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Due to the absence of a PS3 at my house (it’s not really a home without a nice, warm PS3 for the family to gather around), I picked up my son’s copy of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS.  I thoroughly enjoyed the game’s decent graphics, innovative game play (using a stylus to move and attack), and engaging, if a bit short, storyline.  I played it through with little trouble on the “Normal” mode (the only one available at first) and finished the game within a week or so.

Upon completion of the game, I unlocked some added features, one of them being the “Head Ninja” difficulty mode.  This turned out to be an appropriate description of the difficulty, as this level of play sucks beyond all reason, almost at the expense of any enjoyment of the game.  To add to the sheer joy, you’re forced to play with the stylus and touchscreen.  That which seemed to work so well on “Normal” mode doesn’t seem quite so swell now.  If your touchscreen is scrached to the texture of fine sandpaper as mine is, it really screws with the in-game reaction of your little ninja.  You find your little ninja doing some rather un-ninja-like things, like walking into enemy attacks 0r opting not to attack at all, preferring to just do a little dance in place while enemies swarm from all directions. 

I guess the reason for my rant is my exasperation over trying to unlock the hidden character, the female ninja-in-training.  You play the first level as “princess throwing star”, fight and lose to the first boss (a rather large fire breathing dragon), and that sets the rest of the plot in motion.  Now if you actually succeed in beating this first boss, you unlock this little ninja princess as a playable character with her own storyline.  The problem…it is even more difficult than playing in “suck ninja” mode.  I’ve worn the dragon down to about 1/2 it’s HP, but if you even bump into the thing while dogding, your ninja will register as a block abut half the time and takes your own life down 1/2 way.  If Dino gets hold of you even once, you’re done.  Worse, just getting to this boss requires a 5-10 minute fight with the usual endless drone of enemies.  They won’t kill you (usually), but will ensure that you don’t make it to the boss at full capacity. 

Anybody else ready to throw their respective DS-es over this unholy and addictive game? 

-CWD