Handheld Wars Week 45 - Ninja Gaiden Vs. Shinobido

Armored Core Raven thanks for posting this. This is a really great coverage you have done here with both games.

For those that love Ninja Gaiden. This DS game is a total in gem the series, the combat is stellar, and the presentation is tight. I'm surprised the developers were able to do all of that with the DS.

Then there is Shinobido that comes from very competent developers as well, but suffers from being a stealth game in my opinion. However just like Tenchu, Ninjas are meant to be stealthy in nature, so I can see that being a selling point for many.

Considering the PSP looks more powerful than the DS, here is a good example of how power isn't everything. I would say Shinobido still looks cool, and totally worth it, but definitely not over this great Ninja Gaiden title. People should just get both.

Sorry for being so late to this discussion!

I haven't played Shinobido, but NG DS is a very recommended game to DS owners.

Unlike the Xbox original, it uses fixed cameras and pre-rendered backgrounds, which is good because the DS wouldn't handle well the environments in 3d: think of Onimusha, it looks like that. The exception are the boss fights: they occur on full 3d arenas, as they are empty and there's just Ryu and the boss so the framerate doesn't go down too much (the performance of the game is generally pretty good).

One interesting side effect of the pre-rendered backgrounds is that there are no camera problems through the game - unlike, you know, the console games. The problem they usually bring are the controls (either slow tank controls or having to readjust the direction for every new camera), but then NG solves that by using very intuitive touch controls.

At first, I thought the stylus controls would be terrible, but they are very responsive and satisfying: depending on how you slash at your enemy, Ryu will do different attacks (automatically aiming at it); tap the screen and he will use a ranged attack; hold it at a point and Ryu will go there. My only complaint is that the charged attack is done by rapidly scratching the screen, which is both terribly imprecise (sometimes Ryu will just do a normal attack) and damaging to the screen itself in the long run. The defense is done by pressing any button; for magic attacks, it shows a symbol on the screen and you draw on it, it's very easy to do. I would say that, besides the charged attack, it's all very comprehensive and precise.

What it adds to the series are the Village sections. Ryu's village works as a hub that you go between levels, where you can talk to other characters and buy upgrades or new techniques. This is the same village seen in the three console games, but in them you never have the chance to talk to anyone. It is a good break in the action and sheds more light into Ryu as a character.

This game also introduces Momiji, Ryu's apprentice. She is the main character through the tutorial, then gets kidnapped and has to be rescued. There is, though, one extra mode where you play as her (or a suspiciously similar character named Rin) through the entire game, though the story isn't adjusted for that and is pretty much the same thing as the Hard mode. It's still a nice addition and you get it by defeating the first boss on a second playthrough - it looks like a hopeless boss fight (it is on the first run), but it's possible to beat it.

The levels themselves and most enemies are generally recycled from NG Black, at least visually. That's why this game isn't either a true sequel nor a port, but a mix between them: although the story is a direct sequel, it uses a "you have to revisit old places" excuse to port/remake the console levels. It's not a problem, though: even for someone who has played the previous game, the gameplay is different enough to warrant a revisit.

So, in short: it's not on the level of the console games, but it's a very fitting portable version with surprisingly responsive touch controls. One word on the difficulty levels: they tend to throw more and more waves of enemies at Ryu, to the point that I dropped the Master Ninja campaign because it just becomes boring with its unending fights. So my recommendation is to play it just on Normal and maybe try the Kunoichi mode for the extra character.