Virtual Spotlight: Ninja Gaiden III

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

The more things change, eh?

As we move into a new generation of video games, both developers and publishers seem hellbent on completely destroying the experience of playing their creations by imposing all manner of barriers to enjoyment between the player and the game. Crippling digital rights management, mandatory online connections for single-player games, intrusive microtransaction prompts: These are the grim legacy of our medium's death march into the future. But it's not like this is somehow new. If gaming's four decades of existence have taught us anything, it's that publishers will never pass up an opportunity to undermine the integrity of a video game if it means wringing a little extra money out of gamers.

Case in point, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. The original Ninja Gaiden helped usher in a sort of 8-bit golden era of meatier, more sophisticated, more refined NES games. It was crushingly difficult, sure -- sometimes unfairly so -- but damn if it wasn't cool. The fast-paced action! The manga-style cut scenes! The power-ups! So awesome. Several years later, the third game in the Ninja Gaiden series felt very much like a child of the original in every way. It combined the distinctive mechanics and aesthetics of Ninja Gaiden with the complex, multi-layered style of later-era NES games.

It was also practically impossible to complete... at least in the U.S., anyway. See, Ninja Gaiden III coincided with the rise of video game rentals. Over in Japan, the entire concept of rentals was quickly outlawed, but American courts sided with consumers rather than corporations. Furious, many publishers began modifying their games for U.S. release to counter the possibility of weekend rentals demolishing game sales; for example, Konami revamped damage values in Castlevania III to make the American version harder. But perhaps no game was affected as profoundly by this trend as Ninja Gaiden III.

Determined not to lose out to the rental market, Tecmo tweaked a major feature of Ryu Hayabusa's third adventure (well, narratively his second adventure, but never mind that): They limited the number of continues available to the player. Where the Japanese version of the game let you continue as many times as necessary in order to reach the final battle, the American release gave you a definitive Game Over after you'd continued five times.

This, of course, was completely ridiculous. Ninja Gaiden ranks among the most challenging series ever, and while the third episode was slightly easier than its predecessors (mainly because enemies didn't respawn quite as quickly and aggressively as in the first two titles) it sure wasn't easy. Reaching the end of the game on a mere five continues stands as one of the most demanding tasks in video game history. Seriously, you kids with your Dark Souls think you're all tough and cool because you play "hard" games, but you don't even know the half of it.

That fact alone makes the 3DS Virtual Console reissue of Ninja Gaiden III the most accessible release of the game to date. I have no shame in admitting the addition of legitimate, developer-added save states makes this game playable to me. Save states will serve as my crutch as I play through the rest of this game, and I'm OK with with. I've struggled through the original Ninja Gaiden countless times, and I was even part of the problem with Ninja Gaiden II (I ended up beating it in a weekend rental and never bothered buying it), but the removal of infinite continues in Ninja Gaiden III struck me as a spiteful decision even back then.

And even then, I might actually have been willing to see it through to the end if Ninja Gaiden III had been a little better. The whole game feels a little weird -- disjointed. It's definitely the most sophisticated entry in the series, with a bundle of new skills for Ryu (including the ability to do a hand-over-hand maneuver while hanging from platforms) and lots of interesting little touches, like the way he shouts when attacking. But you really feel the loss of the second game's shadow clones here, as it really takes away from the sense of empowerment that made Ninja Gaiden II so engrossing.

Ryu's replacement skills, like the overhand crawl, feel like they should belong to a slower, more methodically paced action game like Bionic Commando or Kabuki Quantum Fighter. The same could be said for the game environments, too -- they're drawn from a different perspectives than the previous Ninja Gaidens (no doubt to make some of the new mechanics possible). They're gorgeous and detailed, but they look out of place -- and they don't always fit the action as well as you might hope. With Ryu capable of sticking to both walls and ceilings, evading enemies becomes weirdly difficult at times. So in that sense, it's still an authentic Ninja Gaiden game: There'll be plenty of times you die and mutter, "That wasn't my fault."

A newly merciful take on an unsatisfying sequel to a brilliant NES game: This rendition of Ninja Gaiden III is probably as good a take as you'll ever find. But maybe it's more valuable in the abstract sense. The addition of save states helps compensate for a game-breaking decision made more than 20 years ago. Who knows? Maybe someday someone will republish some of today's games minus their modern-day business compromises. Please look forward to the SimCity offline patch, coming in 2035.