Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Ninja Gaiden has a rich and proud history as a franchise. In the arcade, the game sported amazing graphics and gameplay. When the series was moved to the NES, all three games were instant classics and hailed as prime examples of what makes for a great action game. Years down the line, the series was revived on the Xbox with the release of Ninja Gaiden (and its remixes with Ninja Gaiden Black, also on the Xbox, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3). When making the move from 2D to 3D, Team Ninja proved that the action genre was still exciting, and fully capable of providing deep gameplay. Now, with Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, Team Ninja is ready to continue the story of Ryu Hyabusa in spectacular fashion. Retaining the feel and speed of the Xbox and PS3 games, Dragon Sword is primed to set the new standard for action titles on the DS.

What's Hot
Often times when a big name franchise makes the move to a portable platform, you end up with a watered down experience or a spin-off rather than a faithful continuation of the series. With Dragon Sword, however, Team Ninja isn't holding anything back or going light on any of the features that the series is so well known for. The game features two playable characters, a rich story, and a great overall presentation package.

Dragon Sword takes an interesting approach to controls. The game is almost 100% touch-based, except for using the d-pad to handle blocking. You hold the game vertically, much like you do with Brain Age, and all your attacks are handled by either tapping the screen (projectiles) or sliding the stylus in certain directions to pull of moves and combos. This approach is comfortable, accurate, and generally a blast to experience. While making the game touch-based was a gamble, it definitely cashed in with a huge payoff in the gameplay department.

Graphically, the game is mind-blowing. Far too often the DS struggles with muddy textures and blocky models, but Dragon Sword has a graphical look that puts it alongside the best to be found on the DS. With fast action and many interesting environments, the visual aspect of the game is rarely anything but spectacular.

What's Not
Even though we loved the decision to make the gameplay entirely touch-based, it does have a few drawbacks that must be noted. When you're swarmed by enemies it's common to find your swipes getting a bit imprecise or frantic. This can lead to some unintentional moves or an awkward jump here or there, but for the most part this is minimal. One thing that always feels a little strange, however, is whenever you're engaged in any sort of platforming. Jumping, while easy to execute, is a little hard to control, and you'll find yourself falling more than you might have given a traditional control scheme. To address this, Team Ninja seems to have scaled back the platforming elements a bit, but a more inventive fix would have been nice.

The game is challenging, but each boss seems to be highly exploitable. As with most action games, there is a proper way to approach each boss battle, but in Dragon Sword discovering these methods is a pretty simple affair. The bosses are still fun but defeating them is often a casual affair.

The game isn't all that lengthy, and the reward for completing the game is little more than just unlocking an extra hard mode. And yes, this mode is extremely tough. Unfortunately there isn't much more to strive to unlock, but the game is fun enough that you might revisit it a time or two down the road. We were able to get through the game in about five and a half hours; pretty short, but not criminally so.

Final Word
While there isn't a whole lot to compare it to, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is still easily the best action experience on the DS. The unique control scheme works well, outside of a few awkward moments, and the game is presented in a very impressive fashion. It's nice to see a developer make an honest and real effort with the portable iteration of a popular franchise; and gamers should be eager to support the title. Hopefully this isn't the last of the Ninja Gaiden games we see on the DS. The formula is something that could definitely make for repeated use with a few tweaks here and there.
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