Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge

Really, it’s these little tears at the seams that keep Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge from being utterly exceptional—the places in which the game plays against its strengths, rather than to them. The game could have benefited in taking just a bit more from the structure of older games in the series. While the mostly linear environments serve to keep the action moving at a fast pace and provide a certain cinematic flair, I sometimes missed the more open exploration elements of the previous games.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge tries hard to bring the game back to the roots of the Ninja Gaiden series and hard core fans will find that they came pretty close to that. The cinematic slicing and dicing of enemies, with arms flying around haphazardly makes the game fun to watch, while the repetitive nature of the combat can make the game boring and tedious to play.

The series’ trademark gameplay has always been challenging but never quite so obstructive and un-rewarding. With the action adventure genre reaching new heights in the past few years, it’s gutting to see one of its modern pioneers floundering even after Team Ninja’s second attempt to do the franchise justice in the space of a year.