fast-paced hack-n-slash action against endless hordes of enemies. All of Ryu’s movements are super fast and super slick, and he has more moves than just the simple sword slash. If you tap on the screen Ryu will use projectile weapons so aiming and firing is just a matter of touching your target with the stylus. Special moves work perfectly, and you will find yourself able to execute them on command within a few minutes of playtime. The only function of the A, B, X, Y buttons and the D-pad is to block. The Start button pauses the game and brings up your inventory screen. If you block and touch with the stylus Ryu will perform a roll that dodges enemy attacks. The pace never really slows down, and the action stops only for brief story sequences that help to drive the plot. Either way, don’t expect as deep a narrative as any of the previous games (even the NES versions were loved for their developed story lines and the cinematic cut scenes which at the time revolutionized the way video games’ stories were told). Ninpo Magic is easy to use, just tap on the Ninpo icon in the top corner, and then trace out the Japanese character. Most of the Ninpo moves are stylus controlled, and look nice on the small screen.

Players can also collect wooden talismans that enable them to unlock features such as mini character bios. There are two ways to collect these talismans, one is to fight your way through the hidden Netherworld areas, and the other is finding the Sea Swallow. Doing either of these give Ryu a numbered block of wood that can later be used in a section called “Muramasa’s Prizes”.


The game is not without its flaws, although they do exist, they are no real downer. The first thing you may realize a short while into the game is that you can often times get away with just scribbling wildly on the touch screen. This works for it, and it works against it. The good thing is that gamers who wouldn’t have otherwise played a Ninja Gaiden game can be introduced to the franchise and immediately learn to play. The bad thing is, that some fans of the Xbox and PlayStation releases will find the game much too easy, even on the Hard Mode. That said, it still takes some kind of skill to make it through the game, but you won’t have to be a seasoned Ninja Gaiden expert. Don’t expect any of the bosses to kill you more than 3 or 4 times. Even if you die, the designers were very generous with save points, so you’ll never have to travel very far (That’s a good thing).


Sound

This game is best enjoyed with headphones, because of the control scheme. You hold your DS sideways, meaning that the sound is only coming at you from one direction. Using headphones opens up the stereo field again meaning that you get separate left and right sound in both ears, especially useful for finding that damned Sea Swallow.

The music does its job well, but don’t expect videogame soundtrack of the year to go to Ninja Gaiden. Aside from that you get some grunts, sword slashes, metal against metal, cute ninja chick moans and some miscellaneous death screams. Any fans of the original NES series will also be glad to know that at the beginning of every chapter you will hear the familiar tune that kicked off each act in the original.


Lasting Appeal

This is probably the game’s weakest point. Don’t get me wrong, every minute the adventure was genuinely fun, but it’s very short and easy. You will die a few times, but aside from that, I can’t say that the game is difficult by any means. Don’t be surprised if you can make it through some of the bosses on your first or second try, once you have them figured out, you will make short work of them. I made my run through the game in less than 9 hours.

There is a hard mode in the game that can be unlocked upon completing it on normal, and the mode is tougher, but probably not enough to keep you busy for too long. In fact, as of this write up, I have only previewed the hard mode, because it is really the exact same game with the difficulty kicked up a notch.

Gamers who want to play through a second time can also take the time to get the rest of “Muramasa’s Prizes” by collecting remaining pieces of the wooden talismans. This adds a bit of replay value, but probably not enough for most gamers.


Fun Factor

Ninja Gaiden DS is probably some of the most fun you will have and a handheld for a while. Despite the fact that the game is very short, it packs more fun into its 8 hours of gameplay than some games over 5 times that length ever manage to do.

There are two ways to play, run your stylus across the screen like a maniac, or think and calculate your attacks. Either way is fun. Many of the times you may find yourself doing the first anyway. Sometimes short and sweet is just the way to go.

The not so fun part? If you don't use one of those fancy pen-sized styluses, and you have big hands like mine...you will get cramps. Believe me, my fingers are still sore, but the tradeoff was well worth it.





The 411

Bottom line, Ninja Gaiden pumps out continuous action from start to finish, and never lets up. The fighting is lightning fast and the touch controls are responsive. I loved every minute of it. The graphics are top notch for the DS, and even some of my anti Nintendo friends loved this game.

The only real downsides are that it is a bit too short and too easy for most of the gaming crowd and that some gamers will find that they can get away with scribbling away on the touch screen like a madman. The game may be easy, but it’s no pushover. Take the game, and enjoy it start to finish.

Graphics	10.0	Visually, this is probably the best game I have seen on the DS. The combination of detailed 3D models against realistic 2D backgrounds makes for a beautiful DS experience.
Gameplay	8.5	Spot on stylus controls make this a truly enjoyable experience. The lack of a detailed story, and at times, over simplified gameplay bum me out for such a great title.
Sound	8.0	The soundtrack does what it set out to do. Nothing in the music department is really memorable with the exception of one pretty awesome track.
Lasting Appeal	7.0	A bit on the short side for the typical Ninja Gaiden crowd. There is always the hard mode, but nothing in it encouraged me to dive too deep into that.
Fun Factor	9.0	Why deny it? The game is fun, as I said before, this game puts more fun in less than ten hours than some games can into fifty. Some fighting parts tend to border on repetitive, but don’t let that discourage you from playing, the game is still pretty dam
Overall	9.0   [  Amazing ]