Hands on with Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword on DS

Not content to watch Sony anoint its handheld with an action gameplay god, Nintendo has ushered in an action star of its own. Seasoned and bloodied Japanese assassin Ryu, then, comes to Nintendo DS exclusively in Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. We specifically donned the black garb of the ninja in a hands-on play during last week's Game Developers Conference.

There's no button mashing to be had in Ninja Gaiden. On the contrary, it's mostly about slicing and dicing via the touchscreen. Holding the handheld on its side with said display at your right, you dictate actions using various movements of the stylus. The buttons are used, although infrequently. It's an unusual arrangement and one that currently doesn't quite sit well with us, even though it's certainly functional.

Starting in the lush Forest of Shadows, we took control of Ryu's female ally Momiji. Rival ninjas popping up from the surrounding foliage were easily dealt with slashes of the stylus. During the odd crisis, tapping on foes instructed Momiji to chuck shuriken at them, although a limited supply means having to carefully manage their use.

Straightforward stuff, but advanced manoeuvres exist and are triggered with a string of movements from the stylus. Sliding it up and then quickly back down, for instance, executes the powerful cicada slash.

This system of slides and slashes works, but it feels like random scribbles on the touchscreen. It's no more repetitive than jamming on buttons to level attacks, to be certain, yet the tactile feedback provided by a button seems more satisfying than hollow swipes on a touch-sensitive screen.

At least the fighting is furious and challenging. Beating down enemies requires quick thinking and a good eye to keep track of what's going on – as long as Momiji kept up the pace, her attacks prevent adversaries from landing a hit of their own.

Later on as the enemies grow stronger, however, evasion and blocking become important survival skills. Holding down any of the face buttons enables you to block incoming attacks. Tap the touchscreen while blocking and you perform an evasive dodge.

Should neither of these techniques work and you find yourself hacked to bits, no worries. Part of your health regenerates with time, indicated by a grey portion of your health meter. The greater damage you incur, though, the less health that will return.

Even moving about is done via the stylus (or mini sword, for US readers who have pre-ordered the game from Gamestop). Holding down the stylus on the screen causes your character to walk towards that point. Jumping, meanwhile, is instigated by flicking the stylus up – do it twice in rapid succession to perform a double jump. In play this proved an awkward mechanic because the touchscreen doesn't always want to register a slide up as a jump.

So we came away with slight mixed feelings. A lot of how Ninja Gaiden fares will depend on the intensity of its action, which certainly appeared frenetic from the few battles we participated in. Right now, though, we're just not sold on the control scheme. It's a pretty game, certainly, but we're hoping the controls will have been fine tuned before it hits store shelves in the US on March 25th (a release date for Europe has yet to be confirmed).