There are also numerous moments where the floor crumbles away or you find yourself sliding down a ramp and must tap A to launch yourself then momentarily skydive before tumbling to the ground below or, if you’re lucky, tap Y for a violent impaling takedown on some unsuspecting guard. Often, you will need to run along the wall or climb a vertical surface using alternating taps and releases of the LT and RT buttons, possibly with a dagger attack during the climb or a last-minute assassination when you reach the top. There is very minimal exploration or platforming in the game. The same goes with the new characters who also have melee and ranged lock-on attacks and their own personal skill trees. While it’s not effective in smaller rooms or crowded combat, if you can get some distance between you and the enemy or an elevated firing position, you can sit there and tap RB+RT until everyone is dead. The designers try to mix things up by adding a collapsible bow as your secondary ranged weapon, far superior to your infinite dagger supply, but a weapon that can often be abused, especially once you get the explosive tips. Ninja Gaiden 3 has been reduced to a mindless button masher where you subconsciously tap out XXX or XXY combos until you can unleash an Ultimate Technique or Ninpo Dragon smart bomb then repeat until the room is clear so you can move on and do it all over again for a dozen-plus chapters that will encompass 12-15 hours of your life. Gone are the skill and finesse required from the previous games, not only for incidental encounters but those controller-smashing boss battles. While this type of gameplay certainly has its own merits, it certainly doesn’t hold true to the core gameplay values of the franchise and fans of the previous games are likely to revolt. Team Ninja has certainly gone off the rails with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, creating a frantic hack-n-slash not unlike classics like Devil May Cry, Onimusha, and in later levels, Dynasty Warriors. Admittedly, I’ve never finished a Ninja Gaiden game although I did come pretty close to finishing Ninja Gaiden 3 last year before I stalled out near the final levels and never plowed through till the end. Ninja Gaiden has always been one of those bittersweet franchises for me quite simply for the fact that I suck at the game, but the appeal of the fast and furious ninja combat keeps me trying again and again.
If you didn’t get Ninja Gaiden 3 last year then your patience (or sloth) just paid off big time, as this is the definitive version of the game you’ve been waiting for…even if you weren’t waiting for it.
It’s just four days shy of a year since I played the original Ninja Gaiden 3 on the Xbox 360 and here we are with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, the ultimate collector’s edition of the game if you will, loaded with all sorts of new content and expanded features.
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