Skip over navigation

Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW  |   Help   |   Sign in

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (2008)

Certificate 16

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Sign up

Rated 3.5 stars
Average rating
(67%)
 
Developers: TECMO
Genres: Fighting
Number of players: 1-2
Released: June 27, 2008

Ryu Hayabusa is certainly a busy chap. He's gone straight from full size antics on the Xbox 360 onto the DS for some miniature fun.

This latest game in the series is a full game all on its lonesome rather than a port of a console game, coming complete with its own plot. It revolves around Ryu, a bit of a love interest/partner, Dragonstones that need questing for and the origin of the Dragon Sword. But it's not the plot that matters really, is it? It's the action!

The action is different to anything you've seen before in the Ninja Gaiden series, courtesy of the DS's touch screen and stylus. Pretty much all the action is controlled using the touch screen. Players drag the stylus around the screen to guide Ryu, swipe it for sword slashes, tap to throw a shuriken and flick it upwards to get our ninja hero to jump. Even Ryu's trademark Ninpo abilities are touch screen controlled, unleashing torrents of energy with a few taps of the stylus.

Saving the world can be a big job, but that doesn't mean it can't be done on a small games machine.

Screenshots

Highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Best Action DS game available

SackboyPS3 from from Plymouth, 18th November, 2008

Ninja gaiden is one of my favorite games. So my expectations for the DS version were not high. Afterall, how can you translate a rock solid, precision slasher that requires the dexterity and precision of a brain surgeon to a handheld with 6 buttons? I was so wrong. Firstly the game looks amazing (for the DS anyways). The 2d backgrounds and 3d character models match the feel of the console editions perfectly. The cutscenes are kind of like comics. The controls take some getting used to. Using the d pad to block and swooshing the stylus to do everything else. However once you get it into your head that slow deliberate movements win the day rather than random frantic scribbling your soon racking up combos that number treble figures. One problem is when combat moves to the rear of the screeneverything becomes so small that accurate imput becomes erratic at best. Not enough to spoil the experiance. The difficulty level is just about right. Apart from the bosses that you can just blow over in 30 secs. Overall easier than console, still hard though, but more suited for the casual audiance of the DS. I recommend this whole heartedly. I cant think of a better 8 hours ive spent with my DS ever!

Read all highest rated reviews