What I Learned From Playing...

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (NDS)



I've been playing Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on my Nintendo DS for over the past two months. This will sound terrible, but it's the perfect bathroom game. The save points are almost perfectly paced 10 minutes of play time apart. I've thoroughly enjoyed the game and it's been well worth the money. So here are a few things I've learned from playing it.

1. Being a ninja bad ass is cool

This seems pretty self-explanatory, but obviously the point is a bit more profound. The point isn't the obvious, that I want to be a ninja, but rather that this game does an incredible job at making me feel like I'd be a totally badass ninja. I think the game's controls are really core to creating that illusion. In a way, the combat reminds me a lot of the Phantom Hourglass but a bit more engaging. In the Zelda offering, you simply tap on an enemy with the stylus and Link will attack it. I think you can also slash at an enemy, but it's far less reliable and, well, just tapping them is so much easier. Dragon Sword, on the other hand, requires you to slash repeatedly at enemies either vertically, horizontall or diagonally. There are a few combo moves in the game, but this game has created the stylus equivalent of button mashing, stylus frenzy. My DS screen is pretty scratched up as a result of this game.



However, you can perform this slash attack on any enemy on the screen at any time, and Ryu, the game's hero and player's avatar, will deftly step in that direction and perform a well animated and dynamic slashing attack. Through frantic stylus swipes, I'm guiding my katana of death from enemy to enemy in a well-coordinated whirlwind of destruction. I really feel like I know what I'm doing. This is the real point. Player's want to feel powerful and skillful when they play these games, but they can see when the game is playing itself. I really like Dragon Sword because I know when I screw up, the enemies will jump all over me. But through very simple actions, I'm unleashing some real ninja badass.

2. Repetitive actions, even when they're fun, need a fresh twist every once and awhile

I'd have to Dragon Sword falls short here. They try to switch it up with new magic spells, some unlockable moves, a new glowing sword and some explosive tip arrows, but I'm really just swiping the stylus like mad the whole time. I think they could have done some cool things with combinations of vertical and horizontal slashes that would have made the game more interesting. Even the monsters later in the game that start to block more are ultimately defeated by just swiping at them non-stop.

3. I should not play Ninja Gaiden or Ninja Gaiden 2 for the Xbox 360

I loved this game and loved fantasizing that I was this uber cool ninja. I never really could get into the idea of fighting demons all the time. I think I'd prefer uber cool assasins or other ninjas. But playing this game really made me want to play the 360 titles. But then, I made it to a difficult boss battle. I've heard legend of Ninja Gaiden having some freakishly difficult/random boss encounters.



I was ready to throw my DS at one point. I let out many yells and gasps of frustration. My wife was not impressed. No explanation would make her understand my anger with this fiend from the underworld. Of course, I eventually beat the boss and I was happy again.

But this experience reminded me that I'm 30 and not 13. Life is a lot bigger than a silly video game. Video games can be paused. Video games are their own challenge, but they are inconsequential to many other things in life. Video games are games. Simply put.

4. There's nothing wrong with frequent saves.

Some people feel like save points can result in making the game easier, but I think they end up making the game more accessible (especially on the DS). If this game had any fewer save points, I wouldn't have played it for very long. It would have been way to frustrating. Early on, the bosses were the only real challenge besides finding time to play. I would never have made much progress if the save points weren't so well laid out.

When I played Max Payne, I used to save almost every single room. I didn't have a lot of time to play games back then, so I really didn't want to waste alot of time if I made a mistake. I think planning for players to play through an area more than once is stupid. It counts on player's getting a nasty surprise they can't overcome the first time through. This is just poor design and should be avoided.

5. The Nintendo DS is awesome

This game looks incredible and plays so well. The DS is so lite and easy to bring along. It's by far the best portable system ever invented and the sales numbers back that up.