dragon-sword
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Ask Massively: Trailers, emulators, and 'skill caps'
It's time for a grab bag edition of Ask Massively! A reader named Nicholas is up first: I was wondering if you could help me remember a game studio that was developing a new Korean action- MMORPG game engine (and it wasn't Bless, Blade and Soul, or ArcheAge). In the tech demo, no environment was being shown; it focused on the combat aspect of the engine. All the combat took place against a white background, and it was combo-based and reactive to hits. I remember a slow motion scene with an NPC being punched in the face and the face distorting. At the time, there were no announced games using the engine; the video was just showing what tech the game studio had developed. If it helps any, I remember the comments saying that the engine was just going to be vaporware. I think we might! Massively's Lis pegged it as NetEase's Dragon Sword trailer. +1 to Lis.
Dragon Sword trailer focuses on action combat
Dragon Sword, a new title by the Chinese company NetEase, has put out a new trailer highlighting its action combat technology. Slated for release some time this year, the game is built around an in-house engine, Next-B, that's being touted as one of the most advanced 3-D engines yet. The game features non-target combat action, open PvP, castle sieges, and large-scale fights against huge boss monsters. Skip below the cut to check out the combat technology video.
Real Ultimate Buying Power today on Amazon [update]
"One skilled in the art of stealth -- Nintendo DS". That's the hint Amazon is offering for a Gold Box deal that will go up today at 6PM PST. We don't know the exact identity of the offer, but we can speculate! Our guess is Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, which just happens to be one of the best games of 2008. What a delight it would be to get it at one of the best prices of 2008! Other ninja-related games we can think of offhand include N+ (another honoree!), Ninjatown (wow, a lot of ninja games in our top 10), Tenchu: Dark Secret (not so great), various Naruto releases, the Izunas, Ninja Reflex, and Taito's Legend of Kage 2 -- which you can get for cheap right now. [Update: it's Ninjatown for $20!]
DS Download Service aims to improve your vocabulary
Another week means another dose of demos available on the Nintendo Channel. If you've got a Wii, you're in luck. If not, then we suggest you cruise past the break to see one of the many reasons why you should own one.
WRUP: On a flight back from E3 edition
It's still technically Friday, for about a few more minutes. By this time, this blogger will be sound asleep and preparing for an early trip to LAX, to get on a jetplane back to anywhere that isn't E3. What do I have in my DS for the trip? A little bit of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. On my second playthrough, the game is still as fun as the first time.Who cares about that, though. In all honesty, I'll probably get 5 minutes in before totally falling asleep in the tiny tin can. What about you all, though? After the craziness of E3, can you even manage to sit still long enough to play a game? I imagine you're all probably far too busy spinning in your chairs with glee.
Get your own Dragon Sword on the cheap
Those who've been sitting on the fence, not content with a favorable review to force them to partake in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword in all its sword-slicing glory, now might be the time to come down from there and see what Ryu Hayabusa's latest adventure is all about. Popular retail website Newegg.com is offering the Tecmo title for $22.99 (+ $2.99 for 3 business day shipping).The regular price for the game, as many of you might know, is $34.99, so this is a pretty good deal. Add on top of it the fact that the game is great and we can see little reason why you shouldn't have stopped reading this and instead be in the checkout section at Newegg right now, entering in your credit card information. For those of you without credit cards, just tie some money to a pigeon and send it their way. Regardless of how you pay, you really should own this game.%Gallery-4937%[Via CAG]
DS Fanboy Review: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Click for more screens from Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword As you can imagine, many were worried when Itagaki showed off the DS entry in his beloved Ninja Gaiden series. Would the groundbreaking new control scheme set the bar for action games on the system or would it be an unresponsive and unrefined mess, causing you to contemplate throwing your DS against the wall? Well, I'm happy to report that none of these fears ever pan out in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, which is a pretty great game overall.It turns out, the game is pretty much everything we hoped it would be: a benchmark for how to do an action game on the DS and how other developers can create a great DS entry in their own respective franchises.%Gallery-4937%
Joystiq on-hand at the Dragon Sword launch
Andrew Yoon, who you may know from Joystiq and enemy blogs PSP and PS3 Fanboy, has the benefit of being able to attend launch parties at the Nintendo World Store in New York city. This comes as a perk of living in New York, because for us to attend the Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword launch event, we'd have to hitchhike with strangers and probably ride a mythical beast or two.For all of the juicy pictures from the event, including the game's development director, Yosuke Hayashi, hit up the gallery below. Gallery: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword launch
Ninja Gaiden's Yosuke Hayashi 'very interested' in Wii
Nintendo World Store held a special launch event for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS. (Check out what the critics thought here.) Development director Yosuke Hayashi was available to sign copies of the game, and a formidable pack of fans lined up to meet and greet the man. Afterwards, we had a one-on-one chat about the game, and what he's looking forward to next. It's no secret that Team Ninja has a reputation for being outspoken and confident in their products. Hayashi is no different. At TGS, we grilled Tomonobou Itagaki about DS action games, and he admitted he played none. However, Hayashi's statement is far more bold: "Itagaki may have said that he's never played any action DS games. But I've played a lot, and none of them were good enough to remember. There's no comparison [to Ninja Gaiden], right?" "There's a very good possibility," Hayashi said when asked about the possibility of DS follow-up to Dragon Sword. "We want to offer a completely different side of the Ninja Gaiden series in a handheld title. There are so many things I can see we can work around if we work on another project." However, a DS sequel may not be the first thing on Hayashi's mind. He talked about how so many fans at the Nintendo World Store wanted a Ninja Gaiden game for the Wii. Without going into details, he simply noted that it was something he was "very interested" in working on. %Gallery-19440%
Team Ninja on Ninja Gaiden accusations: 'Media shouldn't assume'
A few days after a Japanese television network attempted to link Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword with the deadly rampage of 24-year-old Masahiro Kanagawa, Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi has criticized the Japanese media for "making assumptions" about the game's involvement in the tragedy. A copy of the title was found in Kanagawa's bag when he was arrested.Speaking through a translator, Hayashi argued that the media "should not be the ones answering the questions or defining the reasons why this incident happened," yet was keen to point out that he wasn't defending either Team Ninja or Ninja Gaiden. "That's just my message from me to the media," he said, adding, "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."Entirely wise sentiments, of course, but we fear that they'll have little impact, at least while idle sensationalism sells newspapers and bumps ratings. This one could run and run, folks.
Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 3/17-3/23
Last week was the week of new releases! Anticipating high holiday sales, many publishers made sure to release their games last week, with a total of fifteen ending up in the top thirty (seven of those being DS titles). With this slew of new releases, though, a lot of games were bumped off the chart to make room. Etrian Odyssey II and Soma Bringer, for example, did not survive the onslaught. Yet, somehow Mario Kart DS managed to move up a spot -- that game never ceases to amaze us.The top of the heap was none other than Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage, which completely crushed the competition in its debut week. Sim City 2 DS did well also, ending up in the number four spot. In fact, this is the best an EA game has ever done in its first week in Japan, with the exception of the FIFA titles. Time Hollow and Super Dodgeball are some other notable new releases, ending up in spots ten and seventeen, respectively.
Metareview -- Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)
During last year's Tokyo Game Show, outspoken game designer Tomonobu Itagaki issued us a bit of a challenge. "If there's a game out there that is more beautiful, more interactive, faster and has better action than this game," he said, "please let me know." Well, it looks like such a title may still be absent from the DS catalog, as reviewers have had some awfully nice things to say about the short-but-sweet Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Honestly, we should have seen this coming, what with a fairly obvious clue buried in the game's title. Cross some things out, tilt your head to the left and ... voila! Ninja Gaiden :D ragon Sword Gametrailers (88/100): "Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword proves to have a sharp edge with good tech and smooth pacing. It also manages to turn the stylus into an effective ninja weapon, making it play like no other game on Nintendo's little dual screen." IGN (86/100): "Very few developers outside of Nintendo are truly willing to take the risk of experimenting a brand new way of playing an established franchise, but Tecmo's Team Ninja did just that with its DS-exclusive design. The risk worked: Ninja Gaiden on the Nintendo DS is a really great game that offers a fresh, unique take on action games, and gives the touch-screen handheld gamers something that they'll never see on any other platform." Game Informer Online (78/100): "Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is a commendable attempt at making a straight-up action game on the DS. I like the combat and the mechanics, and even though the battles get repetitive, it's frantic and fun enough to occasionally make you forget that fact."
Ninja Gaiden: Depressing Scapegoat
Poor old Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword isn't having the best of times in Japan right now. Having shifted a criminally low 4,000 units in its first day on sale, the game is now having the crusty finger of blame pointed in its direction over a high-profile murder in the country. On March 19th, 24-year-old suspect Masahiro Kanagawa went on a horrific stabbing spree through his home town of Tsuchiura, killing one 27-year-old man, and wounding eight others.We obviously can't explain what motivated Kanagawa, so hey, thank goodness for the news media, which has already nailed down the root cause of this young man's madness -- and it's all to do with that evil Ninja Gaiden game! Take that, professional psychologists and behavioral experts!The above screenshot, captured by the My Games News Flash blog, was taken from a report by Japanese network Fuji TV. The blue and white text at the bottom knowingly points out that Kanagawa was arrested with a copy of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword nestling at the bottom of his bag, implying that its presence there was somehow deeply meaningful. You'll all recognize the image, of course.We seriously don't know what's more depressing about this: Fuji TV's gross over-simplification of what is a complex catastrophe, or the fact that this kind of lazy scapegoating passes as journalism pretty much anywhere in the world. Can we not all just move to the Moon or something? I call shotgun.%Gallery-4937%[Via Kotaku]
Team Ninja to award high-scoring ninjas with branded iPod
Ninja dogs need not apply. This sweet 8gb iPod Nano you're feasting your eyes on will only be attainable by the most skilled assassins in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Of course, this is all based on machine translation, so you'll have to forgive us some misinterpretation. It appears that there will be three different ways that folks can enter for their chance at the Nano. For one, there looks to be a specific difficulty setting that will apply to this giveaway, meaning that players who partake in the game while in this difficulty setting can upload their high score for entry. Second, players can collect certain in-game prizes (or tokens, we're assuming). Third, there's an online survey that can be filled out. Seems fairly easy to us, and there will be a total of 15 Nanos up for grabs. The contest period began on March 21st and ends on April 16th. Again, we're not certain this applies to folks outside of Japan, so keep that in mind. %Gallery-4937%
Promotional Consideration: Real-life ninjas flippin' out
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out. Our featured item for this Easter Sunday, the North American commercial for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, already made the rounds earlier this week, but if, like us, you're a fan of stealth assassins, that's probably of little concern to you. Put on your cleanest black jumpsuit -- make sure to run a lint-roller on it first to pull off all that cat hair -- and sneak past the post break for the video. %Gallery-4937%
DS Daily: Hopes regarding a certain ninja
Personally, we can't wait for next week, as it sees the release of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, the stylus-driven entry in Itagaki's ninjatastic franchise. We're really hoping that the game will help validate other entries in more established franchises on the handheld.Are you all as excited for this game as we are? Did you read some of the reviews and decide for or against the game? Are you as hopeful as we are that the handheld might start seeing some solid 3D action titles now?%Gallery-4937%
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword struts its stuff
For what it reportedly lacks in longevity, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword makes up for in sheer beauty. As you watch these five new videos, it's almost possible to hear the DS hardware straining under the demands of it all, begging for the pain to stop. Hardly surprising, for some of the graphical tricks on display here are genuinely excellent, with the fire effects in the Cavern of Flame (see: the first video after the break) a highlight.While most of this footage simply shows off different stages of the game, we should warn you that the fifth and final video could be considered a spoiler of sorts, as it reveals the return of a series veteran (who, it saddens us to say, has perhaps the tamest evil cackle we've ever heard).%Gallery-4937%
A barrage of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword videos
What impresses us the most about Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword isn't necessarily that it looks so amazing, or that it is such a rare genre for the DS. We are just so damn fascinated by the idea that Team Ninja could take a fantastically different control scheme with just one analog input and one (functional) button, and map pretty much the entirety of the Xbox Ninja Gaiden moveset to it.With the stylus, the experience is completely different, but it's still undeniably Ninja Gaiden. And that is clever. Would you know from looking at these videos that the game was being controlled by dragging? Doesn't it look pretty much like any other modern action game in motion?
Metareview: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
Team Ninja's latest release is quite uncharacteristic: they've always been interested in pushing the capabilities of the hardware they work on, but this usually manifests as high-end graphics on high-end consoles. For the newest Ninja Gaiden game, they strayed from this tactic and made an original DS game instead. It still aims to innovate with the use of stylus controls for fast action.Did the experiment work? Is an action game on the DS possible? Is Dragon Sword a Ninja Dog or a Master Ninja? The reviews are very positive, though there is a near universal disappointment at the game's length and difficulty.Electronic Gaming Monthly -- 86% (A-): Shane Bettenhausen offers praise of the control scheme, basically: "Sure, these fluid controls feel awfully forgiving, but that's cool by me -- with little effort, you'll feel like an agile, ass-kicking superninja."IGN -- 86%: IGN's Craig Harris may not see the controls as a permanent replacement, but at least finds them fun: "Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword kicks a whole lot of butt on the Nintendo DS. Visually, the game's a stunner, and the action is intense and almost non-stop. I don't think the game makes the ultimate case for touch-screen exclusive control in action games, and I certainly don't think stylus control is better than traditional control for the Ninja Gaiden design. But what Team Ninja created for the Nintendo DS definitely works in turning something traditional into something different and unique without forgetting about the fun, too."Nintendo Power -- 85%: Nintendo's official magazine echoes the length issue, but approves of the game itself: "At approximately five hours, Dragon Sword is a bit on the short side, but I have a tough time complaining when those five hours are so tight and extremely polished." [Excerpt found at Metacritic]%Gallery-4937%
Get pumped for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword
Get ready -- Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is finally set for release this month. We're still sad about that whole November debacle, but hey -- the wait is almost over, and for those of you who didn't (or couldn't) get your hands on the demo at a download station, it's now available in convenient video format embedded above. If you want the full experience, try scribbling over your monitor with your stylus while it plays, but don't blame us for any damage. Sure, model Momoko Tani is playing it instead of you, but exercise your imagination here. Do we have to do everything for you?See also: 2008's Biggest Blips -- Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword%Gallery-4937%
