When Ninja Gaiden DS was first unveiled last year, it certainly shocked people. The idea of one of the best-looking, most notorious action-adventure games on the consoles coming to the DS made plenty of people skeptical. Give them five minutes of playtime, and those feelings of doubt quickly turned around. I was certainly blown away when I finally got my hands on the demo. Now that the game is actually out though, is Team Ninja’s new title as cutting-edge as it was when we first saw it, or does it miss its mark?

The story to Ninja Gaiden DS takes place six months after the events of the Xbox/PS3 title, and the prologue quickly summarizes the previous game’s storyline. Ryu Hayabusa, your protagonist, has defeated the evil Murai, shattered the Dark Dragon Blade, and has rebuilt Hayabusa Village. The game itself opens up with Ryu and Momiji, an in-training kunoichi, sparring in the forest. After the session, Ryu heads back to the village as Momiji picks flowers for one of the girls at home. But quickly, she is captured and is taken captive by the witch Obaba and the Black Spider Clan. Ryu sets off to save her, and as expected, needs to face an even greater threat against the world in the process. Obaba’s own master, the fiend Ishtaros, is searching for the eight Dark Dragonstones. If all eight were gathered together, they could unleash an even greater power than that of the Dark Dragon Blade. The story itself is expressed through text, expressive sound effects, and comic-book styled still-image cutscenes. They look really cool, but can feel a bit awkward on occasion. The game is rated T, so the story and gameplay aren’t nearly as bloody as previous titles. But it’s certainly still quite dark, and it unfolds in a pretty cool way.

The big deal with this game is the control scheme. With the DS held in the vertical book-form, the entire game is focused on the touch screen, similar to Zelda. The touch-screen displays the action, while the flap displays an overhead map of the level. It isn’t really necessary to be there since most of the levels are very linear. But when you reach a crossroads, once-in-a-while, you’ll be glad it’s there. The actual controls are quite excellent. You tap the screen to move in the direction you want, shifting between a walk or sprint depending on your stylus’ distance from your character. You can jump by sliding upwards over your character, and again for a double jump. It takes a short bit to get used to, and the game cleverly opens with you playing as Momiji in the first level. Naturally she isn’t totally skilled, so it makes sense. However, you eventually take control of the completely badass Ryu, and you can feel the difference. There are plenty of platforming sections throughout the game and the controls certainly won’t get in the way most of the time. Some sections of the game will require you to jump up a narrow pit from bottom-to-top. When faced with this part, I certainly said “No way…” But it worked. It actually worked. Just by well-timed upward strokes, you’ll reach the top and be shocked that you did. Where it becomes a problem though is in the occasional instance where Ryu if fighting off in the distance, so you need to be that much more precise with your control and it sometimes gets confused.

Obviously though, when you’re a ninja, you expect to be kicking some serious ass. Attacks are pulled off by directional strokes over your opponent. There actually is a difference between vertical, diagonal, and horizontal slashes, so you really do feel like the combat is reading what you’re doing accurately, even if it doesn’t have a very different effect. You can also tap on out-of-reach enemies to throw a shuriken or fire an arrow. Blocking is done by pressing any button on the DS other than ‘Start’ and ‘Select’. The way I held my DS, hitting the upper-trigger button with my thumb felt the best. When blocking, if you tap a point on the screen, you’ll dodge in that direction. Expect to be using this move quite a bit, followed by scratching madly over your opponents. The control scheme just works wonderfully for the action as well as the platforming. Rarely causing any sort of problem, the fighting feels fluid, fast, intuitive, and just plain fun.

There are special moves that can be pulled off as well. For example the Izuna Drop is done by slashing down, up, up. You can make a strong downward slash by double-jumping and then slashing downwards. Ninja Gaiden, while a smarter action game, still can sometimes feel like a button-masher. This DS version can certainly feel like one at points… err… like a screen-scribbler. In fact, that’s one of the techniques of the game. If you manage to avoid being hit, scribbling madly over Ryu will make him charge his ultimate technique. Once you’ve unleashed this move, dozens of swirling blades will fly around, attacking every last enemy in sight. If you’ve charged the attack fully, don’t expect them to be getting back up. But this move honestly feels a bit overpowered. It’s not really a skill-based technique, yet it raises your post-mission ranking and makes the game quite easier, promoting you to use it rather than actually fight. It’s odd…

There’s one more technique for you to use. Tapping the icon next to your health bar will bring up a symbol on your touch screen. Drawing in the symbol will unleash your Ninpo magic - a super-charged magical attack that can be used to attack everyone on screen. These can be a giant fireball you can drag around, shooting lightning as you float in the air, etc. These mainly are used to solve puzzles, but also provide for a super-attack in case you’re cornered. What’s a shame is that besides one or two, they all feel the same, or just have the same effect. If some slowed down time, made you invincible for 10 seconds etc., it could’ve added more. But beyond a healing spell, each one is just a big flashy magical super-attack.

The combat itself is quite solid. The Ninja Gaiden games’ combat has always been very strategic. This is necessary largely due to the extremely brutal difficulty. This game certainly isn’t on that level… in the beginning. It’s pretty clear that Team Ninja dropped the difficulty of the Normal setting (the only difficulty available from the start) significantly in order to welcome newcomers to the series. As a result, the combat in the first few levels barely poses any sort of a challenge to fans of action games. Enemies aren’t the brightest, they’re not too aggressive, and they certainly don’t try to trap you or anything. However, the difficulty certainly ramps up, and in the final third of the game, you’ll certainly be relying on that block button a lot. People will complain that the game is only 6-7 hours, and my first play through clocked right in the middle there. However, once you’ve unlocked the harder difficulties, fans of the extremely-hard Ninja Gaiden that they’re used to will feel right at home. On the harder difficulties, the game can take you anywhere between 12-14 hours. It’s QUITE awesome… It’s a bit of a shame that you have to go through the Normal setting at the start, but it’s worth it if you want a real Ninja Gaiden experience on the handheld.

The boss fights are a bit disappointing. They’re big and epic, but there is certainly a bit of recycling here. And not from this game alone. You’ll face a few that you’ve seen in the console games. One level you’ll fight a fire dragon, the next you’ll face an ice dragon. None of this would bother me if each boss really fought differently. But no. They’re all giant behemoths who will shoot projectiles at you, lumber around etc., and are beaten by just firing arrows until they collapse, then start slashing them like crazy. Rinse and repeat. There’s some minor variation, but it’s quite rare. I really wish the game went in crazier directions than just pulling basically the same thing again and again. They’re cool, but they get repetitive.

The game progresses in a very linear fashion. Go through a level, solve a puzzle or two, fight a boss, go back to your village to heal and upgrade, then go to a new mission. The village itself has various NPC’s for you to talk to. Each one will respond differently with how far you’ve progressed. Some will hold interesting tips, others will just jabber on about how afraid they are. As I said, you can upgrade your stuff. You can increase your health, buy new Ninpo spells (some are necessary to progress), or upgrade an attack or two. You can also increase the strength of your sword up to three times, but unless you aren’t buying the upgrade once it’s available, you won’t really notice the difference since you’re constantly be faced with tougher enemies. Once a new level is unlocked, you can also access a lengthy arena challenge that will pit you against plenty of enemies for a good long while. It’s a good way to get cash, try new spells, or just fight for the hell of it.

The game looks great on the DS. In all honesty, I think this very well could be the best-looking title on the DS. The animation is incredibly fluid, the action remains fast throughout with little-to-no slowdown, models look great, and it follows the action really well. Part of what makes the game look so good is in the way it presents its levels. Using a fixed camera, each area is shown with great-looking pre-rendered backgrounds. This technique is commonly found in the older Resident Evil games. Some people would call it a cheat, but honestly, if it works and makes the game look good, I don’t see why not. On occasion, the camera shift can be a bit awkward when transitioning from area to area, but most of the time it works well. Like Nintendo with Zelda, or n-Space with Call of Duty 4, Team Ninja really impresses with what it can do with the handheld.

The game sounds great too. Fast drum-beats really add to the intensity of the experience. Slashes, screams, yells, and other sound effects sound good. The DS’ speaker of course isn’t the best, but it still sounds solid for the most-part. The really satisfying sound from when you slash an opponent, or Ryu’s intense cry as he unleashes a massive attack certainly make this feel like the console experience.

Team Ninja really took advantage with almost everything the DS has to offer. Even utilizing the microphone to wake someone up or all birds who will have special cards for you to collect. Of course blowing works fine. Obviously, there’s the massive use of the touch-screen, but there are also online rankings, judging your time and how much Karma you collect after a fight. It’s essentially your overall score. The microphone inclusion is a bit tacky, but online leaderboards are certainly welcome.

I look at Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword as a beacon of hope. It makes me hope that developers really start expanding their ideas and experimenting with what the system can do. The incredibly satisfying utilization of the touch-screen makes this one of the best action titles on the DS. It just feels so natural and works so well that it becomes hard to not walk away from this game without a smile. While the game certainly has its problems, largely due to the tragically short length on the normal setting, as well as its constant recycling, it’s still an amazing game. It’s fast, it’s hard (eventually), and it looks great. Despite my issues with the game, I have to say that this is certainly one of the best DS games you could ask for. I hope that the DS will see a whole wave of great action games now that utilize the touch screen in the way Ninja Gaiden does. But I’m certain that no matter how hard they try, very few would be nearly as high-quality or as sharp as Dragon Sword. By the way, ninjas are better than pirates.

Gameplay

Amazing touch-screen controls make the action in this handheld version worthy of its name. Solid difficulty curve. The difficulty in the first-available setting may leave some fans disappointed until they unlock more. A bit too much recycling in enemies/bosses.

Visuals

Some of the cleanest visuals we’ve seen on the DS. Incredibly smooth and fast animation with no noticeable slowdown. Pre-rendered backgrounds look great.

Sound

Solid drum-based soundtrack. Slashing sounds are REALLY satisfying.

Stuff

Three difficulties. A good number of upgrades for you to purchase. Online leaderboards. Solid storyline. Certainly too short, at least on the opening difficulty.

Waffle Factor

The amazing controls will certainly win you over. An excellent transition to the handheld. One of the best DS games period.

SCORE: 9.2/10