The Nintendo Wii U Brings Us A Redesigned Ninja Gaiden 3 With Exclusive Features

The Nintendo Wii U Brings Us a Redesigned Ninja Gaiden 3 with Exclusive Features

Ninja Gaiden 3 was a game that faulted in many ways. For me, I scored the game a 5/10 for reasons such as poor presentation, storytelling, and most importantly the gameplay. The gameplay wasn’t as fun or as difficult as I would have expected from a Ninja Gaiden title. It felt out of touch in the sense of not feeling as if you had good control over your character and also as stated in my review, the lack of a lock-on system hurt the gameplay in certain situations. Ninja Gaiden 3 was a huge disappointment and it is hard for me to be excited about a rework on the Nintendo Wii U. However, I am still curious and they did use a lot of keywords in their announcement for the game.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge will be a launch day title for the Nintendo Wii U. New features included are additional weapons, characters and most importantly, something that stands out and can give one hope when it comes to the gameplay – a redesigned battle system. Now, how far this goes, who knows for sure. However, it will be great if it’s redesigned to have a better sense of control when dealing with combat. Also, with the developers knowing the complaints from Ninja Gaiden 3 and having the time to brush-up on those for the Wii U version, it’ll be interesting to see what they have done. I do find the additional new features interesting as well and look forward to witnessing those Wii U exclusives.

I don’t expect this to be great, but it could very well be a solid action hack and slash title to own on the Wii U. I especially look forward to playing with Ayane in her own exclusive missions and to dice things up with her unique abilities. Plus, online co-op with both Ryu and Ayane sounds like a good time and the addition of more online modes can only be a good thing as well. I actually had a decent time playing online in Ninja Gaiden 3, much more than I did by myself in single player. One of the final things to bring up is that they say the enemies will be more tenacious, which hopefully means the difficulty increases and that they don’t seem as ridiculous.

So, it’s said that they have improved upon the original, and I would certainly expect that to be the case, but how much so and how far does it go? Hopefully for all of us that have played the original, we are pleasantly surprised by the Wii U version with all of its exclusive features. We’ll find out for sure on November 18th!

The following features and enhancements in NINJA GAIDEN 3: Razor’s Edge are exclusive to Wii U:

Ayane as a playable character: In previous versions of the game, Ayane appeared only briefly in one cut scene. Now players can help her progress through her own exclusive chapters using a special set of weapons and Ninpo attacks.

Character-progression system: Using Karma points earned during game play, players can upgrade weapons and Ninpo, learn new moves, increase their HP level and unlock new character costumes.

Ryu and Ayane playable in co-op mode: For the first time, players can use Ryu or Ayane to represent themselves in the game’s online co-op mode.

Test of Valor battle areas: Each chapter includes a hidden battle area called Test of Valor. Upon finding hidden Crystal Skulls, players will be transported to these areas to face down waves of enemies and classic NINJA GAIDEN boss characters with new moves.

Wii U GamePad Functionality: Using the Wii U GamePad, players can easily change weapons or Ninpo attacks, and also quickly reference the button inputs required for various combo attacks without ever stopping the action.

Additional Playable Characters: After the launch of the game, additional playable characters will become available as free downloadable content. More information about these characters will be revealed at a later time.

More Tenacious Enemies: The Wii U version of the game restores enemies’ ability to fight when severely wounded, requiring players to stay nimble with their battle strategies.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB. For more information, visit http://ninjagaiden3.nintendo.com