At one point, it wasn’t looking good for “N+” on the PSP and DS. Not in the eyes of the Metanet Software, developers of the original game, anyway.

“Currently it’s not working – it’s not the game we wanted to make,” said Metanet’s Mare Sheppard to Edge in May. “There are a lot of changes we haven’t been so happy with.”

Those changes appear to have been made. “N+” arrives on PSP and DS next week, and Metanet told MTV Multiplayer the handheld versions from Atari have come a long way.

“We’re definitely happy they were delayed (to add polish) as long as they were,” said Sheppard. “The release versions are about a million times better than they were at the beginning of the year.”

Sheppard admitted there are still undeniable differences between Metanet’s self-developed Xbox Live Arcade version. The games were supposed to be released earlier this year, but went back under the hood for more work.

“It’s so hard to believe they were almost released back then,” said Sheppard. “Now they feel like they are a part of the ‘N’ universe, and although they are still not perfect in our eyes, they’ve improved so much that we can deal with it. It’s hard being a perfectionist — to be fair, even ‘N+’ XBLA has some things that we would change, in a perfect world.”

Sheppard and co-developer Raigan Burns told Edge that handing their game to another team was difficult. They would give the studios working on the handheld versions notes on changes and tweaks, but the changes would never come. In recent months, however, that’s become far less of an issue for the games.

“It’s so hard to believe they were almost released back then”

“The major difference with the DS/PSP version is that the controls are quite different from ‘N’ and the XBLA version of ‘N+,’” Sheppard said. That’s something that will require a little getting used to. It’s not necessarily a negative, just a change. The difference in how controlling the ninja feels is really just a consequence of working with a completely different team than we did for the XBLA version, and in a position where there was not as much opportunity to tweak and perfect everything.”

In retrospect, Sheppard admits “N+” for XBLA wasn’t perfect and neither are the PSP or DS versions — but they’ve all make Sheppard and Burns happy.

“We have a laundry list of tiny flaws that would probably make us look incredibly nit-picky — for example, the ninja running animation is not the same as in ‘N’ or ‘N+’ XBLA — but overall, we feel the version of ‘N+’ for DS and PSP has come a long way, and has improved greatly, and anyway it’s unlikely that anyone but us will ever even notice these little issue.”

As a huge fan of “N+,” both versions are on my radar. What about you? “N+” arrives on the DS and PSP next Tuesday.

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