Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
Review
Slicing your way through the hordes
by Professor Layton
reviewed on NDS
Berserk
Looking at the game’s level design, you can see the massive potential for something really special, something not seen on the DS before. Unfortunately it got ruined by the use of two-dimensional graphics. It is not that the graphics are bad, far from it, few games on the DS are able to push out graphics of this quality. osses and enemies look amazing and the surrounding area sets the ambiance like no other DS game to date.
But the game takes place in a three-dimensional world with two-dimensional graphics. This combination makes it difficult to accurately perform some of Ryu’s moves. Most of the controls in Dragon Sword work well but there are some issues with the jumping and running. While in the air, you don’t know exactly where you are going to land and running can feel little bizarre at times when only the enemies and Ryu himself seem to be moving.
You will probably spend a bit of time trying to master the controls. By the time that you do, you may have had enough of rapidly sliding the stylus on the screen to get Ryu to move and fight. It is hard to understand that the repetitiveness of the fighting hasn’t been addressed by the game’s developers. Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is a fighting game and the last thing any developer would want is for their audience to become bored by the combat mechanics.
Some flaws, but worth it
The sound isn’t anything to write home about but the musical score suits the levels nicely and the effects are more than adequate. You will finish the single player part of the game in around seven hours, but you can then take the game online. Once connected, you can upload your high scores and see how you stack up against the rest of the world. If this doesn’t appeal to you but you would still like to play some more, you can try the next difficulty level. If you thought the first mode was hard, you haven’t seen nothing yet, the next level is truly berserk.
The mix of two-dimensional backgrounds with three dimensional movement hurts the game, causing wacky controls that don’t motivate to look at the beautiful surroundings. That does not mean that Dragon Sword is a bad game. It is certainly a nice addition to the Nintendo DS library, despite its flaws. There is a lot of replay value to be found here and the gameplay is both fun and varied. If frantic stylus action is your thing, then don’t miss this game.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
