Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)

This game came out, and after watching the trailers, I just had to get it. I’ve been playing it for a bit, and I’m not disappointed. The controls are awesome, the game play is even better, and the story isn’t bad either. I got to Chapter 6, and have already collected three dark dragon stones. I upgraded my sword up to level three, bought two max health upgrades, and learned a total of three spells. I have jet to master the fighting system. The system is easy to get used to, but complex enough to require skill in mastering it (another thing I like about the game). The only thing I don’t love about it is the cartoony character style. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind cartoon characters in games, but I think they don’t fit so well with the theme. Another style of anime should have been chosen, IMHO.

A homebrew port of Tyrian from the PC is now also available for download. I loved this game on the PC, so I’m really enjoying it on the DS. It’s still in beta (version 0.2), so not everything works quite yet, and the game loves to crash every now and then, but that didn’t stop me from playing it. I finished 4 episodes already, and I’ll probably finish the game soon (Tyrian is about replay value anyway).

EDIT: I’ve played Ninja Gaiden a bit more tonight. I’m now at the beginning of chapter eight, and have already collected five dragon stones which means there are three left. I learned another spell, but I haven’t tried it out yet (all I’m using is my healing spell). IMHO, the game is a bit too easy on normal difficulty. I hope a hard difficulty will be unlocked after I complete the game.