Ninja Gaiden Series

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I saw that yesterday. Its nice to see the claws in action again, but seeing that its already integrated into this game's mechanics this well got me and others to realize that the game had been developed with the Claws and Scythe as part of the full package to start with. The developers didn't say that and released it as DLC which is free with the online pass in order to get people to buy the game new....since they know that no fan would pass up the opportunity to use more than just a freaking katana in the game. Its nice to have their inclusion, I'm not complaining about that, but even then its still sad that these were both weapons already featured in NG2....along with the Dragon Sword....and 5 other completely different, unique, and equally versatile weapons....and that game had dismemberment as well which served more than just an aesthetic purpose since it played into the game's strategy....and yeah, I think you can see where I'm going with this. No matter what they do at this point, it just can't be ignored that this game is a HUGE step back for the series.

Also, here's some gameplay footage of Ninja Trials mode (which is this game's equivalent of missions mode from the first 2 games). To be fair, it looks MUCH better than the main game and far more challenging (plus it has fiends in it), but it still doesn't make up for the game's shortcomings, IMO. Still, its probably just enough to warrant my purchase of the game (the sad thing is that its still more content than the average non-DMC or Bayonetta action game would offer, but its way less than what people would expect from a Ninja Gaiden game).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, apparently, even if you're playing Ninja Trials solo, there isn't any way for you to pause the game in that mode....well, let's just hope that people who end up doing really good on any of the missions don't have a sudden urge to go to the bathroom while playing through that.

No, but seriously, how the fuck could ANY half-competent developer forget to leave a feature like that out?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Would yanking out the controller pause it? Sometimes that works on games that don't allow pausing (which is dumb).

[Foggle]

Would yanking out the controller pause it? Sometimes that works on games that don't allow pausing (which is dumb).

Pressing the Xbox/PS button might also work.

Sounds awful, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, apparently the best thing about the game is that we get a Robert T. Sturgeon cameo....which means that a cameo is more interesting than the actual gameplay. At any rate that's just the opinion of the more hardcore NG fans who have played through the game already. Still, at least its good that the NES NG games get SOME form of attention in this day and age.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

IGN Gave it a 3/10, lol. Its no surprise seeing as how they were hating on the game the moment it was unveiled, but overall this may be the first time I'm actually kind of glad a game is getting a really low score (knowing them its probably somewhat exaggerated, since this did score that much lower than even Ninja Blade, after all). Don't get me wrong, I'd probably think its shit too (though the average reviewer probably won't be that harsh on the game), but if the game gets low enough review scores it'll force Hayashi and the rest of Team Ninja to never pull shit like this again. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually kind of hoping that the game does get bashed by critics this time. Its already getting torn apart by fans who have gotten the game early and played through it.

[Foggle]

IGN also gave God Hand a 3. This could very well mean that Ninja Gaiden 3 is the best game in the series!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No, in this case....I kind of agree most of the stuff the reviewer is saying. Don't get me wrong, a 3 is still ridiculous (even the pros who have hated on this game said that its THAT bad like what IGN is saying), but I actually bothered to read this review and everything the reviewer railed on about this game is kind of the exact fears I had about what this game would turn into. Keep in mind, the reviewer is clearly a HUGE Ninja Gaiden fan, so he's reviewing it in comparison to the first 2 games as opposed to just an action game in general. Still, since I'm a Ninja Gaiden fan, I won't be surprised if I end up hating it as much, myself.

Also, the difference between this and God Hand is that God Hand actually has depth to it....and the hacks at IGN just couldn't fathom how to play it. On the other hand, all of the NG veterans who have already played this game have unanimous confirmed that it dumbs down the combat so much to the point of making it downright shallow. So in this case its not like IGN doesn't know how to play the game, because there isn't much to the game to begin with. Also, most fans actually agree with the IGN review on the point that being limited to the sword makes the game feel WAY too repetitive and tiring to play through (most people also even agreed that they were sick of it by the end of the 1st level). Keep in mind that's coming from hardcore NG fans, but seeing as how I am among them, that isn't exactly good news for me....

For comparison, here are all of the review scores that have come out for this game so far....DAMN! This game is pretty fucking polarizing, as you can already see. The reviewer that I think seems to be the most fair to it is Videogamer (giving it a 5/10; for comparison they gave NG2 a 9/10).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be honest, there's only one other person I'm REALLY interested in hearing the opinion of in regards to this game. Right now he's probably sitting on a cushioned sofa with his signature leather jacket and shades laughing his ass off at Tecmo.

[Foggle]

To be honest, there's only one other person I'm REALLY interested in hearing the opinion of in regards to this game. Right now he's probably sitting on a cushioned sofa with his signature leather jacket and shades laughing his ass off at Tecmo.

"Ninja Gaiden 3? I haven't heard about that. I think you're lying. It doesn't exist. If it does exist, then it's shit. I haven't played it, it's not real, but it would definitely be shit. Even worse than Devil May Cry. Yeah, that bad."

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

DLC Trailer- It may sound cool that its free, but keep in mind that ALL of that content is recycled material from NG2 (both of the weapons as well as the bosses). And of course NG2 still had way more weapons than this.

I was all set to support this game even if it would be a mediocre action game, but fuck it, I'm honestly waiting until it comes down in price. Impressions from fans have been fairly negative, and a lot of them are honestly claiming that the IGN review is pretty spot-on to the game's problems (even if it doesn't necessarily deserve a 3/10), which is that the game is so shallow and one-note that it has absolutely no substance to it. Also, just keep in mind that the people who said this pretty much hate IGN for their low review scores of other games, as a lot of NG fans I know also happen to be big-time fans of God Hand (just for the record ). Any shortcomings that NG2 may have had seem liked minor nitpicks now, and even fans who didn't like it say its pretty much a masterpiece compared to this game (and apparently the story that they put so much focus on is so atrociously bad its actually hilarious....which in its own way is kind of a good thing, since its still fun to watch just to rip apart for all of its plot holes and terrible writing ). Oh yeah, and the T-Rex boss fight has become a laughing-stock among fans. Its by far the worst boss fight in Ninja Gaiden history because its such a joke. Seriously, just watch a gameplay video of that boss fight. The T-Rex's AI is so pathetically stupid that I guarantee you'll laugh your ass off at how much that thing fumbles around (you don't even have to do anything to stun it, the fucking thing automatically trips itself up in battle).

Needless to say, if anyone here ever has the interest in trying a modern Ninja Gaiden game, Do NOT start with this game. In fact avoid this game altogether and you'll be fine. Just start with NGB, or even NG2 for that matter (just keep in mind that its a flawed game so don't expect perfection). Hell, even Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 seems like fucking brilliance compared to this piece of shit. I kid you not. Its disappointing, but I'll still play it eventually, and if nothing else fans at least assure me that its so bad at some parts that its actually hilarious enough to make me laugh out loud, so at least I'll get "some" form of entertainment out of this.

Normally I'd say that I hope that Team Ninja "Dog" learns from their mistake of taking this game in the completely wrong direction and instead stick with and improve upon what works in NG4, but after this game I'll just be far more satisfied if they agree to just flat-out NEVER touch the Ninja Gaiden series again. I'd rather let it die out with just one bad game (or 2 if you want to count NES NG3, though even THAT game looks good when you compare it to this!) than have its horribly beaten corpse dragged through the mud in such a pathetic manner.

I HATE to have to agree with IGN, but I've seen more than enough of this game in action to realize as an NG fan that this is just a self-indulgent piece of shit. Yosuke Hayashi thinks he's being deep and meaningful by taking the series in new directions, when all he did with this game was take out almost EVERYTHING that made past games great and replaced them with things that plenty of OTHER action games have done and have done MUCH BETTER than this game. And even then he barely put anything new in the game compared to what he took out. So, essentially he just neutered the gameplay mechanics to the extreme and called it a better game. I hope he gets fired from being the director of Team Ninja. He doesn't deserve that position one bit. I can't wait to see how bad DOA5 bombs whenever that comes out.

[Foggle]

Team Ninja "Dog"

Oh yeah, I'm curious... how does that "YOU WILL FEEL YOUR SWORD CUTTING THROUGH BONE AND TISSUE" shit work? Sounds like it'd be pretty disgusting and needlessly slow down the gameplay. Does it actually alter the gameplay significantly?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It completely disrupts combos and is annoying because there's no way to control it (it happens at random). I mean its kind of cool-ish the first time you do it....but by the 50th time (at which point you would still be on the 1st fucking level) you'll be pretty damn annoyed by it. It pisses me off because I was hoping NG would improve upon its already amazing combat system from NG2 to compete with Bayonetta which currently has the most robust combat system in an action game yet....and yet we get this shit. It can't even be used strategically because it happens at complete random without any player control over it whatsoever.

Also, if you want to know exactly what's wrong with this game from level-headed reviewers, check out this video review. It sums up the game more perfectly than anyone else has done, so far.

Hayashi has basically proven to everyone that he and the rest of Team Ninja are absolutely useless without Itagaki. This was his first time to build a game from the ground-up as the leader of the development team, and he absolutely failed in every conceivable way possible. And its not due to anything that could have excuses like time or budget constraints, and it wasn't a problem of the game having any major technical bugs. He just took out great gameplay mechanics that fans and even critics loved about past games, and instead replaced with with flat-out TERRIBLE gameplay design decisions. They are so obviously bad that I have to wonder why NO ONE at that company stood up and questioned any of them. Does nobody at Team Ninja or Tecmo know how to make a decent action game (or even a competent game in general) any longer?

[Foggle]

This is why I love Destructoid (aside from Sterling, of course).

List of things wrong with this game that I noticed in the video alone:
"Before you even get to the title screen, it gives you a quick time event of Ryu taking off his mask"
"He takes off his mask and there's, like, no pageantry to it at all" "And he looks like a fuckin' pansy, too."
"If you're playing a game where you're playing as a ninja fighting a giant metal dinosaur and it's boring, something went wrong."
The Robo-T-Rex model looks suspiciously similar to the one from BulletStorm.
"This game is one of those that likes to tell you repeatedly how to do stuff like 'push B to open a door'"
"It sure must be an important moves list if I've never had to refer to it once."
No progression at all. "Pretty much what you can do at the start of the game is what you can do at the end of the game."
"There are no items." What the shit? How do you heal or replenish ninpo?
"Muramasa store is gone in this one"
"There's no collectibles, no chests"
"There's no combo counter"
NO MORE ULTIMATE TECHNIQUES? WHAT THE FUCK HAYASHI
ONLY ONE NINPO ATTACK? WHAT THE FUCK HAYASHI
"Throughout the entire game... that same dragon animation"
"They added a lot of quick time events" "They added A LOT of quick time events"
KUNAI CLIMBING? I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I'M SEEING. WHAT THE FUCK HAYASHI
"There's a broken fence. I can't jump over it. I have to run down the stairs" "You can't jump anywhere"
"If it is glowing, you need to attack that part. That's pretty much every boss fight"
"The bosses don't have life bars"
"There's a stealth segment"
"It's a soulless game" "It's like what someone who doesn't like video games might think of video gaming as"

Holy shit this game sounds awful. Doubt I'll even pick it up used now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yup, And as you can imagine with me being the huge NG fan I am, it REALLY hurts me just to know that this game was even crapped out into existence. Hayashi just put out one big-ass shit-stain on what I consider to be one of the greatest action-franchises of all-time (or at least it WAS one of the greatest before this game was released).