Ninja Gaiden 3 is Here… and I’m Terrified.

Well, terrified is probably overstating it, but let’s just say I’m nervous.

Ever since Team Ninja revived the classic series on the Xbox in 2004, I’ve been on board with anything that has Ryu Hayabusa on the cover. When it came to action games, nothing would quench my bloodthirst better than the unforgiving, yet rewarding fights that gamers were guaranteed when they saw the words Ninja Gaiden on the box. But 2004 was a long time ago. Since then, head designer Tomonobu Itagaki left his team amidst a dispute with publisher Tecmo, Tecmo themselves have merged with Koei and as for the team itself, it’s had its share of hits, (like Dead or Alive Dimensions,) and misses, (the controversy surrounding Metroid: Other M comes to mind.) Last year at E3 when I saw the new Ninja Gaiden on display, I ran over to the open demo, anxious to see how one of my favorite franchises was moving forward. I booted up the game, selected hard mode, (of course!) and got down to cutting foo’s up.

But instead of being excited when I walked away, all I could think was, “what happened?”

What I played felt like a completely different game. So many key aspects that made the first two so great were gone. When I was trudging through the streets of whatever European town Ryu was in, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the lack of essence dropped by enemies, numerous “cinematic” action sequences that inturrupted the fast paced game play with almost every kill and Ryu’s red glowing arm that would activate an attack that instantly wiped out all the enemies on screen after a small amount of foes were slaughtered regularly. Wall running, a trademark of the series, was gone in place of really… slow… kunai… wall climbing. Oh, and half assed stealth sections were added where a mysterious fog would keep enemies from seeing you. I understand that they’re trying to make 3 stand out from the previous two, but all of these areas had no flow. It was like they were just slapped together for the sake of some kind of false variety.

My biggest fault with it though… was that I didn’t die. Not once. I beat all the enemies, climbed all the boring walls and took down a giant mech with hardly any effort. Remember, this was on hard in a game with a reputation for being challenging on easy. Knowing that I could just haphazardly run through the game without a care in the world, how is this Ninja Gaiden?

I’ve tried to stay away from reviews, and I’m about to boot up my GameFly copy to see how it turned out, but the fact that I’m even getting what was always a must buy franchise through GameFly is telling for me. If I wanted a button masher where I could just headbutt my controller through to the credits while half my game consists of quick time events, I’d play God of War. But if this is the direction Ninja Gaiden is heading in, I fear for it. I fear for Dead or Alive. And I fear for one of my favorite developers in Team Ninja. As I start this game up, I’m hope I’ll find that the fear is unfounded… but from what I’ve played so far, I’m afraid that it won’t be.