Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
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| Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom | |
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 North American boxart, NES version |
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| Developer(s) | Tecmo |
| Publisher(s) | Tecmo |
| Platform(s) | NES, Lynx, Virtual Console |
| Release date | JPN June 21, 1991 NA August 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Action platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | l |
| Media | Cartridge |
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, known in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden III: Yomi no Hakobune (忍者龍剣伝III 黄泉の方舟? lit. "Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword III: The Ark from Hades"), is the third installment of the Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later ported to the Atari Lynx. Unlike the previous installments, this game was never released in Europe. It was released on the Virtual Console on Feb 18, 2008.
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[edit] Story
The plots explores the exploits of Ryu Hayabusa, who must clear his name after being framed for the murder of his girlfriend, Irene Lew.
As Ryu makes his way to the last known location of Irene, he finds a dubious ally in Clancy, a former associate of Foster, the director of the CIA and a former acquaintance of Ryu. Apparently, Foster and Clancy were involved an experimentation, part of the "Biohazard Plan", using paranormal energies from a trans-dimensional rift created when Ryu killed The Demon, within the ruins of Castle Rock Fortress. Using these energies, Foster created superhuman Bio-noids; one of which was a doppelgänger of Ryu Hayabusa. And it was this bio-noid that murdered Irene when she uncovered Foster's operation. Subsequently, Ryu would come face-to-face with his bio-noid doppelgänger; however, Ryu is bested in armed combat but is spared, as per the doppelgänger's orders from Foster.
Despite this setback, Ryu forges on and eventually arrives at his ultimate destination, the ruins of Castle Rock Fortress, where all of his questions would be answered. There, Foster divulges his agenda. Ryu is then forced into a stand-off with his doppelgänger when Irene resurfaces, apparently surviving her near-death encounter and rendezvouses with USA military to stage a raid on Foster's stronghold. Ryu then engages his bio-noid doppelgänger a second time (this time in a transformed state), ending in the doppelgänger's destruction. However, with its destruction, Clancy steps in to usurp control of the ruins, to the surprise of Foster. Retreating through the trans-dimensional rift, Clancy eviscerates Foster, who is caught in the wake of his trans-dimensional shift. Ryu follows in pursuit, leaving Irene behind despite her insistence to follow.
Within the trans-dimensional ruins, Ryu is welcomed by a superhuman Clancy, transmutated by the life energies of the ruins. After a brief conversation, Ryu is warped to the ruins' lower levels where he contends with hordes of monstrous creatures. Coming face to face with Clancy once again, Ryu is enlightened to the true nature of the ruin: that they are in fact a super-dimensional warship. Using its enormous power, Clancy intends to reshape the world and establish a new world order, starting with genocide of humanity. Ryu enters one final confrontation with Clancy and emerges victorious. With Clancy's death comes the destruction of the "Ship of Doom". Ryu is warped back to normal dimensional space where he escapes the collapsing ruins with Irene.
[edit] The Four Great Beasts
These Four were created by Clancy and Foster, and are used to keep Ryu from entering Castle Rock Fortress. They are believed to have been created through the use of technology, along with combining living things with Life Energy.
♦Mantis Warrior The beast commander of fire. In reality, he is a robot equipped with arm sabers and a hidden flamethrower. The fire that is released from its chest crawls along the ground and burns Ryu. Despite having sabers equipped on both arms, he has low maneuverability and lacks close combat skills, thereby making him the lowest rank of the beast commanders.
♦Night Diver The beast commander of the sky. Being an android equipped with a jet propulsion pack, he is able to fly freely through the sky. He attacks Ryu by showering him with glowing fireballs. He is third rank of the beast commanders.
♦The Great Kogane This BIO-NOID is a result of combining a lizard with life energy. He is the beast commander of water, as well as the second rank of the great beasts. Being skilled in Ninjitsu, he can split his body and uses shurikens to plague Ryu.
♦The Sandeater Being the beast commander of earth, he is considered the top rank of all four beast commanders. He is able to dig and move freely through the earth. As another beast commander skilled in Ninjitsu, he is able to attack Ryu using "The Art of the Fire Wheel".
[edit] The BIO NOID Project
♦Doppelgänger
He is a BIO-NOID created with an exact likeness of Ryu, as well as similarities in abilities. He is responsible for framing Ryu, and the disappearance of Irene. He appears to be superior, as he simply harms Ryu upon first encounter. However he is no match for Ryu, for only he has the Dragon Sword. He is then killed in the after battling Ryu for a second-time, this encounter taking place in the trans-dimensional warp realm.
♦Foster
A devious man who was once apart of CIA who organized the "Biohazard Plan", along side with Clancy. He is responsible for the creations of the BIO NOIDS along with the framing of Ryu. When Clancy turns on him and stakes control of the ruins, he tries to follow him into the trans-dimensional warp, but is ripped to shreds by the energy surrounding it.
♦Clancy
A unknown figure who used seems to help Ryu in findigin Foster's Castle Rock fortress. However, this turned out be a ploy to get Ryu to eliminate Foster's defenses. Clancy seized control of the ruins and double-crossed both Ryu and Foster, to further use the ruins as their intended purpose - a warship. Ryu goes to fight him, and is victorious, killing Clancy and destroying the ship.
[edit] Gameplay
The game featured the same gameplay mechanics as the first two games, but with noticeable changes and additions...
- Ryu's falling speed has been reduced, and upon taking damage, he is knocked back far less than in the previous games.
- Ryu's jumping mechanics have altered. He jumps over a wider arc but is more difficult to control in midair.
- Powerups can now be seen inside the spherical containers, instead of being hidden until the containers were broken.
- The Vacuum Wave Art and Dragon Sword extensions were added. The Vacuum wave sends vertical blasts above and below Ryu. The Sword Extension increases the range of Ryu's attack for the duration of the level or until death.
- Ryu can now grab onto horizontal surfaces, such as pipes, vines, and the bottoms of some platforms, and climb across.
- The Ninja clone-powerup was removed.
- The player is now able to climb to the top of a structure by scaling the side, then pressing the Directional pad in the direction of the top of the structure and pressing A. Previously, the player had to jump off of the side of a structure and reverse direction in mid-air to land successfully on top.
[edit] Regional Differences
The American release of this game was much more difficult than the original Japanese release due to a glitch in the game which made the player take almost twice as much damage as they normally should. The Japanese release also had its own password system and unlimited continues. The re-release featured on the SNES pack "Ninja Gaiden Trilogy" was noted for having worse graphics than the NES release.
[edit] Development
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008) |
[edit] Reception
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008) |
This game is least favored among fans of the original NES series and didn't sell as well as the first two installments.
[edit] External links
- Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom at MobyGames
- Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom at GameFAQs
- Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom instruction manual
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