http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1221032p1.html

What the hell happened?

Well that effing svcks. It was one franchise I actually liked in the action genre. A bit disheartening, I wonder what happened? Action games going out of business? What was the best selling action game? Do they even make butt loads of money anymore?

And why the hell would they decide to give you only ONE weapon. There are like zero games that do that. Not even Zelda gives you only one sword. It gives multiple ones and the point of the game revolves around the Master Sword half the time!

This is just a shocking travesty if the game really is that bad.

Well it wouldn't be the first time IGN gives a completely inaccurate score (though they tend to be too high rather than too low ) so it would be worth waiting for others.

The thing is if that reviewer was even half accurate that is pretty friggin bad...I mean one weapon? Maybe he was playing one easy and was very very stupid?

This. I will admit this has me a bit worried, but this is the site that gave Godhand that same exact score, and that game was fantastic.

I find it really hard to believe there's one weapon in the whole game. If there is any truth to that whatsoever, I'd almost suspect the folks in Team Ninja have lost their minds and are merely trolling with this game. There is no [censored] way they could be that stupid.

Found some screenshots:

http://storage.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/falcon.jpg

http://storage.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/eclipse.jpg

Now what is this about only having the Dragon Sword? Unless these weapons were removed, though I highly doubt that as Team Ninja already has models and movesets for both of those ready.

Unless, of course, they are sadistic enough to lock the game's extra weapons to sell to us as DLC, which would ignite a flaming fury within me no gaming company has seen before.

I believe it is IGN who be trollin lol. Thanks for that. I just could not fathom why the hell they would remove weapons, it would be a ludicrously stupid move. Even more so if they add them as DLC you need to purchase...

Wasn't Ninja Gaiden a side scroller back in the 80's? I remember playing it on my NES after that I lost interest.

I won't buy this game, ever, if a single weapon is DLC. Costumes suffering that fate in NG2 was bad enough, but I draw the line at the weapons. I wouldn't even spit in this game's direction if this is the case.

I wholeheartedly agree.

@The Tallest, Yeah it originated as a side scroller way back in the say I believe. My introduction to the series was with Ninja Gaiden for Xbox however. So idk much more than that.

If IGN hates it, surely it must be good.

Considering review scores generally range from 6-10 (6 and 7 effectively telling folks not to bother), the scoring here seems questionable at best. Other reviews have brought up a handful of the same points, so I don't doubt that it's not a particularly great game, but this still comes off as a fairly poor review.

As for weapons, it's likely that most will come as paid DLC. You get http://andriasang.com/con0bn/ninja_gaiden_3_dlc/ as free DLC at some point though.

Dear God, don't let that be true. I will lose so much faith in the gaming industry that I'll transform into a bitter old man in my seat and do naught but come up with reasons to hate any game regardless of quality. Seriously, I just...For [censored]'s sake, what in the holy mother of [censored] are these companies thinking? Just...Just..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ?!

At least its free?

Yes it was, and ditto. The "ninja" thing is so over-done, I can practically hear the cheesy hard-rock guitar wailing behind the cover art...

How in "ninja" overdone? Games about them are far fewer than knights, mages, etc. and the titles that do include them vary quite a bit in both gameplay and depiction (i.e. Ninja Gaiden vs. Muramasa vs. Mini Ninjas vs. Tenchu).

If anything, we need more ninjas to counter all of these space marines.

Not over-done in the sense that there are too many, but... well, I kind of look at the Ninja Gaiden series like the American Ninja movies. Just check out a trailer for that on Youtube, you'll see what I mean.

Call me a traditionalist, but I like my ninjas subtle and dark, not over-the-top in shiny armor and/or covered in tattoos. Like they're turning Ryu into Duke Nukem, imo.

I get what you're saying, though I'm partial to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tAZUQwKa0A myself.

Edit- Oh, and unfortunately it sounds like they're saving the hardest difficulty for DLC. DLC difficulty. Mmhmm.

Ryu's basically what you get if Naruto had a character that even remotely resembled a ninja, and didn't rely on Deus Ex Machinas to win his fights. All the over-the-top stuff is still there, though.

Haha, I remember that movie, sadly...

And just to clarify, the over-topness isn't exactly a problem either - see Ninja Scroll, the most awesome ninja movie ever.

If there was one thing I did admire about the Gaiden series, it was how uncompromisingly hard it was. The world needs games like that. Now...

Stop it! Just..stop it, please. I've never been so close to breaking my "don't drink like my father" promise.

On the plus side, by not buying the game you may have an extra $60 to spend on... alcohol?

Maybe just forget I said anything.

As a long time fan of the modern NG series, I had been following everything about NG3 since it was first announced. Really, I'm not surprised that people don't like it. In my opinion, it just seems like Team Ninja is trying to break away from what the previous installments had to offer.... but they are doing that by taking steps backward in the series.

They added quick time events, which Ninja Gaiden never had before, tacked on a multiplayer, which in my opinion, the series didn't need, got rid of any variety in weapons, moves, costumes, enemies, and ninpo, and took out items and upgrades. Then, because the fans of the series were complaining, they decided to put the Scythe and Talons back in.... as DLC.

The pros? Apparently Ryu is now an emotional character, and we have a "story" better than 1's "My clan was massacred by a hellish samurai, time to get vengeance" or 2's "My village was burned to the ground by another clan of ninjas, time to get vengeance and kill some more fiends."

Basically, they "redefined" the series as boring, uninspired, and a complete bastardization of the previous games. I'll still get it because I like Ninja Gaiden, but I'll probably spend most of the time not enjoying the game.

If it's any consolation, you can apparently turn QTEs off in the menu. If you don't then I've heard there are a lot of 'em.

Why are we talking about a year old game?

Release Date:
US: March 20, 2011
Japan: Q1 2012

But really, an easy Ninja Gaiden game? What were they thinking...

One review said that Master Ninja was at least as hard as previous games, but didn't say which difficulty setting from NG and NG2 it was comparing to. It sounds like NG3's answer to increased difficulty just means more enemies at once and stronger enemies appearing earlier in the game.