Ninja Gaiden Series

[Rynnec]

Holy shit. They're actually doing it.

This may not end up being as good as the previous games, but damn, they're actually trying this time.

[Foggle]

Holy shit! Did they... did they seriously find a way to make NG 3 good? Good on you, Team Ninja!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Actually, the general thought now is that Team Ninja underhandedly had this planned for a LONG time. Remember how NG3 was announced with the subtitle "Razor's Edge" on the Wii U indicating that it would have lots of additional content to it like the Sigma games, hence getting a significant subtitle to indicate its difference? That was at last year's E3, and most fans now figure that there's no way that Team Ninja could just implement these changes in the game for the Wii U's launch which is just a few months away, as it releases later this year. These changes and additions of gameplay elements would have had to have been in the works for longer than that if they would need them functional for a Wii U launch, and now the speculation is that Team Ninja made a deal with Nintendo long ago to release all of this content exclusively on the Wii U version, but Team Ninja got lazy and instead of creating lots of content they just gave us XBOX360 and PS3 owners HALF of a game and are simply now just releasing the full game with some minor new additions on the Wii U, which honestly seems pretty plausible given just how substantially different and better this version of the game is shaping up to be.

If this is really true, then it may make for a better game (though still laughably inferior to the first 2 games), but it'll come at the cost of betraying the core NG fan-base since it'd force them to buy a new console and buy the game again to get the full experience, which is just fucking underhanded business practice on Tecmo and Team Ninja's part.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Unbelievable.

I'd still rather a port of Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden II.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'd rather than make a new Ninja Gaiden game entirely rather than trying to salvage a crappy one. Preferably a new 2D entry. But, yeah, like always that's never going to happen, given the luck us NG fans have.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Have any of you guys ever seen the Turbografix 16 ports of the Ninja Gaiden games? They look totally different and have completely different sounding music and sound effects. They even have THEIR OWN SPELLING MISTAKES!

"Father, I swear I will revenge your death!"

Here is the entire first game in action on the TG16.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, this video reviews the Game Gear Ninja Gaiden game (along with various other Game Gear titles) in relatively good video quality. Apparently an iOS game ripped this off. Considering that this game looks like utter shit as it is, that's just sad.

At any rate, I'd still play this game just because its a Ninja Gaiden game and I will play every NG game in existence at some point in time, even the most obscure ones.

[Foggle]

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/06/devils-third-to-be-expanded-into-film-manga-and-animation-as-well/

So... they're going to make a movie adaptation? That's cool.

More importantly; PC version confirmed! YES!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, as a new company (relatively, anyways) without a single game out yet, I think that they want to start out with a franchise in mind to expand and grow off of. All of those adaptations will probably only happen if the game is successful, though, and even then it'll probably be stuff like novel and manga spin-offs rather than a movie or anime. That said, it definitely shows how ambitious of a project this is for them, and it means that Itagaki and his team must have been putting their all into this game. That said, if THQ is any indication, while this game may kick-ass, it probably won't sell as much as it deserves to. Some people on neogaf are being dumb-asses and saying that THQ dropping it is a sign that it'll suck. I guess they never realized that THQ is on the verge of bankruptcy and that they can't afford to spend the millions it would cost to properly advertise this game, and that even then it might not pay off despite the game being good. See Vanquish to get a perfect example of what I mean. The game was excellent and got great reviews, but it never really sold all that well, especially compared to AAA TPS games like Gears of War and Uncharted. Just because THQ dropped it doesn't mean the game wasn't shaping up well. It just means that the game was proving too costly for them to continue producing when the pay-off wouldn't be enough since realistically, they knew the game probably wouldn't sell very well regardless of how good it was (its sad but its also very true).

[Spark Of Spirit]

So Tecmo is releasing the NES version of Ninja Gaiden 1 on the 3DS virtual console within the next few weeks. I have it on the Wii so I'm good, but for those who want an official portable version with a save stating feature (yeah for better check-pointing!) and have a 3DS should keep an eye out.

Other than the birds and the terrible checkpoints at times, it's one of the best games on the NES.

But I do wish they would port the Game Boy and Game Gear ones to the 3DS as well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just so long as it is a direct port of the NES version of the game and not the flawed SNES port, it makes for a pretty sweet deal.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, they only release the NES versions on the 3DS VC, they haven't added SNES games yet. I actually think this might be the first third party VC game.

[Foggle]

Hey E-K...

Also, apparently this version of the game has full two-player co-op.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If they managed to fix Ninja Gaiden 3 that would be quite amazing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Going by that trailer, I at least have to give Team Ninja credit for actually trying to make the best out of a bad game. The problem is that if the foundation is bad, then the best you can do is to upgrade it to something medicore (at best) or equally as shitty. Most of my problems with NG3, unfortunately, lie at its core, and that stuff unfortunately can't be changed no matter how much they pile onto it (they'd basically have to remake the whole game from scratch to fix it).

What this video shows me is that they ARE actually listening to some feedback now. So my best hope is that they will take what they learned about how NOT to make an NG game with NG3 and make a much better NG game with the next game (assuming that Razor's Edge sells just enough to give them a reason to make a sequel).

I don't really know what it is, but while I appreciate that they are changing the tone of the game to being more tounge-in-cheek rather than inappropriately stern and serious and only funny in all of the worst and most unintentional ways (like the original release of the game), the game still lacks a "soul" to me, if that makes any sense. In perspective, a game like NG2 had a lot of problems, but it still felt like there was a genuine soul to it, where you could feel that the people making the game really gave a shit and wanted to make a truly great action game (but unfortunately had to succumb to the limit of severe time constraints and trying to accomplish too much in too little time). With NG3, the game will always feel to me like a game that just does what it thinks everyone else wants to see and do in the game, rather than being what the developers themselves would really want to put into a game to make it great. That's the main difference between NG3 and Itagaki's NG games for me, personally.

To put it simply: I want an NG game that the developers themselves are actually proud of making. You can feel with this game that Team Ninja themselves know that its a piece of crap and are ashamed of it, so no matter what it'll be a crap game. With a game like NGB, you can tell that they really loved it, which is why its so damn good.