Itagaki-Interaction

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was recently announced for the Nintendo DS. In development by Team Ninja, the game is in full 3D and played mostly from a top-down perspective. It is also real-time and as action oriented as any other Ninja Gaiden game. Most importantly, though, Dragon Sword is controlled almost exclusively via the touchscreen with a stylus. Itagaki is an amazing game designer, one of the very best. In addition to Ninja Gaiden, he created the Dead or Alive franchise. In an interview with 1up, he says the following on Dragon Sword and game design (bold effect is mine).

As I am sure you know, when I create a game I place the utmost importance on interactivity and responsiveness. Why does Ryu Hayabusa accept every input the player makes, without fail, and move exactly the way you want him to? Why do all of the game elements in DOA react instantly to player control in all situations and give instant feedback on the screen? This is because I take the primary raison d'être of video games, interactivity, and give it the highest priority during the development of my games.

Itagaki understands the primary purpose of video games: interaction. He also understands that
control is critical to gameplay. As he says, interactivity is given the highest priority in game development. According to Itagaki, Ryu Hayabusa will be able to perform all of the action-heavy maneuvers as in previous games, and with as quick a response. Thats pretty impressive for the dual-screened handheld that could.

It is unkown weather or not Dragon Sword will use the dead zone. This screen suggests it will not, however. This makes sense for an action-heavy game, as the player will need to be aware of all enemies at all times.

Interact
Why is interaction important to video games?
Why is responsive controls important to video games?