been playing Dragon Sword for the last couple of days. Absolutely awesome. Once you get a handle on the speed and responsiveness I can fight as well on DS as I do in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. The only thing I haven't been able to do is run along walls. But the game is truly a great achievement on DS and has reminded me of why I should keep it. I feel like an idiot even considering parting with it... :-/

Well, Striderhayasha, that comment is really convincing. I'm thinking about buying, but opinions have steered me wrong in the past (Dementium: The Ward)

@Hion:
You hould buy it, it is easily one of the best games on the DS. If you've played Ninja Gaiden on Xbox you will really like this. It seems like you fight much more intuitivly on this then on Xbox,and the game is really fun which is always good.

@Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: I don't think you can run along walls. Even Flying Bird Flips are difficult and nigh useless to pull off, since Cicada Slashes are just an "anytime" affair instead of wall-based.

I'm now very curious if, originally, Ryu was able to open a combo with a launching strike (only other purpose of a down-to-up stroke). If so, I think I would've preferred the double-tap to Hayashi's decision.

@Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: I agree -- I've been having a blast with it so far. It took me a little while to get my head wrapped around the fact that, while it may share the look and most moves of the console versions, it's a very different game. The "gaming at the speed of penmanship" concept is a good description of it -- things just seem much faster than the original even if they're not, since every action and stroke has a direct correlation on screen. As soon as I stopped expecting the same kind of control, pacing (and difficulty, really), I was able to enjoy the game on its own merits, which, for my money, really is up there with Kirby Canvas Curse as far as games that just couldn't be done without the control scheme that's there. This isn't to say at all that it's less of a game than the console versions -- it's just different. Which is a good thing.

@Hion: I'm with Diamondblade on this one. It's not the best game in the world, but something about it's just undeniably awesome. In my opinion, it's the kind of game that's not only just a natural fit for the DS, it's one of the games that showcases exactly what we all hoped the platform would do.

Hmm I just traded Dragon Sword in---really did not do it for me---I played it for a few hours but got frustrated at how they try to cram **EVERYTHING** on the stylus---I wish they would have made the D-Pad movement and the Stylus attack, then you wouldn't have weird moments where you want to run but instead Ryu attacks and vice-versa. Overall I just didn't feel as connected to the action as I did in Sigma, where pressing attack guaranteed an attack here if I slice after a jump Ryu **might** do the flying swallow technique if the DS gods so chose it to be so, but more than likely I will just be frustrated and wondering why I took time away from playing Crisis Core for this---although I got to keep the nice Katana stylus hehe!

I'm looking forward to it. The whole point of the DS (and Wii) was to bring games in new ways as well as allow new games that didn't make sense before.

You can't get much more creative than this. Hopefully games in this spirit start finding their way onto the Wii.

@Zookey: Huh... every time I draw down-to-up and then a horizontal line I'm guaranteed a Flying Swallow.

Is it because I'm special?

If you read the R4 artcle from a few days ago, u mighta missed my post about how I downloaded the game for the R4, then the next day bolted to the store to buy it. Its that good. bloody good game. Go as far as to say its one of the best games ive played in awhile, because it just plays so originally and feels great.

Wish it was harder, but still fun as hell.

Wow, to think that all this time we've only been using 10% of our ninja.

Much as I enjoy Dragon Sword, I'd be a lot more impressed with it if it used less recycled content... most of it (particularly the bosses) is lifted directly from NG1.

Music, enemy designs, bosses, stages, animations... almost all of it is rehashed from the 2004 game, and that really hurts it. I enjoy the control scheme and I like that it's meant to be a genuine followup to NG1... but I was hoping for more new stuff. At about 8 chapters in now, it feels almost more like a port than a sequel. :/

@Scazza: Yeah, same here. I ended up canceling my pre-order on Crisis Core, and used that money to buy Dragon Sword, after playing it on my M3 Simply.

Then, I ended up downloading NG Black, which contrary to general consensus, I don't find all that hard.

@ Zookey: wow sorry to hear that. when itagaki said dragon sword was the most responsive ninja gaiden of them all, he wasn't lying. i've been able to get ryu to do exactly what i want at least 95 percent of time. sorry to hear it didn't work for you.

@ Hion: download the demo and give it a go.

@ mienai: its funny because i didn't get crisis core because of how much i like ninja gaiden.

@ MisterSleep: i hear you. im enjoying ninja gaiden's combat so much that it makes me wonder what a true 3D zelda, not a 3/4 view, would be like with these controls.

@mienai: @Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: I bought NG:DS and Crisis Core (im an FF7 whore) and the only reason I have yet to even get far in NGDS is because of CC, which although isnt as "good" is bloody cool for an FF fan, and the eyecandy is just jawdropping. FMV rivals the movie.

@Scazza & Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.: There are 2 reasons I didn't get CC. The first is what I said before. The second is, the English voice-acting in it was horrible at best. I canceled my pre-order, because I just couldn't take the voice-acting.

@Scazza: I have to disagree with you on that last point. At least they re-did the mouth movements ala KH2, in CC. Whereas in AC, they just dubbed the voices, which looked stupid.

penmanship eh?? No wonder I suck at this game, my hand writing is horrible.

Anyway it's no bull the controls for this game are awesome. I had my doubts too, but dragon sword really has most innovative controls I've seen for the DS. If Team Ninja puts out a game for the wii w/ this quality I'll buy a Wii just for that.

@ Scazza: a friend said the same about the cg, but lets be real, when has square ever produced bad cg?. they did awesome cg on gba. don't get me wrong, i'll get crisis core eventually but i'll get crystal chronicles first for me and the little woman. she always love the gc version.

@ mienai: you can't play the game in japanese with subs? that sucks.

Nope, it's English with English subs only, unfortunately. But there are undubs floating around...