Take for instance the fact that Dragon Sword is the first Gaiden game that Hayashi's mom has endorsed, or that the game was designed to be played at the speed of penmanship:

- The game is designed to move at the pace of penmanship. Hayashi started working on "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword" after wrapping work on the PS3 game "Ninja Gaiden: Sigma." Taking the DS game's reigns from his boss, Tecmo Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki, he re-designed the controls and made a breakthrough. "Itagaki had programmed the jump to double-tap," Hayashi told me. "When I played it, I just didn't get any sort of attachment to it. When the double-tap happened it didn't feel like the character was going to jump. So I proposed the idea that, when [series protagonist Ryu] jumps it [requires stroking the stylus] from down to up. When I chose that, there was no doubt that this is the way we should use this... This opened up our concept to how we were going to use the stylus."

I asked if the stroke-based controlled were influenced by favorite strokes of letters in the Japanese alphabets. He said, "Rather than [any one] Japanese character, it has more to do with the pace when one is writing, either in English or Japanese ... Someone can write really fast or really slow, but there's a tempo we thought worked really well."

Plenty of other gems in Totilo's write-up over on Multiplayer.

'Ninja Gaiden' Producer: Video Games Depict Only 10 Percent Of Ninja Lifestyle [MTV Multiplayer]

"We were just talking about it. We didn't fly in until last night and I didn't know about it until I got off the plane," Hayashi said through a translator Wednesday afternoon. "They told me there is stuff going on in the media in Japan, there is a game that was involved and it just so happens it was Ninja Gaiden DS."

Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, told police that on March 19 he decided he wanted to attack his sister and a local elementary school, but changed his mind and instead randomly picked a home and went inside and killed a 72-year-old man. Four days later, police say Kanagawa went to a shopping center and stabbed eight people, one of which later died.

The day after the stabbings, at least one television station pointed out that Kanagawa had a copy of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword in his bag when he was arrested. The game went on sale in Japan on March 20 and police told at least one outlet they are looking into a possible connection.

"There is always going to be a motive for everything that happens," Hayashi said. "There is always a reason and a motive for a way a person acted and in this case, we are almost a party that has to react to a situation that obviously we didn't expect would be triggered by our game."

"Whoever has seen (the connection) in the news and the media we hope that they know what the true reason is, what the truth is behind why this person did this and that it's not connected or directly related to our game."

Kanagawa, who was a gamer, had been involved in at least one national Dead or Alive tournament in Japan and made it the finals, but Hayashi said that he had never been in contact with Tecmo or Team Ninja.

Hayashi, who says that he thinks the game is appropriate for teenagers to play, added that police have not contacted Tecmo or Team Ninja and that he believes the seemingly tangential connection between the stabbing and his game was one created by the media alone.

"The media should not be the ones answering the questions or defining the reasons why this incident happened," he said. "I want to believe that whoever is watching the news has their own judgment of what went on."

"What I said just now is more of a message to the media. Obviously there are victims here, the people who died and their families, so hopefully they don't see that as me trying to defend our company or product. That's just my message from me to the media. The media can report on these tragedies but they shouldn't just assume or lead into a question that doesn't have a definitive answer."

Hayashi spent much of the day sitting at a table near the front doors of the Nintendo World Store quietly talking to patiently waiting fans through a translator, posing for pictures and signing autographs.

It was, he said, the first chance he had to talk to the public about the game, a game he feels people were waiting to come out.

"The fact that people lined up at the store today to purchase the game, that feels good," he said.

Hayashi said the project started out not as a way to get Ninja Gaiden onto the DS, but as a way to create an innovative action game for the portable.

"Internally we saw the project as starting to develop a brand new action game for the DS," he said. "We wanted it to be better than the current games that are out there. We had the DS in front of us and we thought about what we could do we do with it; the fact that you can use the stylus to do the slicing and moving around. Then we found the perfect match which was to bring the world of Ninja Gaiden to the DS."

"It wasn't really like we had huge concerns about trying to bring everything that was accomplished in Ninja Gaiden to a handheld. It was more like this is a brand new title we are going to build taking advantage of the DS features."

Initially Team Ninja had their concerns, the Ninja Gaiden franchise had already appeared on the much more powerful next-gen systems and they weren't sure if people were going to think that the DS version would live up to the name.

"There was a lot of talk about how well that would translate onto the handheld," he said. "But after the release a lot of people have commented that it still has the soul of Ninja Gaiden the series. So far it's been very well received."

Hayashi said the time spent working on the game convinced him that the team should do more on the DS and perhaps on the Wii.

"As for a specific follow for a sequel to Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword there is no plans to a DS 2 or anything that has a continuation from Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword story, however having been able to work on developing a title for the DS this time around I've seen a lot of exciting opportunities and I myself am more excited that I now see the DS being a handheld or console that I can work on and develop a better game perhaps in the future," he said. "When the DS first came out for awhile it was very popular but I couldn't get a grip on what titles were going to really show off the hardware in terms of its capabilities. I do feel that Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword has been able to move in that direction. Hopefully this title will lead to some examples of how to create some even more exciting action games. So in that sense I would like to work on something in the future for the DS."

"Wii is also the same way," he said. "I see a huge amount of potential in the hardware and I am personally very into it and pretty excited about what can be possible on the Wii. I'm hoping I can come up with something for the Wii from our team."

The question is, however, can the white knuckle action of Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden work on a handheld? We'll tell you what we loved and hated in the review.

Loved
Everything's under control: Controlling Ryu with the stylus works like a charm. Slide it for sword slashes, tap it for throwing shuriken and firing arrows, go nuts for Ultimate Technique action. The only button pressing you'll do is for blocking attacks. The d-pad tends to work best, but you can use any button you choose. Hayabusa does what you want, when you want (most of the time).
So pretty: Thanks to some expertly pre-rendered backgrounds, Dragon Sword may be one of the best looking games on the DS. It's obviously not as graphically resplendent as the console versions, but its not as hard on the eyes as other console-to-portable translations.
Sane save points: Team Ninja was nice enough to pack levels with save points that regenerate your health and ninpo. Dying is far less common than in the Xbox and PlayStation 3 versions of Ninja Gaiden, but when you do bite the dust, you'll do little in the way of retread.
Story? What Story? The game may lean toward brief, but part of the reason is that there's very little storytelling fat tacked on. Dragon Sword keeps the pace moving at a pretty good clip, with hand drawn cut scenes reminding you why you're killing scores of lesser ninja, fiends, and demon dogs.
Stellar sound: Familiar soundtrack notes and sound effects ring true, even through the DS speakers. Headphones are recommended, though.

Hated
Weak difficulty: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is intentionally easier than its console counterparts and Head Ninja mode is certainly more challenging, but boss fights border on dull. You'll revisit a handful of familiar fights, but you'll probably breeze right through them on your first or second try.
Endless hordes: While the boss fights aren't as traditionally challenging, you'll often face a hefty dose of fiends and ninja that take more patience than skill to dispatch. Respawning bad guys in certain rooms may just make you want to find the exit rather than slash slash slash.
Spikes: Those damn spikes... Ugh.

It may not have the visual flair of Ninja Gaiden Sigma or Ninja Gaiden II, but Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is a solid addition to the series, if only for what Team Ninja has been able to accomplish with stylus control. It's not the bloody, busty ninja norm, but it's still a hell of a little action game. Its faults are minor, though some may balk at the shorter experience—it took me just over six hours to beat—and the good definitely outweighs the bad.

If you're a die hard Ninja Gaiden fan, don't miss it. For on-the-go gamers who typically stick to slower paced Nintendo DS fare like RPGs or adventure titles, definitely check it out, if only for the technical accomplishments. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and you may be a bit more animated playing your DS than your comfortable with in public but the path of the virtual ninja isn't for the easily embarrassed.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was developed by Team Ninja, published by Tecmo and released on March 25 on Nintendo DS. Retails for $34.99. Played to completion on Normal difficulty for review.

Also, as I reported last week, tonight is the launch party for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII at the Sony Metreon Center in San Francisco. The event goes from 6pm - 9pm and space is limited to 200 people.

And if that's not enough for you, our own Crecente will be attending and telling you all about his adventures at the Tecmo event in New York. Launch events, ho!

Found in the suspect's bag was this katakana hack and slash game software—

That's all I'm signing myself up for. How about yourselves? What are you playing this weekend?

I kinda dug Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword on the DS both when I checked it out on the Tokyo Game Show floor and was forced to play it at the Tecmo party later that night, with a duo of developers looking on. It's seems like a fun little game.

And now Tecmo's let us know that the game will be hitting the DS sometime in March and dropped this official box art on is. It's nice to see some solid timing showing up for games hitting early next year. I was beginning to think it was going to be a slow few months.

NINJA GAIDEN® DRAGON SWORD TO SHIP MARCH 2008
The must have action game is scheduled to ship next year

TORRANCE, Calif. December 19, 2007— Tecmo® announced that Ninja Gaiden® Dragon Sword, the highly anticipated action game for the Nintendo DS™, will be shipping in March of 2008. With the intuitive use of the DS stylus, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword will let players control Master Ninja Ryu Hayabusa like never before.

Developed by Executive Producer Tomonobu Itagaki and the Team NINJA® development studio, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword features beautifully rendered environments, fast Ninja Gaiden-style action, numerous enemies, and a new story. Various directional movements and taps with the DS stylus will activate Ryu Hayabusa to run, jump, attack, and cast Ninpo (Ninja Magic). Certain combinations of movements will allow players to perform special attacks like the "Izuna Drop" and the "Cicada Slash" which were made famous in the Ninja Gaiden console games.

"Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword brings a new level of gaming action to the Nintendo DS," says Yoh Watanabe, Tecmo's Marketing Manager. "There's currently a demo available on the DS Download Station and I urge everyone to try it out and you'll know what I mean."

Team Ninja is known for their flash. Whether it's producer Tomonobu Itagaki's rockstar look, Ryu Hayabusa's penchant for decapitating everything in sight, or the cup sizes of every Dead or Alive female fighter, understated is usually not an adjective that appears in sentences describing Team Ninja. But the developer's offices are so bland, so utilitarian, so... office-y we wondered if we had been led into the wrong building. Soon, however, Itagaki emerged, a hint of tobacco and hard liquor on his breath.

We were lucky enough to have a private interview with the head of Team Ninja about their upcoming venture, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, so we (as quickly as we could) got down to business.

The interview took place in what looked like the team's demo room. Nothing more than a couple couches, a big screen TV, an Xbox 360 and a pair of statues—Master Chief from Halo and Kasumi from Dead of Alive—adorned the room. Outside of a trio of low-key posters for DOA and Ninja Gaiden, you'd have a hard time placing the developer. But the katana on the display stands might have helped.

A pink Nintendo DS with the TGS demo was on hand, so I cracked it open while we talked to Itagaki via his translator. One of the Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword staffers was on hand, but he let Tomonobu do the talking.

Team Ninja is known for their graphical expertise, claiming that they only work on the most powerful hardware for each generation. So why the DS? Itagaki was refreshingly honest, saying that developing for the Nintendo portable was "kind of nostalgiac." How so?

"The time it takes to go from a spec sheet to a program to actually being able to see something on screen is much shorter than it used to be," he said. "If I put in a request for a change, I can see it within the day. That's what it was like ten, fifteen years ago."

But times have changed. The Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 demand more time, more tinkering, more people. Itagaki wanted to get under the hood, figuratively. "With old cars, when they would overheat or something, you could pop the hood and dig around, fix something by hand. You could fix your own car. Now it's all sealed... everything is enclosed and CPU controlled. You have to take your car to the dealer and have him diagnose it just to fix it. That's what it feels like. [Developing for the DS] feels like working on an old car."

Putting down the Nintendo DS and the game, I asked Itagaki about presenting the Nintendo DS fanbase with a less action oriented, more puzzle focused adventure game. That won't be happening, he said. "I don't intend to put a whole lot of puzzles in. Basically, stuff you only have to give a little bit of thought to to figure out what you should do." Referring to the giant rock (and poor Kanji reading skills that had me stuck) he clarified, "There are boulders like that, from time to time. Hopefully, you'll be appreciative that we didn't decide to make the rocks explode."

Thanks for thinking of us, but we only hate exploding barrels.

So why make an action game for the Nintendo DS, when puzzle games, training games and testing software is all the rage?

"On a personal note, when I look at the current state of the [DS] market in the terms of titles that are available, I think it's kind of sad." No tears were visible behind the ever present sunglasses, but he told us "I think that since the DS is a very unique computing device, when I originally announced the title, I had expected and hoped that people would be bringing out very game-like games, games that utilize that interface. But what we've found is that a lot of games are out there that are almost like applications, things that aren't using the full extent of what the DS is capable as gaming hardware."

So who's doing it right? "I think Metroid Prime Hunters is a very good example of a very game-like game, so there certainly are other titles, but I definitely want Ninja Gaiden DS to be an example of that." Itagaki likes FPS games?! He sure does, revealing that "The only first person shooters I play are Halo and the Metroid Prime series."

Ninja Gaiden for the DS is a welcome surprise, one that plays well and uses the stylus in a totally unique way. Western audiences will probably snap it up, but what about something that will dominate Japanese sales charts. I asked Itagaki if Team Ninja has any plans to make a ninja training application for the DS.

He laughed it off. "That's impossible," he said. "Those kind of application type games you can literally make yourself using a PC in ten hours or so. I wouldn't want to try to make that and market it for money for people."

"I'm not trying to be on the defensive. I think it's O.K. that those games exist," he said, "But that's not the kind of game that I want to make. I don't think that really matches what we're trying to do here with Team Ninja."

The Team Ninja lead then got a little hypothetical on us, doing some spur of the moment game design.

He wondered "what kind of game I'd make if someone put a gun to my head and said 'You gotta make a training game or else I'm going to kill you'. I think it would be like a military commander decision simulation or something like that. I think it would be something that would try to show the difficult decisions that generals in the military have to make."

The design document jazz odyssey kept on grooving, with Itagaki saying "I think if you made a straight up quiz type situation, if you chose what that commander actually did, you would get points. Now we have military historians that say this general should have done such and such at this battle, if you actually go in and choose what they should have done instead of what they actually did, you might get points as well. Something like that could be interesting."

Hey, we'd buy it. But Itagaki thinks the game is perfect for "businessmen to understand how to choose during difficult situations."

"We have a game concept happening right now!" he exclaimed, "I'll give you this idea for free. Go ahead and make it."

We'd heard that Itagaki was a decision-making ninja, issuing every "yes", "no" or "Tekken sucks" in under sixty seconds. "Yes. It's true," he confirmed. "Basically, I'm just living moment to moment. It's kind of a miracle I'm alive actually."

I told Itagaki that I'm not a quick decision maker and that his unnamed decision making non-game was perfect for someone like me. "What should we title it? Make it a good title in English, please. Try to do it before the end of this interview." And one condition, "I want to include 'light' and 'shadow' in the title of the decision making game, so..."

"Decide Before Dawn?" I offered. The sound of crickets chirping echoes across the table. At least Ashcraft laughed.

Given that the Nintendo DS generally appeals to more casual gamers, the type who buy millions of copies of Nintendogs, New Super Mario Bros. and Animal Crossing Wild World, we were a little concerned that Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword might be too easy. Boulder aside, it certainly wasn't difficult to tear through the Tokyo Game Show demo. Not to worry, said Itagaki.

He calmed our fears, saying "It would be against my philosophy to dumb it down just to make it easy. Games should be challenging, that's what makes them fun. You have to keep that element of forcing the player to go up against the game, and lose, but get better, so that they can conquer it. There are ways that you can do that, but make it more approachable."

During this dicussion, Itagaki gave us an aside, one about the "evolution of games."

"In the past, our president came to me and said 'Create a game concept. Something that no one has effort thought of before. And you don't have to think about technological limitations. It's because we're worried about technology all the time that we can't come up with good ideas, so give me a concept that no one has ever thought about.'"

"So I gave him a single piece of paper with an idea which is that when you push a button on the controller, the character's hand comes out of the screen at you. So, the president was at a loss for words. Eventually he asked 'Why would you come up with an idea like this?' I said that 'Hey, you said we didn't have to think about any technological limitations.' So that was kind of an expression of me saying as an engineer, don't underestimate the limitations of technology."

The concept of Ninja Gaiden DS is not unlike that one-page design document. The team's goal was tap into the immediacy of the physical interaction involved by cradling the Nintendo DS in your palm, using the motion of your hand to physically manipulate the ninja.

As we were wrapping up, we learned what Itagaki likes less than dealing with technical limitations and the executives who don't understand them—game development seriously eats into his sleep. And his drinking. "I love to sleep. I love to sleep and I love to drink," he responded to a question about his least favorite thing about working in game development, "If I could just drink and sleep, that would be great for me."

That drinking, he says, while enjoyable, eats away at his ability to enjoy games recreationally. He tells us "Unfortunately, the more I drink, the more my eye for details is stimulated. I start breaking games down and analyzing their good and bad things."

Finally, I ask Itagaki the most obvious question (since we like drama). "Who are your rivals on the DS?" I ask, touching the dreaded T-word from rival Namco. He responds, "This is the first time we've made a portable game and so I'm going to be very modest. We couldn't possibly have any rivals." Does this signal a kinder, gentler, more diplomatic head of Team Ninja? He laughs. "I shouldn't lie to you like that. I'm sure there are a lot of good rivals for us out there. I'm sure that when most people see this game, they're going to say 'There they go, at it again.' In a good way. Hopefully, we'll be able to shake things up a bit."

Well, when Namco publishes Death By Degrees DS, we'll ask you again.

"Death by Degrees DS?", he sneers. "Okay, we'll take you up on that."

A puff of smoke and one botched Justify Your Game later, Itagaki and team are gone. It's Sunday and the team is going back to work, either tweaking their handheld debut or killing another bottle of scotch. With love.

The Tecmo press party enticed us with the promise of maid waitresses in a pirate-themed bar, but made us happy by slapping these amazing DS styluses in our hands as we walked out the door.

And the Ninja Gaiden stylus doesn't just look cool, it's also serious deadly. Check, for instance, the "usage notice" on the back of the pack:

This stylus tool is only to be used for touching screens.
Do not pole or swing this stylus tool when near other people.
Do not use this stylus tool if the tip is broken or becomes dirty.
Do no over-stretch the strap.
Please close tightly after using this stylus tool.

I am so ignoring every one of those rules, well except for the dirty one.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword on the DS today. The game was on the show floor over in Tecmo's booth. If you played through the incredibly short demo level you were given a poster, which I promptly discarded.

The title was very much a stylus game. You move around, jump and attack by tapping and swiping your stylus on the bottom screen. That sounds like it might be a bit annoying, but it wasn't. It's done in a way that makes you feel like you're doing a bit more than just mashing away at a button. For instance, a standard attack is performed by slashing down on a target. You can throw knives at your target by tapping on it and you can do a super attack of sorts by swiping up twice to double jump and then down to plunge a sword down into your target.

The demo was far too short to get a solid feel for how much fun it might be once you really dig into it, but from what I played it was quite a bit of fun.

The TGS trailers are already rolling in and the event has barely even started. This clip for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS looks great and actually has me interested in cheking the game. It shows off a lot of the fighting moves that you will be controlling with the stylus. I'm really pleased to see that publishers are finding more ways to take advantage of the stylus control other than just point and tap. It also looks like you'll be holding your DS sideways for this one which is always fun for a little change.

While Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword seems at first blush an odd fit, this video demonstration of the game's controls shows that Team Ninja has been able to create something highly unique and graphically impressive on the Nintendo DS. Nice goin', guys. You sold me. Michael McWhertor

In explaining the best stylus controls ever, Itagaki says we won't know how completely mind-blowing they are until we see them in their heavenly glory. Fortunately, he's here to help!

I plan to have footage of the actual game being played available to view on the Internet in the near future. My reasoning for this is that, because the controls in this game are so innovative, watching someone play this game is the only way to realistically understand how wonderful it is.

I personally look forward to trying out Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword's "immensely intuitive" tap-and-draw control scheme, which the Ninja Gaiden creator says we can expect to hit in the fall. Fortunately, for the ninja dogs who aren't that hardcore, the game will have a lower difficulty than previous Ninja Gaiden games. It's just all coming together so swimmingly! Michael McWhertor

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword [CVG]

The portrait perspective action game doesn't stop the DS design cliche at its Dragon Sword moniker, mind you, it also takes advantage of the second screen in the most predictable way possible. Maps! In addition to standard stylus ninja control, it piles on the touchscreen schtick with Ninpo spells that must be drawn to execute. Sigh.

While it may seem like I'm ninja-dogging Itagaki and Team Ninja for their stock design decisions, it still looks pretty damn sexy. Shit. Damn sexy. Now they've got me doing it. Michael McWhertor

Ninja Gaiden DS [Famitsu]

Series director Tomonobu Itagaki has gone the way of Dragon Quest IX bringing Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword to the ultra-popular dual screen handheld. Sporting a top-down look, Ninja Gaiden DS is probably what Itagaki was referring to when he hinted at a game "like no other type of game I have ever made."

The game looks to be played in portrait mode, similar to Brain Age, and will be primarily controlled with the stylus, not unlike The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Scans from the mag are available over at NeoGAF which show plenty of promise. This should be interesting to say the least. Michael McWhertor

This week's Japan mag news [NeoGAF]