The Ninja Gaiden series has been widely renowned for its insanely difficult gameplay from its first two installments. The hard difficulty gave fans a rewarding experience and made those games even more memorable. With the release of Ninja Gaiden 3, does the third game in the series have what it takes to impress fans one more time? Does it manage to retain the challenging gameplay everyone is fond of?
Let’s take a look at what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Ninja Gaiden 3.
HOT
Top-Notch Visuals
Compared to the visuals of the past two Ninja Gaiden games, Ninja Gaiden 3 is quite impressive. From the character design of Ryu, to the enemies and environments that you will have to go through, the noticeable improvements serve up some delicious eye-candy. Spanning through nine stages, Ninja Gaiden 3 takes you to different parts of the world such as London, Antartica and Tokyo. These locations showcase the phenomenal job that Team Ninja has done on the environments. The textures are solid and the frame rate is stable, regardless of the situation. Unlike any other game out there, no screen tearing was found during my playthrough and everything in the visual department seemed almost perfect.
More into Story
Fans of the previous Ninja Gaiden games, complained about how shallow the stories were. If you haven’t played Ninja Gaiden 1 or 2, both contained stories that are almost nonexistent and extremely forgettable. In Ninja Gaiden 3, Team Ninja listened and actually made a well-developed story that is sure to engage fans from beginning to end. The game starts off with the Japanese Self-Defense Force in the Hayabusa Village. Here they inform Ryu that a terrorist organization, called the Lord of Alchemy, has demanded his assistance to survive. While attempting to comply with the terrorist group, the story becomes even more complicated when Ryu acquires the curse of the Dragon Blade in his arm. Much more on Ryu’s persona and the mystery of the Dragon Blade will, once again, be the theme of Ninja Gaiden 3, but a new twist has been added. New characters will be introduced, which shape and add to the satisfying story.
The perfect formula for crafting a storyline that fans will love is having phenomenal voice acting and a soundtrack that reflects the current mood. In those aspects, Ninja Gaiden 3 does well with both and each perfectly helps out in every aspect of action, drama, and suspense that the game has to offer.
Fast & Solid Gameplay
Ninja Gaiden 3 has gameplay unlike the previous titles. Everything in Ninja Gaiden 3 has been revamped, but the good thing is that the solid action and intense combos are still intact. You’re no longer required to unlock skills via scrolls. Every technique from the previous two Ninja Gaiden games are unlocked from the very beginning. Simply perform the techniques you’re familiar with and you can execute those deadly combos, which look eye-pleasing by the way.
While the old techniques are back, there are new ones as well like Steel-Bone. Following the successful execution of a combo, the technique will then shift to Steel-Bone. During Steel-Bone, the camera will focus on Ryu and the enemy as he performs a devastating attack which will splatter blood everywhere and instantly kill the enemy. While the hack and slash aspect of Ninja Gaiden 3 seems repetitive, it is overshadowed by how well the rhythm synchronizes with the swordplay of Ryu.
Co-Op or Solo Ninja Trials
The addictive Ninja Trials from the previous two games are back in Ninja Gaiden 3. To coincide with the newly introduced mutliplayer portion of the game, you can now play the Ninja Trials with a friend. The main focus of the Ninja Trails are the same: survive waves of enemies at a certain location and earn karma. Those who wish to play with a friend can jump right in and help them out. In each difficulty bracket, there are ten stages which are heavily inspired by the single-player campaign. It’s best to play the campaign before attempting the Ninja Trials as there are new enemies, and it will take some time to learn their moves.
The game sucks and you dare to give it an 8?! This is by far the worst review on the internet.
Too bad, I was beginning to like this site and all of a sudden, this review comes up.
Byebye.
@ Didier or anyone with a complaint
Reviewing some games are HARD. Just because the game isn’t “Ninja Gaiden”, doesn’t mean its bad. Just like if Resident Evil 6 becomes a run and gun game, over the traditional survival horror. Sure it won’t appeal to long standing fans, but we can’t hold that against it to an extreme degree. These are all key elements to being a creditable review site, over being an annoying fanboy nerd raging.
@grant gaines great review you show the good and the bad points about this game i am a die hard fan that loves fast moving games that runs at 60fps and i own ninja gaiden 1-2 for ps3 i even own ninja gaiden 2 for xbox i for one love most of the changes that in this version of the game i hated the yellow essence it was so gamini plus ninja gaiden 1 was far better then two without the limbs falling off… once again great review
I’m with didler on this one. Ninja gaiden is supposed to be hard. It’s a hard games and if itagaki was part of the team, none of this crap would be happening, from horrid controls, to ripping off mini game ideas with zero originality, this game is a joke to the entire series. The fact is, this is supposed to be ninja gaiden.a hard series. Not one tailored to the sissy gamers who can’t muster up a pair and play 1 or two on a harder difficulty.
I thought the review was good, and I appreciate it as it answered the main questions I had about the game and was honest. @James nothing was more amazing then beating the first ninja gaiden, a game many people couldn’t beat the training level, and a game that was so hard they had to rerlease it with an easy difficulty(and a ton of other awesome extras) but let’s face it. Ninja Gaiden 2 sucked and itagaki was apart of that and quit. Doa has sucked since doa3 all he was good for was graphics, an adding sex appeal.
Guys i’ve played till death the other 2 chapter of NG , that i’m big fan, and was waiting to put my hand on this one … Yesterday i did …. and with my big disappointment i have to say that this one is very CRAPPY ! I don’t know how could team Ninja develop a game like this , damn did they try it before ?? They take out the soul of NG and destroyed the complete saga … if love ninja gaiden and u think that this will be the sequel of the 2 previus chapter … well STAY AWAY form it!
I have played every Ninja Gaiden on both the ps3, xbox, and xbox 360. I have logged hudreds of hours playing Ninja Gaiden, NInja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Black, Ninja Gaiden II….ect. I am sad to say Ninja Gaiden III is by far the worst i have ever played. There is nothing to Ninja Gaiden III. Nothing to find, no puzzles, no fun!!!! I should try and return it but I will keep it for my collection. Once again it is a disgrace to the name NINJA GAIDEN!!!!!!!!!!!
I give the game a six out of ten. The graphics were good and the bosses are pretty cool but the worst thing about the game and in my opion a lot of recent games is you don’t get rewarded for playing. In the previous games there were a ton of weapons and ultimate techniques. Using the different weapons and leveling them up was half the game. Hidden items to find also made the game worth playing. Again it all comes back to the kick ass weapons though and in NG3 you only have one two if you count the bow. I’m glad to have it in my collection just cause I am a huge fan but I used to like the series better than God of War and NG3 changed my opion.
Very good review! People don’t like change but this game should be judged as a game and not according to its previous installments. No way does it deserve the 3s and 4s it’s getting…. Get over the butthurt ppl….
Game seems like utter trash, and it’s made worse by its legacy.
I agree on the nots, but you should have give it a seven instead of eight. Many fans are not amused by the changes which the programmers and designers did to the game. I love Itagaki when he create Dead or Alive on the PS1 for both markets. At first, he created it on the arcade and the Sega Saturn except the Sega Saturn version is only for the Japan market. Dead or Alive 2 is his last Sega made game and he’s disappointed with the performance on the Hardcore edition for the PS2. When he transited to the Xbox as a replacement to the Dreamcast, it got the best of him. Dead or Alive Ultimate came out with the original Sega Saturn version of the first Dead or Alive and an enhanced remake of Dead or Alive 2 utilizing the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball graphics engine and the Dead or Alive 3 fighting mechanics. Ninja Gaiden II is Itagaki’s last epic game to be made involving him. The third Ninja Gaiden is never with him and neither Dead or Alive 5 will include his involvement because all his games are based on his portfolio. Fighting games are his specialty.
Thanks to the former CEO of Tecmo, Itagaki goes on to make a third person shooter, Devil’s Third for THQ. Tecmo became Koei Tecmo after a merge. The whole team remaining who didn’t left are now FSU’d. Challenges and non-linearity is the key. As being said, you may want to change the rating to seven for this game. Seven out of ten isn’t a good score as it’s an C-, but it’s good enough to meet this game’s qualifications. I played Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox before. It’s hard, but it’s hella worth playing.
NG3 is not a seven its not even a five. If your going to call a game Ninja Gaiden it better be Ninja Gaiden!!
@Danske
It deserves a seven, you ****. C- is a bad score. Do you even go to college? If you’re going to know games and because of this shit easy difficulty, you have to know game design. Why? Because I go to school for that! It’s not Ninja Gaiden without Tomonobu Itagaki and his games are an A-grade material. This game is by a Ninja fag named Yosuke Hayashi. The last two are by Itagaki while the last two Sigmas are by Hayashi. Hayashi fucked shit up the game, so his games are just Cs and Ds material. I’m not some kiddy gamer to play games easy, but I can make games to know their pace without rubberbanding like hell. Difficulty settings are for pacing the game and their players. The harder the game, the faster the player will play the game.
What’s not to understand, Danske? No shit, it’s not Ninja Gaiden. It’s not even a five? Why? You want to play a zero graded game? That’s when Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing will face that rating! The game works, that’s good and there are people complaining about the difficulty, so from my perspective, C- is all I have. You want a five or even less than this game’s rating? Dead or Alive Paradise is the one. It will be Ninja Gaiden with Itagaki, PERIOD.
Keep in mind, Danske. If Itagaki would have worked on Ninja Gaiden 3, it’ll be ten times better than this. With Itagaki around, it deserves 9 or 10. When he’s not, 6 or 7 deserves it. Who the fuck this reviewer would give Ninja Gaiden 3 an 8? You’ll see in the reviews lineup that the reviews of the remaining installments are all from Hayashi’s work. Meaning there is no Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden II listed. A 5 or lower rated game will be a broken shit game. That’s why Battle Fantasia did the best out of me.
Hey dipshits in computer world your missing the point! Yes if the game was called anything else besides Ninja Gaiden it would be an average game. But when you label a game Ninja Gaiden it is held to a higher standard and a different score to a true fan of the game. So I don’t give a shit that you’re going to college for this; which means you have no real world experience. Why dont you listen to the fan and stop making excuses or saying its a good Ninja Gaiden game. Simple fact is its not Ninja Gaiden and it needs to be named something else
Less violence and less sex-appeal equals no buy! :D
Bring Itagaki back and pay him three times as much as he did get before!