Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword [DS]

[Johnny]

Have been playing the Japanese version of this since yesterday and have to say that this has really impressed me in the 2 and a half hours or so I've been playing.

First off, the controls are excellent. Think of a more advanced Zelda Phantom Hourglass (i.e. everything controlled using the stylus) and you'll be close. Movement is done by pointing the stylus where you want Ryu to go, attacking enemies is done by slashing horizontally or vertically. Ryu jumps by 'drawing' vertically on him with the stylus and shurikens are thrown by tapping an enemy.
Even more complex manouevers like the Izuna Drop (slash up on an enemy to launch them into the air and then up again once the are airborne) and the Flying Swallow (think that's what it's called - make Ryu jump then slash horizontally across the screen) are easy to pull off and feel very satisfying.

Ninpo is performed by tapping the icon beside your energy bar and tracing an outline of a kanji symbol. Very powerful at the minute and some sites have been saying it's easy to spam this move to make progress easier, which I'm certainly finding to be true at the minute.

Speaking of difficulty, while this definitely isn't a game aimed at the 'expanded audience' or whatever Nintendo call them these days, it's noticeably a lot easier than the console game (or the NES titles). Bosses in particular seem extremely easy and on the couple of occassions that I have died, it's been due to the fact that enemies are thrown at you left, right and centre at times.

So at the minute this is really impressing and as I play more, I will post more impressions. Anyone else playing?

[Eight Rooks]

It's not quite as graphically impressive as all the reviews are saying, it's way too easy (so far) and the stylus controls are a little bit tricky to get to grips with. Just a little. Other than that it's hard to fault this ...uh, there aren't that many moves? The camera shifts with the flat backgrounds are sometimes disorienting? I dunno.

Technically impressive (the sound's pretty wonderful), beautifully thought out and a whole lot of fun to play. Doesn't quite beat It's A Wonderful World/The World Ends With You for best DS control scheme, but it's pretty close. Phantom Hourglass is just dull, dull, dull in comparison - take note, Nintendo, this is another game that uses the stylus for a good reason, not just because the developers felt like it.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Phantom Hourglass is just dull, dull, dull in comparison - take note, Nintendo, this is another game that uses the stylus for a good reason, not just because the developers felt like it.

Very harsh - I personally feel that the Stylus control in PH works very well. It's shocking just how many people don't seem to want to make the effort to adapt to it.

[parkinho]

I thought the stylus controls in PH were excellent - the adventure itself was very poor.

Looking forward to this big time, not played on my DS this year so will be nice to get the old boy out again.

[Eight Rooks]

Note that I didn't say the stylus controls in Phantom Hourglass were bad as such. I just thought they did little to nothing to enliven the game (I gave up on it after getting fed up with the Temple of the Ocean King) and frequently made me think it would have been better if they weren't compulsory. The boat wasn't too annoying, but Link himself... Moves wouldn't register every time, combat didn't have any finesse, I could see how to defeat bosses but I felt with regular controls I'd have done it twice as fast, I kept thinking "This is just a button press in another form - like Twilight Princess' sword slashes"... and yes, I got the

->Open Spoiler<-

tightrope

. The stylus was never a huge problem, and it's not like I didn't put in some effort, but the game was never good enough I stopped thinking about it entirely, and I don't consider that a good thing.

I mean, come on, I thought Aonuma publicly stated the game was originally set for regular control, and he only had it changed to make a point? I find it very, very difficult to imagine IaWW and Ninja Gaiden with "traditional" controls, to the point where they'd almost be entirely different games, and no, I don't consider that an exaggeration in any way.

[J0e Musashi]

Stylus controls are a little loose IMO. Zelda was more precise.
I find myself just drawing random lines across the screen to take on enemies, and when there are multiple ones I just freak out across the screen. Not really much skill needed. Perhaps it'll grow on me?

[Eight Rooks]

The key thing for me is the moves do work if you do them carefully and patiently, the game lets you - even with multiples - and it's all part of the fun. I grant you it does have the Meteos touch... but I prefer loose to cursing at a boss as for the umpteenth time in a row I can work out what to do inside thirty seconds but the game won't let me. Plus, Trauma Centre was "precise", and look how that ended up.

At the same time I have so many bloody games I'm going through at the moment I haven't actually touched this in a while, so make of that what you will. <_< Not that this game's turned sour on me or anything, just that I've got that many great ones.

[J0e Musashi]

Yer, it seems that you can slow down and be more precise. It's still not 100&#37; accurate every single time however. I've not needed to block once yet either. Mixed opinions really, but I think I'll see it through to t'end. It's quite novel.

[Eight Rooks]

Well, I don't think any stylus game detects the correct input 100&#37;.

I haven't really needed to block either - I'm only part way into Act 3, but it's still definitely too easy, particularly after picking up the healing ninpo. I probably will give the harder difficulty a shot. I mean, I'm not that great - I've died a couple of times already - but I can see it was just me getting lazy, not any difficulty spike or anything.

Still stand by my earlier comments, generally. Looks good, sounds great, lot of fun to play. One of the better control schemes on the system... finishing off a roomful of enemies with perfect izuna drops every time, using the stylus, is the kind of fulfilment I wanted out of Phantom Hourglass.

(And I really should go back and give the PS2 Shinobi another play. Nothing in the XBox Ninja Gaiden (though I didn't finish it) felt as good as tate-ing Shinobi's final boss.)

[Johnny]

I finished this off yesterday morning with a total time of 5:17. It remained easy up until the end, with the only real challenge coming from being bombarded with enemies between save spots and working out boss techniques. Most bosses can be defeated easily (the flaming arrows are a must) and I beat the majority of them with full or over 75% health remaining. Having said that, there is a harder difficulty upon completion for anyone looking for more of a challenge. I'd have to say that this is overall one of the very best DS games IMO which is saying a lot considering both the amount of quality titles already available for the DS and the amount I've played. Don't go into it expecting an experience like the console versions and you'll be happy.

[parkinho]

Played this a little over the weekend and so far very much enjoying it. Only got to the 3rd chapter but already I think the controls are spot on which makes it simple to unleash a variety of deadly attacks and combos. Never played a Ninja Gaiden game before so cannot compare it to previous intallments of the series, but I have to admit that I am now interested in giving them a whirl, particularly NG2 which looks amazing from the videos I have seen.

Thumbs up so far!

[vjoe]

I played this game's demo the other day and I quite enjoyed it. The control system is not common but you rapidly start liking it and there's a lot to do in terms of combos and moves.

Too bad the demo "disappears" when you shutdown the DS, otherwise I would have ended it in the higher difficulty level.

Maybe I will buy it someday, although I have other games in my wish list.

[Geoff D]

Much text in this game? Is the Jpn version playable?