TECMO KOEI

I’m not going to sugarcoat this review—Ninja Gaiden 3 is a bad game. Borderline awful, even. There’s no amount of DLC, no number of patches, and absolutely zero justification pronounceable in human tongue by any sentient being that could somehow make Team Ninja‘s latest “effort” even remotely okay. After two incredibly brutal games, Team Ninja return for the third chronological entry of the Ninja Gaiden series, Ninja Gaiden 3. Though Tomonobu Itagaki was not directing the title, leaving Team Ninja altogether to pursue The Devil’s Third with a new team at Valhalla Studios, Yosuke Hayashi, designer on all of the Sigma games, stepped up as the lead, showing a great deal of promise, though inexperienced. There’s virtually no point to touch on anything that doesn’t have to do with combat as far as the series is concerned. I mean, really, who gives a damn about the enemies’ intentions or the purpose of Ryu Hayabusa’s adventure therein? Ninja Gaiden has always been—and always should be—about rage-inducing, visceral combat, laden with bombastic