Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword brings the brutal action series to the small screen and fundamentally changes the control scheme - instead of buttons, combat plays out almost entirely through stylus strokes. As the ninja Ryu Hayabusa, the player slashes with the sword by swiping across the screen, dodges with gestures, performs combos with short strokes, and activates special abilities with a tap, which is an unusual but surprisingly functional approach for a handheld action game. The story continues the series' mythology and offers a sequence of levels full of battles against hordes of enemies as well as more prominent bosses, while the pace of the game stays fast and focused on constant forward momentum.

Technically the game benefits from a visual style adapted to the lower resolution of the DS displays, yet it still tries to preserve the fast pace and flashy animations typical of the series, including dramatic strikes and blood splatter on impact. The atmosphere is darker and more violent than most other titles on the platform, with blood and a harsher tone, placing it among games aimed more at older players rather than the younger audience the DS often appealed to. The music underscores the story's Japanese-flavored, mystical-action mood and heightens the tension during battles with more prominent opponents.

At release the game was praised above all for its courage to experiment with touch controls in a genre where that was not a given, and many considered it one of the technically most ambitious action titles on the DS. Today it is remembered as an interesting, if demanding, experiment that showed even a purely action-focused hack-and-slash can work without a classic gamepad, and for fans of the series it remains a notable detour from the main console line as well as proof that touch controls can carry even a genre that had until then relied exclusively on precise button combinations, despite the technical compromises forced by the smaller display.