nWaffle got really lucky just recently as I got my hands on the demo for the upcoming Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, the DS-incarnation of the super fast-paced action series. Ninja Gaiden games have always been of incredibly high quality, and all were critical successes, featuring solid controls, excellent fighting, and gorgeous visuals. This game is looking like it will be no different. In fact, it looks straight-up kick ass!

Once again, you’re put in the role of Ryu Hayabusa. Ryu still looks like a total bad ass. The only difference in the overall presentation is that the game leans a bit more to an anime-inspired art style. While the whole series has had really anime-based art, it’s just slightly more prominent here, but doesn’t really change the actual look at all. Overall the game is absolutely gorgeous. Animations are smooth, fast, and everything is very nicely detailed.

I played through a short-but-sweet tutorial level set in Hayabusa Village. No set up was given, you’re just thrown into the action. I began in an outside area. There are a few really pretty looking trees surrounding the stone path which I was on. The biggest deal here is how the game is controlled, and it is a big deal. You hold the DS sideways in book-form, stylus in hand, and with the triggers still in your grasp. You are given the option between ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ handed control. All the action takes place on the touch-screen with the second screen featuring a map of the area. Similar to Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, you drag your stylus around the screen to control Ryu. The trigger-button was there to allow us to block. In fact any button allows you to do block - the trigger button just provided easy access. While holding the block button, you can roll around by tapping in the direction you want to roll. Jumping was handled by sliding the stylus upwards, and doing so again triggered a double-jump. The animation remained fairly smooth, and looked pretty nice. The music was focused on mainly slow drum rolls, and a high-pitched whistling. Not really the most impressive music, but it worked fairly well.

While trying to get used to the controls, running in circles, I noticed that the background has that really nice-looking pre-rendered look to it. With the fixed-camera placed significantly distanced from your character, the entire environment almost looked like a painting which you are running around on. With only a few steps, we were treated to a strange lizard-like warrior jumping down to try and eliminate us. Attacking was handled nicely by sliding your stylus across your enemies in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal direction. The whole action felt very responsive, and was really quick and satisfying. The visual effects used looked really impressive, staying very close to the console style. The sound effects sounded pretty nice, making each slash sound fairly significant as Ryu let out a battle cry.

With a few shots to our adversary, dispatching him was simple enough as I continued on up a set of stairs. A couple more baddies dropped down, another lizard-man with clawed hands and an archer, and I was given a tip to throw some ninja stars at the opponents. This was handled by simply tapping the opponents with your stylus. While not the most effective attack, it certainly helped hold off some opponents as I diced up others.

After clearing the stairs, I headed to the right and entered a fairly medium-sized courtyard. The camera angle changed from a bit more of a top-down view to a slightly elevated side-view. The camera remained fixed, shifting a bit side to side, and forwards and backwards, but it remained just fine.

If you’re going to be a ninja, do it with some flair.

The courtyard would be the place of the big finish in the level. Wave after wave of enemies appeared as I tried to slay them. They didn’t do significant damage on my little ninja buddy, but they definitely landed a few hits. Here is where my combat skills would really be tested. Throwing my shuriken really helped hold off some enemies while handling others. I also figured out some secret attacks and combos while here. For example, slicing an enemy in a down, up, up sequence would make Ryu pick the enemy up, both would fly into the air, and Ryu would send the foe crashing to the ground. The move felt incredibly satisfying, and was really fun to do. There were other combos which we discovered with other combinations such as up, down, or leaping and tapping an enemy to throw a shuriken at them while in the air.

Here, I also learned a new ability which was presented as a fairly important skill which I hope is elaborated on. By tapping a circle-icon next to our health bar which was there throughout the entire level, the action itself was paused and a strange symbol appeared on our touch screen. By simply “filling in” the symbol with the stylus by drawing inside it under a specific time, I was returned to the action, standing perfectly still. But now, I was given control over what looked like a mini-sun. Dragging it around via the touch screen allowed me to basically dish out one-hit kills on all my opponents for a few seconds.

After beating all the enemies in the courtyard, a menacing growl could be heard as the screen went black. When it lit back up, I was featured to an intimidating boss - a large red dragon which flew down into the courtyard. The camera changed again here, fixing Ryu directly between the dragon and the camera. Here, the entire environment surrounding Ryu becomes fully rendered, allowing you to view it in full 3D. There was no specific strategy presented here. I simply slashed and slashed the dragon to the best of my ability, occasionally running to the side as the dragon took swipes, breathed fire, and tried to clamp me in its jaws. I found that jumping attacks were most effective here, and combos worked wonders. In an almost too-short length of time, I emerged victorious as the beast was slain. The screen went black and I was given a half-lit image of Ryu’s face with the words “2007 Winter” clearly printed underneath. Clearly, this game isn’t coming out this year, so this was probably a summer/early fall build of the game.

From early impressions, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is shaping up to be one of the DS’s best-looking, and best-playing games. The fighting is fluid, fast, and incredibly satisfying. The visuals look amazing on the DS, and the whole style transferred very nicely. While the nightmarish difficulty which the Ninja Gaiden series is known for was really lacking here, we can safely assume that this was likely to just show off the demo. While the game looked really impressive before, after this play-through, I was left saying “holy crap!” Fans of the series, fans of action games, and all DS-owners should keep an eye out for this one as development continues. Expect Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword to hit store shelves in North America sometime in 2008.