NINJA GAIDEN 3 Publisher: Tecmo Developer: Team Ninja Release Date: March 20, 2012 By: Mark Fajardo The Ninja Gaiden series has been infamous for its difficulty. With the new direction that Ninja Gaiden has taken, one of the things that is Compared to the visuals of the past two Ninja Gaiden changed is the level of challenges presented in the campaign. Under games, Ninja Gaiden 3 is quite impressive. From the char- normal difficulty, veteran players will find it too easy and that it feels acter design of Ryu, to the enemies and environments that like Ninja Dog mode from the previous games. Those who love the you will have to go through, the noticeable improvements challenge found in the previous two game, starting on hard is recom- serve up some delicious eye-candy. Spanning through nine mended, although it’s still not very challenging. Basically, the hardest stages, Ninja Gaiden 3 takes you to different parts of the known action game in the industry has now been dumbed down to a world such as London, Antartica and Tokyo. These locations point where it is sure to disappoint a lot of fans of the series. 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 play- through and everything in the visual department seemed almost perfect. 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, Veteran players of the Ninja Gaiden series, will be extremely disap- Team Ninja listened and actually made a well-developed pointed with Ninja Gaiden 3, mainly due to the plethora of changes. story that is sure to engage fans from beginning to end. The biggest change coming in the form of the dumbed down dif- The game starts off with the Japanese Self-Defense Force in ficulty. While that may be a big change for fans, it’s hard to deny that the Hayabusa Village. Here they inform Ryu that a terrorist Ninja Gaiden 3 still succeeds in delivering the solid action gameplay organization, called the Lord of Alchemy, has demanded his that the series has been known for and finally delivers a story that assistance to survive. While attempting to comply with the fans will care about. When it comes to weighing the pros and cons of terrorist group, the story becomes even more complicated the new Ninja Gaiden game, it is still a solid title that long-time fans when Ryu acquires the curse of the Dragon Blade in his and newcomers to the franchise shouldn’t miss. arm. Much more on Ryu’s persona and the mystery of the Dragon Blade will, once again, be the theme of Ninja Gaiden .