Where to begin? I suppose I’ll start by saying that I’m a huge fan of the Ninja Gaiden series, going all the way back to its stateside debut on the NES in 1989. I was only 2 when the game was released, but the moment I could manage a controller, I was all over it. In 2004, Ninja Gaiden was released as an entirely new game on the Xbox, and I hated it. To this day, I have no idea what turned it all around for me, but I eventually followed the path of the master ninja, and entered into Xbox Live’s Master Ninja Tournament, and subsequently placed among the top 500 entrants in the world. The point I’m getting at is that when I say I’m a huge fan of the series, I mean it.
Having said that, the DS iteration of the classic ninja side-scroller left something to be desired from Team Ninja. The controls are very clever and work better than I anticipated, but the game itself gets stale relatively quickly. It’s not like the Xbox title where taking in the beauty of the surrounding areas is enough to keep me going. The environments hold true to that of its big brother Black, but let’s face it; the screen is tiny and the DS isn’t capable of the most impressive graphics. This would be easily forgotten if the gameplay were more engaging, but it’s not.
Walk into that room over there. OK, good. Now kill these enemies. Great job! Now walk into that next room. Kill those enemies and then you can move on. Isn’t this exciting? Hardly. The incorporation of intuitive stylus use to hack and slash enemies was a fine choice, and I commend Team Ninja for going in that direction, but it’s not enough. Room after room of stylus-slashing overtop enemies eventually feels more like a novelty than anything. The boss fights are the best aspect of the game, and even they aren’t enough to keep me coming back for more.
Unfortunately, tackling this title was more or less a chore than anything else.
