Ninja Gaiden has consistently been a really fun platforming title. It’s one of the rare NES titles to go all the way with actually having a really fun plot. A lot of these old games keep that to the booklets but Ninja Gaiden dared to be different! This one really gets out there with a lot of sci-fi and supernatural elements all coming together. Without the rewind feature the difficulty in this game would be absolutely crazy though. It’s impressive how anybody could complete this game back in the day.

The story starts off with “Ryu” seemingly murdering a lady. The real Ryu finds out about this and swears to clear his name. It won’t be easy though as this conspiracy runs deep and he will have to risk his life across many trials in order to come away victorious. Still, if anyone can pull this off, Ryu can. He has been through a whole lot over the years and has been training to defeat all opponents. This game also has at least 2-3 fake-outs where you think the game is ending and then it keeps on going. You’re getting quite a lot of content here.

The 2D gameplay is classic as you try to slice away at the opponents in front of you. You have to use a whole lot of your platforming skills to stay one step ahead as well. One wrong jump and you will fall to your doom. Additionally there is a heavy emphasis on speed since you will be one step too slow and hit the spikes if you aren’t careful. Then you have all of the enemies to deal with and your health will go down real fast as they strike. Technically most of them go down in a single hit but it’s still tough to knock them all out of the sky before you get hit. In a way that’s where most of your damage is going to come from. Even more than the obstacles, the enemies are what will be the end of you.

Naturally the bosses aren’t about to be outdone without a fight. They have health bars which is nice to see since you can pace yourself. That said, it can still be a bit misleading. Their health goes down extremely quickly but they also deal massive amounts of damage. You have to have incredible reaction times in order to properly dodge their attacks. The final boss also has several phases with each one being crazier than the last.

The entire game is really meant to show you just how crazy strong Ryu is to be able to deal with all of this. It’s definitely not something that just any ninja could handle. The graphics and soundtrack are both really solid as well. The stages have a lot of great variety and the music is fitting for the levels. The game really succeeds across the board. Really the only issue you can have is the difficulty. I don’t think I would have really tried to complete the game if I had played the whole thing live back in the day. I would have badly needed some quality of life features at the bare minimum. Little things like save points across each level for starters.

There also isn’t much in the way of replay value here. The game is really meant for a full playthrough and that’s about it. You’re not really playing for a high score or anything like that after all. Just beating the game should take you a long enough period where that’s not a big factor though. Trust me we’re talking hours and hours here at minimum.

As far as gameplay tips go I would say to just think about which power you prefer to use. You can only hold one power at a time. I liked the one that would send shockwaves above and below you. It’s great for hitting those hard to reach enemies. You also have the classic ninja stars which are strong but shoot in front of you which is the direction of your normal sword anyway. So it doesn’t feel like as much of a big deal. I could see a modern sequel really expanding this into 15-20 powers. The series really has less games than you would expect considering how popular it is.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden III is a pretty solid game. I really enjoyed the story and the whole game feels really creative. It’s easy to see why the series got a lot of popularity right away because it would have definitely stood out from the average title. The concept is also very sound so if you have the Switch Online then you should be checking this one out. It really ends the original 3 game saga with a bang.

Overall 7/10