Ninja Gaiden Series

[Rynnec]

And if they're unable to fit them on one disc, they can just spread them across 2 disks. So Disc 1 would have all the versions of Ninja Gaiden 1, and hte same would apply for disc 2.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Knowing Hayashi it would just be the 2 Sigma games since he actually believes that they are definitively/objectively superior to the original versions of each game (and people say that Itagaki is arrogant ).

I'm going to make a slight adjustment to Desensitized's list for accuracy of what would make the optimal Ninja Gaiden collection package:

Ninja Gaiden WITH Hurricane Packs DLC (this is because the Hurricane Packs are literally no longer available through any legal means if you haven't already downloaded them, since XBL for the original XBOX was finally shut down for good about a year ago)

Ninja Gaiden Black (this basically makes releasing the original version of Ninja Gaiden without the DLC pretty pointless, as NGB has all of the stuff that it had plus extra weapons, more enemies, Ninja Dog mode and Master Ninja mode, and Mission Mode; and to be honest it has most of the stuff from the Hurricane Packs as well, except for the Intercept ability which was taken out because it kind of broke the game....)

Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Ninja Gaiden 2

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Also, keep in mind that if these ports were untampered with, they would also come with the emulated versions of the SNES version of the Ninja Gaiden trilogy and the original arcade game, since those were included in Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black, respectively. So, it really would be the ultimate NG collection (it would have all of the good NG games, anyways). The only noteworthy game that would be excluded would be Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, but that game is impossible to port to any other console than the DS because it was specifically designed to work with the DS's stylus and dual-screens. Well, maybe it would actually be possible to get it to work on the WiiU's tablet controller, so maybe that could be included as well, somehow.

[Spark Of Spirit]

With a special bonus of Ninja Gaiden 3 NES- the Japanese version with the English translation! 

Talk about easy money!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I'd love to play the original Japanese version of that game. Someday when I actually have the money I'll track it down and buy it, no matter how expensive it is....well OK I have my limits, but still, my obsession with Ninja Gaiden will lead me to buy it at some point in time, along with a working NES console. I did play the SNES version of NG3 which was more or less based off of the Japanese version in terms of making you take normal damage instead of double damage and giving you infinite continues, but it had some odd technical flaws that were apparently never present in the NES version of the game (which is only what I've heard, but I'd take a gamble on believing it since unlike the 3rd game I do know the first 2 games well enough to spot technical flaws in the SNES port of them, as minuscule as they may be).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, now this is one of the few genuinely great pieces of news that I have heard related to this game. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't make up for all of the other things that Hayashi has fucked up in this game, but its at least good to know that Tecmo and Team Ninja haven't yet sunk to the levels of Capcom in terms of their business decisions. Then again, I can't help but feel that this is somewhat of a response attempting to alleviate some of the fan back-lash that this game has been getting over the past few months in order to get on people's good side. That said, I'm not complaining about free DLC one bit, so I say bring it on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, one more good bit of news that I found out from a thread from a fellow NG fan is that fiends are in fact featured in the main game after all, though just not as much as in previous games. He got the information from the game's official strategy guide, which he somehow snagged a copy of even though its not supposed to officially release until the game's launch date, along with the game itself. According to him the game lists 26 different enemy types, so apparently enemy variety IS still there, even if most of them are humans (which I'm fine with as long as they are well-designed enemies, and aren't like those terrorists from the first stage that beg for their lives).

It seems like this game may not be as bad as I thought, though don't get me wrong, I know it'll still be a bad NG game. That said, at least its not totally devoid of variety, so it may have a bit more going for it than the extremely shallow experience that I have been expecting up until now.

[Foggle]

That sounds cool. Hopefully Hayashi gets more right than he does wrong. I'll probably pick this up when it's $20.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

YES!

I knew that even Hayashi couldn't be stupid enough to completely rule out any non-katana weapons from the game. Its still a pitiful weapon's roster of only 3 different weapon types compared to that of NGB and NG2, but at least we get 2 very great weapons from NG2 back (as FREE DLC, no less).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's the official OXM review.

The reviewer seems to understand this game from both an NG fan's perspective and a casual gamer's perspective. Its clear that this game, while probably fine enough in its own right, was not really made for NG fans. Hayashi is a sell-out, that's not surprising since he's been a sell-out ever since Sigma 2, but probably the most hurtful thing is when the review flat-out nails the major problem with this game: most gameplay decisions from previous games are taken out of the player's hands. Comparing this game to Itagaki's Ninja Gaiden games is the perfect example of what I consider to be wrong with the modernization of video games. There are actually people out there who think that stripping a game of content, strategy, and overall replay value in favor of a more "immersive and seamless" experience actually makes a better GAME. That's just the most idiotic logic that I've ever heard.

I'm still going to get the game at some point in time, probably after I finish this semester of college since I just flat-out don't have the time for it right now, but my only hope at this point is that Team Ninja listens to fan criticism and takes the next Ninja Gaiden game in the right direction. Of course, there may be no next game if this game doesn't sell well, and honestly this game has has virtually NO marketing whatsoever, and without fans hyping it up on the Internet like they did for the first 2 games, I doubt it'll sell as much as they did. Hopefully it still sells just enough to warrant a sequel and hopefully Team Ninja does respond positively to criticism, but that's just wishful thinking on my part, and unfortunately its REALLY a stretch for something like that to happen. I'd be more bummed out about this, but I've had months to prepare for disappointment, and at least MGSR is coming out this year so it should be able to satisfy my craving for a deep and satisfying hack n' slash action game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, some fans have gotten the game early, and one big general impression from most of them (whether they like the game or not) is that being limited to only one weapon makes the combat feel REALLY repetitive, and most of them claim to have already been dying to rekindle one of the classic weapons from the previous game as early as the 2nd stage, especially since there is no upgrade feature and all of Ryu's main moves for the Dragon Sword are unlocked from the start. Basically the only initiative to keep playing (that is to say, the only thing that you're rewarded with after all of the repetition) is the next cutscene.

As for the story (the thing Hayashi apparently thinks excuses all of his outlandish cuts from this game) has very mixed opinions among fans. I have no idea what its about, since even though I still fully expect it to suck (even if its being written by the guy who wrote the stories for the NES NG games, which haven't exactly aged all that well), I have a rule as to not spoil a story-line for myself, even that of a Ninja Gaiden game (being that the 3D NG games barely have stories to begin with, except for apparently this one). Despite the previous games hardly throwing out any story, apparently this game's story has a lot of references and call-backs to it somehow from what I've heard, which to me is more weird than cool since I have no idea what you could possibly call-back to when it comes to previous NG games that would make any coherent sense in a new story, but apparently its one of the few things that "some" fans seem to like. On the other hand, fans of the NES games are pissed since this game seems to have virtually no call-backs to those games despite Hayashi promising that it would (I'm not surprised that you can't take what a guy says like that to heart; I didn't expect him to acknowledge the classics the slightest, despite him trying to pull in old-school NES fans by saying that this game would pay more homage to those games).

That's about all I know of the game so far, although there are videos up there but to be fair I'm not going to watch any of them and just wait until I can get the game at some point and judge it for myself. Then I'll review it and say what I honestly feel. Having said that, none of what I've heard from fan feed-back so far is a surprise to me. This game seems to have turned out to be exactly what I expected: a derivative action game using the NG series title for marketing value (and even then, the series never had that much marketing value among modern gamers to begin with).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's a post from another board that comes from a fellow NG fan (one of the more reasonable one's who doesn't hate on the game JUST because its not the same game as previous NG games):

Well I finished it. WTF did I just play. This game feels so far removed from Ninja Gaiden games it's unbelievable. If I sat here and listed all my complaints and nitpicks I'd be here too long. There will be enough people doing that next week. I tell ya , say what you want about Itagaki , but this @$% wouldn't of been made on his watch.

Rather than bash it apart I'll just do some spoiler info for those that want it & I'll answer specific questions people might have. The best I can say about it is it's a decent action game.....but a terrible "Ninja Gaiden" game

**Spoilers**
You don't fight Genshin , he is in the game briefly but you don't fight him.

The Fiends we know and love we have seen are not in Story Mode , they are in Coop Missions.

The BSNs are only in 1 level , & now they never shut up.

The Bosses are pretty terrible. The final Boss is basically a reskinned Giant Buddha Statue.

The only Boss that was fun to fight was the thing the guy in the wheel chair turns into on the air craft carrier

There is an On Rails bow shooting segment ....felt soooooooo out of place in a Ninja Gaiden game. Made me sad

I dunno I'll post some more stuff later I guess /sigh

So yeah....it looks like us NGB fans will never get that true sequel that we've already waited 8 years for. I mean, the NG series just keeps taking steps back and gets worse with each installment (NG2 is still awesome, though) instead of moving forward and getting better....

[Foggle]

There is an On Rails bow shooting segment

[Spark Of Spirit]

With dual analog? Even if that wasn't in NG3 that would be a bad idea.

the thing the guy in the wheel chair turns into on the air craft carrier

And this is written by the guy who wrote the NES games? I guess he really did lose his mind when writing NES NG3.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

He's also apparently credited for being the story-writer of Chrono Trigger, so....IDK, maybe he just realized that Hayashi was too busy thinking that he's so deep and creative to realize good story elements from bad ones, so he wrote a half-asses script with completely ridiculous characters in about 20 minutes and handed it in for a quick pay-check. At least I'm sure that's how the first 2 NG games were written, so that's really nothing new for the series as far as I'm concerned.

[Rynnec]

Here's gameplay of the Claws if anyone's interested.