Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword DS - First Gameplay Footage

As much as I hate to ruin your pleasure of watching this...let's say satisfying gameplay footage, Tecmo's event in Japan has revealed a rather tiny Ryu Hayabusa, with some poor sword action. Gamevideos has provided the Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword footage in which you will be able to see just what a DS port of the series brings.

Although gamers may be used to what they've seen on the PS3 or Xbox 360, the game looks quite good for a Nintendo DS installment. However, the character is most of the time seen from way above, not leaving much stuff to be noticed other than the shadow of his sword.

It's only when Ryu is shown closer, that his body movement looks much more realistic. But hey, what the heck? It's a DS title. The footage itself is rather poor so maybe I'm missing a lot of the otherwise noticeable features, although I doubt it.

One good thing I was able to notice was that air attacks look absolutely spectacular. Leaving aside that enemies die quite fast (not much room for multiple air attacks or combos), Ryu's sheer power can be felt just by watching the video, so I can only imagine what playing must feel like from this point of view.

Overall, it looks quite good (again, for a DS installment), which I'd say is good competition for Sony's PSP. Not that the DS needed anything more to be above Sony's handheld, but it's a good confirmation that the DS can render 3D environments just as good.

Of course, you must be wondering why the image is shown vertically (portrait mode). It's only because the game is played entirely by using the DS's stylus, which may present gamers with a bit of frustration when faced with restless foes, coming in great numbers.

However, the best thing about the whole gameplay footage is that DS gamers who decide to get their own copy when it launches this fall, is that they already know how to beat the first level of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.