Platform: PlayStation 3 (also on Xbox 360)

Developer: Team Ninja

Publisher: Tecmo Koei

# of Players 1 (Online 2 – 8)

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Official Site

Score: C+ (75%)

Team Ninja set itself up with quite a paradox-shaped pickle when they set about designing Ninja Gaiden 3. The particular problem plaguing them? How to make a game for new casual players (and those who hated the supreme challenge of the older Ninja Gaiden games) and while pleasing the more hardcore fans of the franchise (some from the arcade and NES days) who wanted something brutally difficult that took a great deal of effort to master. Now, some of those more loyal hardcore Ryu Hayabusa fans would  simply say “screw the noobs!” or something far less print-friendly. However, these days it’s getting much harder to sell some “core” games so far within a niche and make a decent profit. Yes, that’s pretty awful if you think about it, but broadening the base has worked well for certain other franchises and genres, right?

Still, I’d bet real money that Team Ninja also wanted to ship a game that was able to touch both ends of the casual/core spectrum (and every part between), while also avoiding the problems found in Ninja Gaiden II. Of course, with all that going on, Ninja Gaiden 3 tries so hard to please every type of action gamer that it ends up being less the game it could have been. While the end result feels focus-tested to death, there’s fun to be had here and it’s not as terrible as certain other sites make it out to be. In fact, with a better camera, more weapon variety, destructible objects, secret areas and less linear design overall, it might have been a very cool must-have title with similarities to the Ninja Gaiden series. Of course, that’s not actually a glowing recommendation, but stick with me here and I’ll try and steer out of that skid…

What’s here plays like an arcade game that’s a mix of Ninja Blade, God of War and Onimusha (for starters) with plenty of lightning-paced action and (mostly) spectacular boss battles. Unfortunately, all that killing comes without all the fun little diversions that keep you up that extra hour or three exploring and replaying sections. Yes, you can record gameplay movies to view at any time and yes, the included solo or co-op Ninja Trials mode, harder difficulty levels and online clan play add some much-needed longevity to the overall experience. But as a Ninja Gaiden experience, it’s lacking something powerful that makes it truly memorable. Even the “gore” is tame here. Sure, there’s a great deal of blood spilled, but none of the violence is “upsetting” unless you count the repetitive pleading for life many wounded enemies bleat out.

The plot tries very hard to humanize Ryu Hayabusa after he’s infected by an enemy with a rather nasty curse that merges his trusty Dragon Sword with his sword arm. Ryu has to figure out how to eliminate the curse before it eliminates him while saving the earth from some not so nice folks who want to end life on earth as we know it. The story also pushes the idea that all of the souls of people Haybusa has killed are haunting him through his infected arm, but the game really doesn’t do much with this (or seems to know what to do with it) for a while. Cursed arm notwithstanding, Hayabusa still ends up killing a few thousand enemies throughout the game that range from packs of typical guard fodder on ground and in the air, odd-looking insects (that seem like leftovers from Koei’s excellent Crimson Sea games), vest-wearing guard dogs, assorted helicopters and a few other types.

That high body count will surely thrill those looking for a “not bad” hack ‘n slash experience they can play until their eyes bleed. However, some Ninja Gaiden purists will be flipping out with all the streamlining that’s taken place. That and the game spends so long on cut scenes and even slows the gameplay down when Hayabusa’s arm freaks out and he goes into a forced pain-walk animation often enough that you’d hope it would do a lot more with this plot element. Granted, a few too many other games have done the “cursed character” deal with mixed results, so I’ll gather that Team Ninja also wanted to try something that wasn’t just a bulkier, madder Hayabusa raging through packs of enemies. Even though that’s what happens when you use the Ninpo effect or that chain attack spree move – Hayabusa just doesn’t hulk out in these sections as you’d expect him to.

Where combat was all about timing and flowed thrillingly in previous 3D Ninja Gaiden games, here, it’s less refined and messy at times. A hefty move list can be called up (read the manual if you want to figure out what to do with that list), but for the most part, you can jam away at the Square and Triangle buttons, block when necessary, get that quick time event (QTE) prompt and tap for a gory finishing move. On the easiest setting (Hero Mode), the bulk of the game can be blown through with only boss battles (or sheer carelessness) to stop you. Since you’re now restricted to one sword at a time and a bow, the few “upgrades” you get never really seem like you’re carrying a different weapon. Sure, each sword looks unique and the bow going from regular arrows to explosive shots is cool. But little oddball things spoil the fun.

One example: while you can take down regular enemies with the explosive arrows, for some reason, there’s no splash damage you can use against enemies with shields. This wouldn’t be a big deal if enemy rockets and missiles didn’t have splash damage that affected the AI while you’re surrounded (which gives you time to rack up a few more kills if you survive a rocket blast or two). That, and the bow auto-targets enemies, slowing down time so you can get in shot, even while jumping around (!). While bumping the difficulty up makes the game more challenging, you don’t get enemies that are all that smarter – you just have to fight more of them for a longer period of time. The game does make things tricky for you, placing enemies at close, medium and far distances, having them all attack simultaneously and letting you figure out how to take them out as fast as you can before poor Ryu ends up sliced, diced, burned and shot full of holes.

Even with the PlayStation Move (which works quite well), most of the gameplay is easier than before, such as jumping from wall to wall and the hard to fail Falcon Dive sequences where Ryu drops in from high up and is a button tap away from a killing blow. More QTE elements invade some of the normal movement choices across all difficulty levels which is a bit sad.  Not becuse they work perfectly, mind you. It’s sad because we’re in different times where games need to fit into a wider niche and some developers feel the need to cater to non or new gamers while giving core fans the EXACT same experience. In a perfect world, we’d see two versions of the game on the Ninja Gaiden 3 disc, the one that’s here and a second “remix” tailor made for Ninja Gaiden fans who want (and deserve) that constant challenge they expect.

That said, just like with Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox, I actually busted an otherwise good (but already well-usedcontroller playing this game. In this case, it wasn’t because the game was brutally hard all the time, but only because I was going for completing every difficulty level before I started writing my review. That took longer than I expected as the stick went out midway through the final play through, it was in the middle of the night and I wanted to get the last chunk of the game over and done. I ended up killing off the L1 and R1 triggers as well before all as said and done thanks to those wall-climbing sections. I eventually had to switch to an old Sixaxis without any rumble to get the job done in the last three areas, but by then I was in a weird zone and had little trouble with most of the enemies because I’d been through the game so many times.

You’ll be introduced to an interesting supporting cast, but all the banter and cinemas, plus the requisite cute kid made me feel as if I was watching outtakes from Metal Gear Solid 4 rather than playing a Ninja Gaiden game. Ryu is playing the part of Solid Snake here, the sexy lady agent is a hybrid Meryl, the eyeglasses-wearing science geek is Otacon and so forth and so on. Visually, it’s a Team Ninja game for better or worse, but despite some great-looking bosses and that awesome (at first) Ninpo effect, there’s really nothing spectacular to remain seared in your memory long when stacked up to other games currently available.In a way, it feels as if the dev team played it too safe when they should have pulled out all the stops and set the dial to 11 from the beginning of the game. Which, by the way IS awesome… except it opens with a QTE that looks great but will spoil the gameplay for many core fans who wanted more.

Technically, there are some annoying non-correctable camera angles at times when you can’t see what you’re swinging at  because a wall or something blocks your view when the AI traps you in a bad spot. Also, If you don’t install the game data, the long load times when a new stage starts can be painful to sit through, but so it goes with this generation of games, right? Music and sounds are fine with nothing jumping out as stellar or offensive. You can select an English or Japanese dub before you start a new game, but can’t swap back and forth. I chose English for the first play through and Japanese for the rest just so I could follow the plot the first time and not squint at any onscreen text.

As for the Ninja Trials and Clan play modes, both are quite interesting but really don’t belong here (in my opinion). Ninja Trials was the more fun mode for me, as it takes areas from the main game and turns them into survival-style game modes where waves of enemies drop in while you do your best at whittling them down. By defeating enemies and pulling off certain moves, you earn bonus gear for your avatar that can be equipped in Clan or Ninja Trials modes. All cool, but you can’t play as Ryu Hayabusa at all, which will be a sticking point for some out there. Granted, EVERYONE will probably want to be Hayabusa online, so it’s common sense Team Ninja went the Generic Ninja route. Still, all that means to a casual observer who doesn’t know the series is it looks like a Generic Ninja game. Fun to play in spurts, yes, but it’s not as cool as it should have been.

In the end, Ninja Gaiden 3 ends up as the Galerians: Ash of Ninja Gaiden games – really interesting in concept, but distractingly flawed in execution. More to the point: thanks to trying to please too many gamers, it should have been called Ninja Gaiden: Gaiden. While Team Ninja has done a respectable job here in terms of pure action, the game feels too empty at times. It can be great fun if taken on its own merits by a new or more open-minded player, but it’s also going to be seen as far too removed from what it originally was by those who cling to the classics as sacred tomes. Me, I’ve played Ninja Gaiden games in the arcades and on the NES, Game Gear, Lynx, Nintendo DS, SNES, Xbox, PS3 and Xbox 360, so I’ve seen the highs and lows of Ryu Hayabasa’s long career. This one isn’t the worst game in that lengthy history, but Team Ninja needs to go back to what made those earlier games work and try to recapture those elements in a single masterpiece that reclaims the glory.  Or else that origami crane diagram in the NG3 manual will be the only thing to recommend a future followup…