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Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is the heavily anticipated handheld only follow-up to Ninja Gaiden, which was first on the Xbox and then re-made as Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. All those games were virtually the same title, with some added missions and–in some cases–enhanced graphics.

Fans of the series can look forward to the continued adventures of Ryu Hayabusa, but with the DS, there will be some highly noticeable changes.

Graphically, the game looks as good as anything on the DS and often approaches the could-be-PSP level of quality. This is no surprise considering how Team Ninja was able to do such good work with the Xbox and the PS3, but it still needs to be said. Maybe there won’t be the same kind of ridiculous blood-spattered Gaiden we’d all love, but the game doesn’t chug-chug-chug either–so pick your battles, so to speak. You’ll particularly be impressed by the rapid fire flashes and movements possible in this game.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is held sideways kind of like a book; it’s the same setup as Hotel Dusk. The left is typically the map, while you control the movement on the right touchscreen using the stylus. If the graphics are impressive, then the input even exceeds that level of polish. The only real limit to your speed and killing power is how fast you can draw the slashes and jumps on the screen. Many of the other controls are reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

I immediately recognized how to pull off most of the moves that I was used to in past iterations of Gaiden, but I think just about anyone could pick up this game and immediately start slashing and getting through it. And you might feel like you get the hang of this game a lot faster than the tough-as-nails Gaidens of the past. Not to say the game is ridiculously easy; it’s just not the kind of punishing difficulty that forces mastery of each set of tools to move on to the next set.

All told, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is an extremely well-polished action-adventure title on the DS. It’s one of the best games on the handheld. It’s a bit easier than most Gaidens, but just unlock Hard mode and tell me you don’t see where the challenge lies. Here’s hoping Team Ninja takes its newfound handheld skills to the PSP. In the meantime, this game will be a great one to tide over fans until Ninja Gaiden II comes out on the Xbox 360 later this year.

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Apr 11th 2008 at 8:06AM
Our first thought when we heard the news that there was an NES emulator in the works for the Sidekick series of text machines was one of pure, unabashed elation. The classic Hiptop form factor is pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered for effective old-skool gaming, after all — and let’s be honest, any time Nintendo playtime comes to a new platform is cause for immediate and overindulgent celebration. Our second thought was, “wait, what?” It’s pretty unclear how the emulator would be loaded with legally-obtained ROMs and we have our doubts that Nintendo signed away the rights to any binaries, so we’re a little confused about the word that this would be officially offered through the Danger’s Software Catalog. Let’s all cross our fingers, continue to pay our T-Mobile bills on time, and hope that tomorrow might bring countless hours of Skate or Die while we’re… you know, actually skating or something.

Update: While not technically fake, it turns out that this 80s-vintage action is going to remain a pipe dream (and no, we’re not talking about the NES game Pipe Dream, either). Danger’s developer tools allow arbitrary Java to be loaded into the Hiptop emulator — not just approved stuff, obviously — so odds are that someone loaded an NES emulator (like, say, vNes) and went to town with the screen shots. Official offering through the Catalog, though? Not so much. Thanks, Jim!

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Filed under: cellphones, Gaming

Earlier this week, we brought you the majesty of Will Foster’s engineering masterpiece: the diesel-powered Panzer paintball tank. But if you’re looking to round out your paint balling arsenal with some defensive units (and you have $2,000 to blow) we here at the Lab recommend the remote-controlled EMT Wireless Paintball Sentry Turret.

These bad boys will fortify any stronghold and offer the added benefit of remote operation, so you can take out enemies, neighbors, squirrels, whatever, all from the comfort of your living room. The base price of $1,959 will get you one turret (including a tripod base), a color CCD camera with video transmitter and a wireless remote, and rechargeable batteries and CO2 tanks — and of course the ability to unleash a barrage of 400 paints balls on those foolish enough to wander into your yard unannounced.

Should you require a high-resolution camera, it too can be added to the package for $300. You can also plunk down an additional $430 for virtual big-screen goggles or $190 for the added fire power of a 1000-ball hopper. Sure, the EMT turret is meant primarily for scenario-based paintball enthusiasts, but sometimes that ADT sign on your lawn just isn’t enough.

[Evolution Model Technology via Technabob]

According to a report by MTV (and supported by a pitifully sparse sketch, see below), Microsoft is developing a Motion Controller for the Xbox, which will compete with the Wii for the affection of gaming grandmas everywhere. Game developer Rare (which is owned by Microsoft) has apparently been working on the device for a few months and might release it by the end of this year. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a challenger to the Wii-mote – the Motus Corporation has also promised to bring a motion controller to the Xbox and the PS3.

Obviously, this rumor has some meat because Microsoft loves to take other people’s ideas and adapt them in their own vision. Plus, its recent turnaround record with the entertainment division has been impressive (see: Zune 2, and even the Xbox 360, developed and released in the shortest time ever for a major gaming console).

So if the report is true, it will be clear Microsoft is hoping to take away the juice from the Wii’s popularity, even as its spokespeople have belittled its graphics quality since its launch in 2006.  But everyone knows that it’s the games that matter. Many game developers working on Nintendo’s Wii games have had a major head start integrating their designs to the scheme (with many headaches), and making good games for a pastiche control scheme could be hard.

According to the ‘insider’ in the story, Rare is also developing different versions of the Mii Avatar concept, with more detailed design options. What do you think they’ll call them? The Mii Toos? Biills? Viistas?

Source: MTV

Photo: Microsoft/Nintendo

This week at the Gartner Synposium/ITXPO 2008 held in Las Vegas, Xerox has shown off a prototype of a new piece of paper that is reusable.

Steve Hoover, VP of Xerox’s Research Center, gave a presentation and demonstrated how the paper worked. What he showed the audience was what looked like a normal piece of paper, but he then took out a UV LED torch. Holding the torch against the paper for a few seconds left a black mark. He also got a UV LED pen and drew a line on the paper as you would with a standard pen and paper.

A hot plate was also present on stage and Hoover took a marked piece of paper and placed it under the heat for a few seconds. Once removed the paper was totally blank and ready to be reused. Hoover then went on to explain that printers can be manufactured that add information to the paper using UV LED lights and then clean the paper using heat when it is inserted into what would be the paper tray on a standard printer.

Hoover also stated a number of interesting facts including:

• The energy efficiency of printers has improved 3x in the last decade
• Producing a piece of paper takes 20x more energy than printing on it and therefore a piece of paper reused can have a significant impact on our use of resources
• 50% of office print outs are discarded within a day
• 75% of office print outs are discarded within a week

View the video at ZDNet UK

Matthew’s Opinion

I highly recommend watching the video of his demonstration just to see how easy the system is. Basically you just have to replace your printers (good for Xerox), buy special paper (again, good for Xerox) and start using a different pen.

The unknown factor in this is the cost of the printers and paper. If the costs are comparable to standard equipment then the potential savings are clear and if staff are encouraged to reuse then it could see significant savings for a business as well as the environment.

The idea of the paperless office is a myth that is proven just by walking into any productive office. Print outs are still preferred for viewing information in a number of circumstances. Notes in meetings are also usually taken down on a piece of paper. Give employees the ability to use paper as they currently do, but then wipe it and start again, and you may see a significant reduction in paper usage.

Right when we thought that, the electric vehicle is the answer to cutting our rising fuel costs some new research finds the ultimate flaw in this new power source. There is no doubt that plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) result in good fuel economy figures — GM is currently touting its PHEV-to be, the Volt, as getting 150MPG over all. However, a study published by Carnegie Mellon University and the Green Car Congress (GGC) suggests that if we do not make our power generation system less carbon intensive, PHEVs could have little benefit over regular hybrids (HEVs). Instead, they achieve these high numbers by supplementing the power produced by their gasoline engines with power taken from the grid. This has caused controversy lately, as hybrid-opponents often claim that battery production and the use of energy from the grid actually makes these cars bigger GHG polluters. If you look at this chart posted by GCC, you can see that both HEVs and PHEVs have a clear advantage over conventional cars, even when battery production is factored in. vehicles all drew power from the grid, making the grid more efficient would both improve standard energy usage as well as make motor vehicles less polluting.
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Though not nearly as sexy (or well-spec’d, for that matter) as Sony’s recently-unveiled HDR-TG1, AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000Z still manages to hold its own on paper. Measuring in at 4.7- x 2.75-inches (12- x 7-centimeters) and weighing just over 7-ounces (200-grams), this HD camcorder features a 5-megapixel Micron CMOS sensor, 2.5-inch flip-out LCD, 3x optical zoom and an SD / SDHC slot to store everything on. As for shooting capabilities, it’ll capture clips at 1,280 x 720 (using H.264 compression) and snag 16-bit stereo sound all the while. You’ll also find USB connectivity, a rechargeable Li-ion and video out, natch. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of this €249 ($393) device ever coming Stateside, but it’ll be ready to roll in Russia later this month.
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The Sony Bravia E4000 has been created to look like a picture frame, so that it looks great on your wall. When guests are around, you can create a photo slideshow, turning it into the most expensive photo frame of 2008. Of course, we love the idea and we love how thin the TV seems to be. However, when watching movies, it feels like the white frame could be distracting (the aluminum frame of my current HDTV certainly is). Fortunately, several frame colors are available.

This is an excellent example of semi-conductor integration: components are getting so small that a standard USB-key form factor can now house 4GB of flash memory and a TV Tuner. Buffalo says that the key can store 4GB of video, and that probably means “low quality” video, but heck, it is still a cool gadget.

In Japan and Korea, where mobile technology and culture is well ahead of the rest of the world, mobile users are accustomed to receiving advertising, including SMS ads, on their cell phones. It’s a give and take, as users also receive mobile coupons on their phones, with bar codes that can be directly scanned from their screens. Here in the U.S., it still seems like a strange concept to allow advertisers this kind of access and to use our cell phones to directly transact business. But someday, inevitably, we will - most of us - accept advertising messages on our mobile screens, and pay for merchandise with our cell phones, as part of the daily routine of life, just like we all use ATM cards today.