Ninja Gaiden 3 adds Hero mode (for babies)
As anyone who’s played a Ninja Gaiden game to completion will know, the series has a well-deserved reputation for being punishingly difficult. This isn’t a franchise that has ever had pretensions of being easily accessible, rather it’s something that the majority of gamers will have neither the skill or perseverance to play. No, Ninja Gaiden starts off hard and only ramps up from there. Some levels leave the player struggling merely to survive, and will find these challenges to be immediately followed by enormous difficulty spikes and horrendously unfair boss fights.
So yes, it’s hard. But unlike many other games that might irritate or infuriate with unpredictable see-sawing in difficulty levels, Ninja Gaiden makes it clear from the beginning that you are in for a challenge. Indeed the whole pleasure from Ninja Gaiden comes from the learning curve it puts you through, forcing you to improve your play on multiple levels. You have to think tactically about the various battles you’ll be taking part in, which weapons and spells are for the job, as well as improving your reflexes and dexterity with the controller. There were many days playing the first Ninja Gaiden that I’d walk home from school unconsciously making the motion for the Flying Swallow attack (Jump, Forwards & Y) or the counter attack for the amazing strap-on Wolverine claws in the second game.
One thing Ninja Gaiden has never been about is the story. The first had a bare bones plot about the theft of an ancient evil artefact that did a passable job at conveying you from A to B via a series of increasingly intense battles and different environments, but the second game completely jettisoned any pretence of making sense. It featured an even less coherent plot, a buxom blond love interest who walked around in leather S&M gear that would put a professional dominatrix to shame (who apparently works for the CIA), the sudden unexplained appearance of protagonist Ryu Hayabusa’s father, Joe Hayabusa (Yes, Joe) and plenty of other utterly nonsensical boss fights and baddies to overcome.
Which makes new director Fumihiko Yasuda statements that he’s including a new easy “Hero” mode that adds automatic dodging and blocking because “We really wanted to flesh out the story this time around, so we wanted people to enjoy that story and get used to the game as it is,” extremely disappointing. Ninja Gaiden never has and almost certainly never will have a story that makes a lick of sense. It certainly will never prove to be the main attraction of the series. Yasuda notes that “In the past the games were really hardcore and we couldn’t get players to stay with us and complete the game.” Talk about completely failing to understand the target audience! Trying to market Ninja Gaiden as some sort of easy character-action adventure that will provide a fun romp is completely disingenuous. People don’t play Ninja Gaiden because of a deep emotional connection to Ryu Hayabusa (who has to be one of the most dull, stoic protagonists in game history) – they play it because of the pleasure they gain from overcoming a difficult challenge. Trying to market the third entry in the series to some sort of new audience who think they’ll have an enjoyable experience in a ninja game is foolish.
The re-release of the first Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, Ninja Gaiden Black, added a much clamoured-for easy mode. It was accessible only after a number of deaths, it was called Ninja Dog, and made you play the rest of the game wearing a pink ribbon. It called your skills and your self-esteem into question – it let you know that you weren’t quite good enough to play the game properly. If Ninja Gaiden 3 loses sight of the contemptuous, sneering attitude with which it regards its players, it will be to its detriment. Team Ninja should focus on making the most bloody, graphically splendid balls-to-the-wall challenge for Ninja Gaiden 3, not a compelling story arc about a ninja who fights demons. This is one case where we’re here for the game, not the sub-anime excuse for a story.
