Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

On Nintendo DS
Stylus-em-up
The Nintendo DS is probably about the last place you'd expect to see the graphically impressive, button mashing, Xbox hit Ninja Gaiden land its sequel on. Ok, arguably Ninja Gaiden 2 on the 360 is the true sequel but the tale told in Dragon Blade follows on from the original, no doubt filling the gap.
Canonical specifics aside, Dragon Sword is as true to its source as the touch screen allows. Opting for stylus controls over multiple button combos may seem strange for a series so reliant on the exact timing and machine gun inputs its legendary combat system requires, yet Team Ninja have managed to translate the core of the experience with little loss.
Held on it's side like a book, the action takes place on the right screen of the DS with the left on mid-action map duties and cut-scene breadth. Playing a little like the excellent Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Ryu Hayabusa is moved around the detailed pre-rendered environments by dragging the stylus across the screen – where you touch, he follows.
A swift horizontal or vertical slash sees him doing the same with his katana, while an upwards stroke makes him jump and quick taps fire shurikens. The DS' buttons are on block duty while quick swipes with the stylus during a block will result in evasive maneuvers.
If all that sounds a little complicated, don't worry – the single stylus controls quickly become intuitive and, in the true nature of the series, furious and frenetic. Extra moves like the famous Izuna Drop and Ultimate Techniques can also be activated with more complex maneuvers while Ninpo magic attacks require the neat tracing of a Sanskrit character on screen.
The visuals on show are certainly impressive for the DS, especially considering the rate at which it all runs. From the 3D character models to the gorgeous anime style cut-scenes, Ninja Gaiden is a delight to look at and also to play.
The intuitive and fluid combat system is a pleasure to use (to the point of writers cramp) and pulls together the exploration, puzzle solving and boss defeating with real Ninja Master zest.
8/10

Finally

So, this is Street Fighter IV's end boss? At least he looks more formidable than III's blue and red, candy bar coloured cheapskate.
And he doesn't have Aerosmith hair either. There's a count down on the Street Fighter site at the moment, rumour is the full cast will be announced as of its zero status sometime tomorrow.

Update: so much for rumours – unfortunately no complete list of characters has been released but as recompense, a rather spangley website revamp has hit the net, go check!

The latency of haters

From the journal of Sir Smedley Johnson –
Like a squid with nature's own Active Camouflage, I have discovered on my adventures, fantastical creatures that exist behind a wall of deception and involuntary double bluffing. The squid has no control over it's bodily colours as do these poor specimens that live a false life of bravado and species one-up-manship, all the while dominated by their subconscious desires and spasms of the vocal chords.
While making a routine journey into Blood Gulch valley to observe the wildlife and sample the arid flora I came across a most unusual thing.
A big team battle had been waging for some time with the blue team fighting a one sided battle against their n00bish adversaries. Scorch marks and plasma burns mocked the land in a warning to tread lightly despite temporary invisibility and over shielding. As I observed the losers, their tactics (or lack there of) and how they handled such an overwhelming trudge to defeat, I encountered an event never before seen.
Instead of committing hara-kiri, or quitting out, the tinny sounds of dance music piped through a headset led me to an impromptu disco which had formed and to the sight of eight heavily armoured and armed, cybernetically enhanced Spartan soldiers tripping the light fantastic with each other.
I had an epiphany. Amidst the battle cries, plasma blasts and head shots that rained down from the ever oppressive blue team, this intrepid explorer had witnessed a unique thing which, like a set of dominos, had triggered a realisation about the whiney voiced species and their apparent allusion for vitriol and homophobia... to be continued

Lost Winds

On Nintendo Wii Ware.
A breath of fresh air.
Now here's a revelation – after what seems like a year long barrage of minigame-centric shovelware on the Wii, the majority of launch games for Nintendo's Wii Ware are surprisingly original. 
For those Wii owners not WiFi'd up to the internet, Wii Ware is the recently launched addition to the shopping channel that delivers brand new games made for the Wii, downloadable like all those retro wonders on the Virtual Console in exchange for virtual cash.
Of all the launch titles, Lost Winds is the one for the cautious to sink their Wii Points into, languishing in the splendour of not only being a beautiful game to look at and play but also deserved of the 'innovative' buzz word so easily associated with the Wii's waggle controls.
At first glance it's a simplistic 2.5D side scrolling platformer but within a few minutes of play its sweet charm and unique wind controls will have you hooked to a game with a depth that belies its cuteness.
Using the Nunchuk's analogue stick you control the small boy Toku, with basic left and right movements and automatic climbing and jumping when required. With the Wiimote wielded in the other hand you control Enril the wind spirit – where you point, he blows. And blow he does.
Assisting Toku with his exploration and puzzle solving to rid the land of evil, Enril can throw him into the air with gusts, cushion his fall from great heights, channel fire and water or just swat globs of evil around like ping pong balls.
Within minutes the dual controls become second nature, moving and flicking Toku with ease through the gorgeous world that sparkles with magic and animates with every slight breeze from Enril. It may only be four hours of adventure but every second is a delight and for the paltry price it costs (1000 Wi Points), worth its virtual weight in gold.
Lost Winds could easily be mistaken for a Nintendo game but instead Frontier have set the benchmark for Wii Ware, making Nintendo's promise of fresh and innovative titles via Wii Ware look like it might actually come true. Which is no bad thing considering the usual prospect of reviewing Pippy Dumpel's Horse Toilet Trainer: Adventures in Looland…
9/10

David and Goliath

No image quite sets the nostalga-glands humming like the sight of a newly rendered 3D summation of the age old rivalry between defeated Muay Thai Champion Sagat and dark-side eluding, whipper snapper Ryu. The tale's in the scar folks, re-live it this Christmas (planets aligning).

The unsung heroes

The common perception of the game tester, that humble QA employee at the bottom of the developers food chain is that of the slacker that got lucky – being paid to play games for a living is many a gamer’s dream, yet the relative glamour of such a lifestyle remains just that, the reality is far more mundane.
Of course, for the gamer willing to make the jump from passion to profession, the chance to make an impact on the design of a game is not to be sniffed at. Along with the kudos generated like a drifting car among peers, the position is often used as a foot in the door to greater things yet the initiation by fire into the industry can burn more than it ingratiates.
The early days of employment in the QA department can be heady times. Working with like-minded gamers, talking games, playing games, living games, being part of the inside machinations of the past-time you’ve loved and laboured over since childhood – it’s mainlining gaming without the guilt of wasted time and the high of talking about it until you’re blue in the face and no one is looking at you strangely.
Like the Zerg’s creep though, reality gradually overcomes the initial head rush. As days blend into weeks and into months, the physical and psychological impact of playing the same game non-stop every day begins to be felt. Late into the project means late into the night and regular hours become stretched to a breaking point for small thanks and little money. Pizza trays and left over takeaways become new architectural constructions as waistlines expand amid the disposable city and disillusionment spreads like a virus through the sunlight shy denizens of the impromptu space.
Despite their obvious and odorous commitment, the tester’s worth to the company is almost a begrudging one - they are employed to criticise the very product it makes. Bug reports have even been known to cause affront but in an industry that treats crunch time as a norm it’s hardly surprising that tensions become this personal and little surprise that with Microsoft’s ever-so-cinical PR move, console beta-testing may become more regularly outsourced to the masses after the sure-fire success that was Halo 3’s pre-release multiplayer.
Of course it isn’t a given that all QA departments are like this – one developer may nurture and value their testers while another may battery farm them through bio-mechanical interfaces. One thing is a given though - the preconception of the average game tester. Choosing an easy life playing games for a living is a wildly different reality to the truth and why, with the increasing complexity and depth of game worlds, they are gaming’s unsung heroes – battling the glitch to ensure the consumer never once loses their suspension of disbelief.
If something makes it through the beta though, just remember – it’s not a bug it’s a feature.