"The game that broke the NES"

Ninja Gaiden and its sequel, The Dark Sword of Chaos, were ground-breaking landmarks in the field of electronic entertainment. The first game was most impressive with its dark mood and well-done visuals (hand-drawn artwork on the NES wasn't always of the highest quality), and the second game pushed that envelope to stunning effect.

This is not as true of Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. I turned it on, saw how the opening immediately slaps me in the face to get my attention, and think, "Awesome!!" That goes on up to a certain point. The first stage is, frankly, totally awesome. The music is one of the best themes I've ever heard on the NES, and the setting is anime sci-fi existential weirdness at its finest. I feel like a ninja!

Then I beat the first boss, and frankly, it becomes clear that the team that put this together were not allowed to finish.

The story that exploded off the screen in the intro is ridiculously thrown aside. I'm avoiding spoilers here (cuz there are still those who might enjoy), but suffice it to say, I don't think they realized that they needed to tell a story. If it's lost in the translation, then it's pretty badly lost. I found the first 2 cinemas to be devoid of any storytelling value. By the time I reached the third cinema (while interesting to watch, there just wasn't anything interesting happening), I lost interest. Once again, no spoilers, but suffice it to say I did see the rest of the story and wasn't impressed. The point is that it never recovers from the first 2 cinemas. I feel that I could write this story better than the writer who wrote it, and that just should not be.

The graphics in the later levels aren't as interesting either. Generic location stuff, mostly. Desert. Cave. Jungle. Castle. I missed the detail that went into the previous installments' visual design. This mostly seemed like repetitive tile graphics that were easy for the NES to make.

Here's where the main idea comes to light: this was a game that needed to be made for a better system.

If this had been moved to the SNES early enough in its production, and given some proper development time, I think it would have been a much more fitting addition to the series. Kind of ironic since they made an SNES version but didn't improve it at all (even messed up a couple of things).

As it is, however, it suffers from a fatal flaw: the NES's hardware doesn't seem like it's capable of pushing this game's quality level past the level of quality in the second game.

The sound effects were changed from Ninja Gaiden 2, but the change is odd; Ryu yells the same kiai every time he swings his sword. It grates on your nerves after a while. The music (after the first stage) is kind of middle-of-the-road compared to the last game, and a lot of the steel-blade related sound effects are boosted at a very unpleasant frequency. It doesn't really draw you in; it breaks the illusion, and you realize it's a video game.

The challenge is a bit dodgy as well; repetitive level playing is emphasized over quick reaction time. Rote memorization over improvisation, kind of. They use the "flying creature has knocked player into pit" strategy too much, and there's rarely any time to react to it, so you end up playing the level again and again until you've learnt the proper timing of jumping and attacking. It wasn't like that before; you could decide how you wanted to treat a situation, and there were several different solutions to each section of a level. Here, there is one solution, and you must work to find it. It hurts the pace of the game.

As for replay value, once you're done with this game, you kind of put it down and play something you like.

Still, it's worth playing through; it's Ninja Gaiden. The identity of the series is intact. Once again, it's a shame that this wasn't moved to better hardware. But you know, business is business, after all.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/10

Game Release: Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (US, August 1991)