OMG Nintendo

Making a truly unique Nintendo DS game is no small feat. The system's hardware isn't the most robust, and on top of that it has a huge system library. You'd think everything would've been done already, but Tecmo's Team Ninja proved that was not the case. Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is completely unlike anything else you can play on the DS.

This means that for gamers, the question is if it's a unique experience that's also a good experience. Most games are so identical, after all, because most gamers get to preferring a certain kind of experience and seek out similar ones that let them use already-developed skills. Anything too unusual can often be off-putting unless it's implemented so that it feels just right.

With a metacritic rating of 84% as of this writing, it seems Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword has gotten things just right. The way the reviews break down, and the international view of the game, is pretty surprising, though. Check after the break for the round-up.

Ninja Gaiden isn't doing so hot in its native Japan, with a miserable 6000K (or so) sales so far according to VGChartz's numbers. Then a copy was found in the bag of a killer who went on a stabbing rampage, prompting the usual finger-pointing from the Japanese media, and forcing Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi to deliver a verbal beatdown that urged people not to jump to conclusions.

This has, fortunately, not tainted the American view of the game so much as given North American gamers something new to nerd rage about until the next thing comes along. If the good reviews translate into sales over here, then hopefully we'll get more Team Ninja games on the Ninja Gaiden engine.

Take, for instance, the GameTrailers review, which does ding the game for its short six-hour length and a tendency to reuse assets that's a little bit too noticeable in a game so short. Still, its 8.8 score is the third-highest on Metacritic and has only good things to say about the game's technical achievements:

The speed and visual fidelity in Dragon Sword are impressive. The games technical performance is faultless, and the vertical screen orientation was the right choice for this high-flying, acrobatic brand of ninja death dealing.

While Cheat Code Central offered a 4.2 review score, which some would consider not the best, the lavish two-page text review bursts with enthusiasm. Maria Montoro's emphasis is on Ninja Gaiden's unique place in the Nintendo DS system library, as well as its unique controls.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is innovative in many ways, starting with the unique action controls, completely delegated to the stylus. If you thought this game would be a button-masher, you were wrong. It might be a "hack-n-slasher" but in a whole new way. Team Ninja went for something totally different this time; the player will control Ryu and his sword with the stylus almost exclusively. The only complaint I have is holding the DS like an open book and fighting with the stylus isn't very ergonomic. In fact, it might be the first cause of "DS-elbow" syndrome. As you know, this is widely popular on Nintendo Wii, but not on the DS&yet.

GamePro's print-only coverage granted the game an 4 out of 5, and similar scores make up the bulk of the review scores for Ninja Gaiden on Metacritic. The GamePro review judges Ninja Gaiden DS less purely as a portable title, and more as an extension of the Xbox's original Ninja Gaiden franchise. As far as that goes, our own Dave Rudden seems to find it a little lacking, if still fun.

The biggest discrepancy in gameplay comes during the boss battles. While the Xbox version featured epic boss battles that were true wars of attrition, the fights in Dragon Sword usually boil down to unleashing your strongest Ninpo attack at the outset, and then whittling away the rest of the boss' energy by finding openings after it attacks.

Surprisingly, the low score comes in from G4 TV. Justin Fassino regards Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword as a watering-down of what Team Ninja had previously established with the Xbox Ninja Gaidens, lacking too much of the original's famous high difficulty.

Very little of the complexity and depth of the console Ninja Gaidens makes the transition to the portable environment. Combat is very repetitive and often requires nothing more than slashing the touch screen furiously to defeat enemies. Dungeons are extremely short, artificially lengthened with rooms full of enemies that respawn every time the player visits them. Though the bosses require a great deal more strategy, they are not particularly difficult. This trend in challenge (or lack thereof) is reflected across the entire game, in fact, making Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword feel more like Ninja Gaiden Lite.

I'm really on the fence about this one, and may not be able to bring myself to pick it up until it's undergone a price drop or gone on sale somewhere. I'm really itching to try it out because of its totally unique engine and control scheme, but I can't bring myself to drop roughly $40 on a 10-hour game I know I'm probably going to beat inside of a week and then never pick up again. Yeah, there's unlockable difficulty to make things tougher, but I hardly ever bother beating a game twice on my own time when there's so much I haven't played at all.

EDIT: MTV Multiplayer just updated with a sort of informal interview with Ninja Gaiden DS producer Yosuke Hayashi, full of interesting little tidbits about how the game was designed and why. Apparently the reduced difficulty was intentional, to make the game cater to the DS's more casual audience, and the book-like position you hold the DS in while you play was to ensure controls that were good for righties and lefties. Interesting stuff, though I'm not sure if any of it changes my basic opinion on this game.

EDIT THE SECOND: It should surprise absolutely no one that IGN picked Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword as its game of the month for March. Pretty high praise for a 10-hour game. I can only presume those must be 10 really freaking awesome hours.