Touch pen ninjutsu in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Seeing Tecmo’s Team Ninja bring Ninja Gaiden over to the Nintendo DS is exciting, but far from shocking. Team Ninja announced that they were developing a DS title awhile back and Ninja Gaiden is one of their flagship projects. What is semi-revolutionary about Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is that you hold your DS like a book and control Ryu with the touch pen. You touch the screen and drag the stylus around to make Ryu walk and tap the screen twice to make Ryu turn around. All of the combat is done using the touch pen too; you poke enemies to make Ryu attack them. If you want to do ninjutsu you write out kanji. The system is pretty unique and I wonder how fans of the Xbox Ninja Gaiden game are going to love or loathe the new concept. I dig the vertical screen though, it allows more room for action and larger characters.