What's frustrated me all day: Gundam 00 DS is in my city, but since I have an odd mail situation, it was not delivered today. I made up for it by going to a nice park and taking advantage of the overcast, cool weather by flying a Justice League kite and then chilling on a swing set. Sometimes, it's the simple pleasures.

Since I don't have the Gundam game, here are my impressions for Ninja Gaiden DS.

Graphics
I know you've seen the screens and probably videos, but playing the game is a thing of beauty. The backgrounds are lush, the animations are smooth and fast and the 2D hand-drawn cut scenes are perfect. Overall. the best 3D graphics on the DS.

Sound
The music is muted and ninja-like and the sound effects are subtle, yet solid. It's all very well done. During cut scenes, characters grunt a single time when their dialog starts. I thought it was sort of odd at first, but when actual speech is used, it has weight and impact. A great design decision by Team Ninja.

Controls
I was initially worried by the touch screen only control scheme. After playing it, I must admit that the controls are perfectly implemented. It feels great to slash enemies by performing a slashing motion on the touch screen. Everything works as it should and the control is actually better than Phantom Hourglass. That's impressive. Very rarely do third-party games outdo Nintendo games on these new generation Nintendo systems.

Overall
I'm not the biggest fan of Itagaki. The man has some talent but over-sexed and bloody violence don't sell me on a game, so I haven't played many of Itagaki's games. The design decisions in this game are brilliant. The touch controls are perfect, the use of voice and sound is great and the 2D cut scenes feel very natural while holding the DS book-style. If you like Ninja Gaiden, ninjas, action games or all of the above, this game is a must buy.