Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom

"Doom this, doom that...just slash the bad guys, okay?"

Ah, the final Ninja Gaiden title...unless I'm missing one on another system, in which case I'll try to find and play it. The thing about the Gaiden games is, while they're fun while they last, they can be beaten in an hour, and the formula doesn't change one iota between games. The only difference between this and Ninja Gaiden 2 are the different power-ups and new moves. I'll give the full review anyway...

Graphics

Slightly improved over the last game. Ryu's mask in the cutscenes is once again revised to look...more life-like? Like it actually fits? So we can see his mouth, perhaps? I don't know, but there are some new enemies and environments, including the big ol' ship o' doom mentioned in the game's title.

Sound

Ah, I come for the ninja slicing action, but I stay for the music. Not as good as the first two, in my own reviewing opinion, but still miles ahead of most NES games. As for sound effects, Ryu now makes a ''hah!'' sound when attacking, but he makes this sound every time you attack, so you might get pretty sick of it.

Gameplay

Okay, here's the deal: someone's murdered Irene. That someone is Ryu Hayabusa, the game's main character. You must now discover Irene's killer, which in turn leads you on a quest to stop a madman from taking over the world with...well, the ship of doom, but I think evil clones factor into the equation somewhere. I'm not sure.

Controls remain the same: A button jumps, B button attacks, up and B lets you use your sub-weapon. Two new additions to the gameplay are hanging, and actually leaping onto a freaking ledge. First off, you're able to now hang from horizontal surfaces like pipes and shimmy hand over hand along them. You can jump up and walk across them by pressing up and A, but usually those surfaces are occupied by enemies. As for ledges, in the previous game you could climb up and down non-ladder surfaces (unlike the first game, which made you jump back and forth between conveniently placed walls) and in this game, Tecmo finally gets it right by letting you leap onto a ledge when you climb to the top. Simply press the direction the ledge is at and press A, and you'll jump up there. I'm glad they finally got their act together, but goddamn, it took three damn games for them to get a clue!

Bah, enough of my ranting. As for powerups, the old favorites are still here. You default to the boomerang shuriken when each level starts, which is a good thing. The upward fire strike is back, and is accompanied by a downward fire strike, along with the fire wheel, and a new type of weapon that throws beams of energy above and below you (good for the game's vertical stages). A new power-up replaces the shadow clone from the second game, in the form of a longer sword. The longer sword has both horizontal reach and vertical attack area, meaning you no longer have to crouch to hit low enemies with the new sword. Another improvement, the red orbs that contain power-ups now flicker, showing you what's inside. Don't want to lose your fire wheel? Well, now you know what's inside the orbs and can pick and choose your power-ups rather than depend on the whims of fate and the programmers. Like the previous two games, the sub-weapons consume MP. MP is replenished through little Japanese symbols you get from the red orbs, and your max MP can be increased with a ninja scroll you can find, one in each stage.

Also like the previous two games, this one's short. Only seven levels, split into stages and boss battles. The stages seem easier, but that's partly due to the powered-up sword and partly due to the fact that enemies don't knock you back fifty feet every time you take a hit. It eliminates a lot of unnecessary falling off platforms and into bottomless pits, let me tell you. The bosses, however, start simple and get complicated. The gargoyles from the last two games are replaced by what I can only guess are giant lizards, which do the same thing. They're harder to beat, due to the fact that they don't fall into a familiar pattern. The rest of the bosses tend to be easy to defeat once you recognize their pattern, but surviving to learn their moves is the real trick.

Replay Value

Once again, only seven short levels that can be beaten in little more than an hour, an hour and a half at most. This is assuming you've played the games to death and aren't dying constantly. You can, of course, try for a high score, but I don't really like doing that on any game but Ikaruga. The Ninja Gaiden games are fun little diversions, but there's not enough of them, really. Maybe that'll change when the new version is released.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/03