Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword Comments by Kristan Reed

7? Ninja Dog!

Im buying this no matter what.

i found it a bit dull.. i guess after playing Ninja Gaiden it feels a little bit empty. Graphics are nice for a DS and it's not too chanllenging for a quick dip now and again.

I'd say EG's 7 is about right.

/Looks at his M3 DS Real card and smiles

Yeah, I agree. It's good fun in the 7/10 kinda way. It looks like Ninja Gaiden, but doesn't quite taste like it. Not even close to matching the original's combat mechanics.

I also think 7 is about right. Its still a good game and i really enjoyed it in short bursts.

"Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is undoubtedly a solid, polished and innovative offering, but simply lacks enough substance and variety to make it an essential purchase."

So 7/10 is not an essential purchase? Pardon?

Yep, I'm fairly sure that's pretty much what their scoring policy has said for the last 7 billion* years.

*may be an exaggeration

What he said.

I'm waiting for this to arrive in the mail. Hopefully it won't be long until I found out whether I'll enjoy it more than you did :)

It's a good game, and definitely one for people who like to see new and clever control mechanics. I think the graphics are just spectacular for the DS, plus for some reason I like games that have you hold the thing sideways :)

It's not the game for me, though - I like my handheld action to be simple to control and to watch. Shifting camera angles, large movesets, lots of polygon characters (as opposed to stylized, blocky, simplified stuff) IMO really belong on the TV, not on a handheld screen.

This is a real joy to play, or at least is as far as I've played so far which is about 6 chapters in. It's getting quite hard, but the levels are fun and the enemies are interesting to fight. Great use of the DS features too!

"So 7/10 is not an essential purchase? Pardon?"

When was 7/10 ever an essential purchase?

Well the Fanboys came out of the woods early for this one. Grow up! The score does not stop YOU from buying it, christ, go to Gamefaqs and read some reader reviews or something. >.>

As for the score, yup seems very reasonable to me, I know I'll be picking this up, but that fact that Ryu owns everything way to easy will detract from that hardcore NG feel, but still it is very well done in terms of presentation and innovation. Might even help introduce some more people to the series =)

Are you reading the same thread as me Slipstream? Christ.

4-5 hours long? thats very short and people moaned GOW on PSP was too short this is even quicker.

@Mingster

To be honest it seems longer than that when you are actually playing it.

As it does not hold up well to long play sessions you end up playing it for half an hour or so and then doing something else (It is a bit repetitive at the end of the day).

That said I am still enjoying it. Also it bridges the gap in the story between NG1 and NG2 so it is essential for completists.

I did end up using the shoulder buttons to block, roll, etc, but still felt a bit wrong. There's no reason why they couldn't have made the game in normal horizontal orientation.

Does it cater to left-handed gamers?

Lefties?

Yes, they looked after us

Very different on hard.
It's very sad that normal is the only difficulty available at the start because scribble on hard and you will die.

@ thomasbeff

Good! Thanks!

On the 1up show they made a point that it was a mediocre game on the default difficulty setting, but a much better game from the harder setting (which I think is only available after you've completed the game on default).

ANy thoughts on that from anyone who's played it?

too short for the money. I'll pass.

@Bleeptest, yup that's my exact feelings.
It's a wholly different game on hard I felt and much more rewarding.

It feels to me like the game was balanced for hard and then someone backpedaled to not scare away the DS audience.
Still, normal is a whole lot of fun, just wish I could persuade the reviewer to play through on hard.
It is not that long a game after all.

Is it too much to ask to have hard difficulty unlocked from the beginning?

@ DUFFKING

0.0 Err Well, I wasn't going to name any individuals, just because I don't like picking on people, but I swear there was a post here this morning complaining about the score >.< Either they deleted it or I just woke up for a good morning moan LOL.
Whatever the case, it stays as a deterrent!

Meh, I think the game is worth at least a 9 or a solid 8 for the incredibly intuitive stylus controls, eye-bleeding speed and the fact it's a truly amazing technical accomplishment.

I'm not sure why the supposedly 'easy' difficulty (I thought it was pretty well-balanced on Normal) is an issue, considering the fact that 'insane difficulty' has been one of the biggest gripes amongst gamers as far the Ninja Gaiden series goes.

As for the length, like God of War: Chains of Olympus, it's a handheld action-adventure game. Do you honestly expect a 30 hour romp? Just because a few RPGs cheat to provide a 30-60+ hour experience by having constant level grinding or other mindlessly repetitive tasks, it doesn't mean that they're the final arbiter on matters of game length.

I like it quite a bit. After all who would have thought DS would get something like this? and yes I am a fan of the XBox version and yes it is fairly watered down but its great to see something innovative like this particularly with an established franchise. Perhaps if it werent Ninja Gaiden and just a new Japan based ninja romp doing all the things it does people would say "wow thats novel!"but as it stands theres a large handful of criteria that go with N G and I guess people find that hard to shake off. Tomonobu Itagaki already said he wasnt interested in doing it on PSP as he felt he could do something more experimental on DS and at the end of the day thats what hes done. Mind you having said that I wouldnt mind a more 'regular' version on PSP as well but thats out of the question from what he implied......