One of the better games on the DS and a must have for Ninja Gaiden fans.
It's been six months since the Black Dragon Incident, or the story of Xbox's Ninja Gaiden released in 2004. Hayabusa Ninja Clan has been able to re-establish their village when suddenly Black Spider Clan attacks the village and a shrine-maiden called Momiji gets captured. The holder of the legendary Dragon Sword Ryu Hayabusa now needs to rescue her. Unfortunately there's more at stake and soon he finds himself fighting against zombies, ghosts and fiends who are looking for the Eye of the Dragon.
This time there actually is a back story to all the action and in the game's opening demo much is explained, which did not happen in the console game. You will also spend a lot of time talking to different people in Hayabusa village, which makes you care about what happens and brings more depth to the story.
Graphics are pretty much the best that you can expect from the DS and the use of colors is surprisingly rich. Story is told through cartoonish cutscenes and the many different conversations with characters are done by using a nice still image and text. There are some very limited voice acting involved, but still they fit the overall package nicely.
Environments are 2D backgrounds, but the characters on screen are rendered in 3D. Exceptions to this rule are the boss fights, which are all in 3D. Unfortunately both the environments and the boss fights are mostly recycled from the original Xbox's Ninja Gaiden, but at least they feel familiar.
Familiarity applies to the sound effects and music as well. They are mostly taken from previous game, but still music sounds very good and it's a pleasure to listen. Sound effects are of course centered mostly on combat, and they do their job just like you might remember from 2004, when the console game came out.
Gameplay is a little different when comparing to most games on the DS library. You hold your DS sideways like a book and control all action with a stylus by using the DS touch screen and on the upper screen you can see a map of that area. It all works to a point, but sometimes you'll find Ryu Hayabusa jumping multiple times when you were just trying to make him do quick slashes to an enemy.
Game's signature special moves are Ninpo attacks, which are done by performing some kind of kanji mark with the stylus. It may sound difficult, but it's actually quite fun and satisfying. Surprisingly the DS microphone is also in use from time to time, so prepare yourself to make some weird noises along the way.
After the tutorial you'll soon notice that Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword has a linear structure to it. The Hayabusa Village works as a center place, where you'll begin your next mission. Goal is to collect 8 Dark Dragonstones in order to… well see for you self.
You'll notice early on that you fight against a bunch of enemies and move on, solve a light puzzle and move on, fight a bunch of enemies and so it goes on. Gameplay gets repetitive after about 3 hours, but still the story itself moves forward so this game is at its best when played in small doses.
Gameplay also features some RPG elements, since you can buy different upgrades from a merchant called Muramasa in Hayabusa Village. Dragon Sword can be upgraded, new Ninpo techniques can be bought, new combos can be learned and a longer health bar can be achieved. This aspect too along with the progress of the story creates a feeling that the player is constantly moving forward. It takes about 6 to 7 hours to guide Ryu Hayabusa through his quest, which is divided into 13 chapters.
Difficulty is not so high and unforgiving as I intuitively expected from a Ninja Gaiden game, which is a good thing, since the controls are not as precise as you would need when playing a console version of Ninja Gaiden. Save system uses those same Dragon Statues as save points you might remember from previous console game.
Game is also Wi-Fi aware in which you can download your karma points to a leaderboard and see how other players have succeeded when comparing their result to yours.
This is a nice clarification for the events of the previous console game and at the same time a great preview for the real sequel - Ninja Gaiden 2 - in summer 2008.