Date: 2009-06-10 19:45:34 Created: null
For Nintendo DS
Ninja Gaiden's appearance on the DS is surprisingly similar to the Xbox version in both appearance and feel.
The similarity in combination with a lower difficulty level strokes my ego by making me feel like I'm simply badass from getting through the first game.
Not only does it feel and look similar to play, a lot of the actual locations are similar too. I don't know if they've reused assets as these are static 2d backgrounds instead of 3d and feel detailed in a different way, but they have used locales and layouts you recognise. Oh, and enemies too. But unfortunately it seems you can't behead anyone at all this time around, a definitive step down even from the no-beheading-of-humans-restricted european release of the Xbox game. In any case, I find it entertaining rather than annoying, but I hope they pull out some new boss fights and locales toward the end. As both the bosses and locales are somewhat less imposing here you get a certain feeling of playing a successfully shrunken down version of the same game again. A perfect shrinking process, to be sure, but still very much the same. A few more new places and faces won't hurt.
But that's a really small nitpick. I'm having a great time so far, and beating things which put up much more of a fight in the Xbox version makes me feel like a real master ninja. Come get some!
Oh darn
I hope those electric worms don't make a comeback ...
And I am done, my first run lasting, according to the save file, six hours and twenty-one minutes. Short but sweet, even if you add the surprisingly few reloads post-death. I am happy to say that the electric worms never showed up, and all my above impressions lasted all the way through.
All I am wondering now is this: would I feel completely miserable and helpless if I tried the good old Xbox version of Ninja gaiden now?