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A playthrough of Tecmo's 1991 NES game, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. For all the ire that I might draw in saying so, this is my second favorite Ninja Gaiden game after the 1989 original. The graphics are an incredible showcase for the NES' capabilities in the hands of an experienced developer, the music is just as good as the older ones, this time even going so far as to include super-distorted digital samples in the music, as well as including an obnoxious “Ha!“ sound every time Ryu swings his sword. The controls are the smoothest and most intuitive of the three games, with a hanging manoeuvre that allows Ryu to flip up onto platforms above him. A lot of hullabaloo has generated as a result of the game's hugely increased difficulty over the original Japanese version, but it is actually a fair amount easier than the first two. The major difference is that each enemy dishes out way more damage per hit, and you're limited to five continues, but it really just comes down to playing the game enough to anticipate the upcoming bad stuff - things are much easier to avoid in this game over the first two, and they have a far smaller tendency to swarm the **** out of you. The only HUGE oversight in my mind in the game play is the goof with the time in the final area. Someone correct me if you know otherwise, but as far as I know, you cannot finish the game without losing a life: Act VII doesn't give you anywhere near enough time to get through the level before the timer kills you. It's quite difficult to get that far in the level without dying first (therefore resetting the timer), but still - isn't it enough of a challenge without forcing a death on the player at the very end? The story... *sigh* could have been much better. There are tons of appearances from old characters (it takes place between the original and NG2), but they really force quite a few leaps in logic, and a lot of it seems kind of random. The graphic quality of the cinematics, however, utterly destroys just about anything else that Tecmo ever did with their “Tecmo Theatre“ system. Finally, if you really dislike the limited continues, you could always try to play the SNES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy version... complete with butchered sound and ugly graphics (....errr, wasn't it supposed to be an upgrade?). _____ NintendoComplete () punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games! Visit for the latest updates!
