Launch Station: Ninja Gaiden 3

March is coming to a close and soon you will not be seeing Launch Station as often as it has been these last two months.  If you look at all the games releasing the next few months, they are pretty spread out.  With that, we take look at the last big batch of games to come out for a while.  To make up for not putting up anything yesterday as I worked from about 8:30 am to 9:30 pm spanning two different jobs,  there will be a double dose of Launch Station today looking at today's two big releases, Ninja Gaiden 3 and Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City.  The first game to preview today will be the third entry in Tecmo and Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden series.

With the departure of Tomonobu Itagaki, the director of the previous two Ninja Gaiden game, from Team Ninja in 2008, Team Ninja was given a great opportunity to take the Ninja Gaiden series in a different direction and also show off that they can create quality games without Itagaki at the helm.  The result is Ninja Gaiden 3 directed by Yosuke Hayashi.  Ninja Gaiden 3 explores protagonist Ryu Hayabusa's human side more than the previous games in the series.  Upon request from the Japanese Self-Defense Force, Ryu is sent to London to fight an unidentified terrorist.  Ryu reaches London too late as the Bristish Prime Minister has been murdered by a mysterious villain known only as the Regent of the Mask.  Ryu tries to take down the mysterious assailant but the Regent of the Mask bonds Ryu's Dragon Sword to his arm and vanishes.  Now Ryu must track down the Regent of the Mask in order to reverse the Regent's bonding and ultimately save the world from destruction.  With the new direction, Team Ninja has added some new mechanics for Ninja Gaiden 3.  The Steel on Bone mechanic adds a more visceral and cinematic feeling to slicing enemies as the game zooms in and slows down when you a finishing blow on a enemy.  At certain points in a level, Ryu can scale walls with the new Kunai Climb mechanic and perform stealth kills on oblivious enemies.  Also Ryu's cursed arm plays into the gameplay as he can unleash his Grip of Murder, an ultimate move that wipes out all enemies in the immediate area.

Personally, I have never even picked up the first two Ninja Gaiden games, so I am not looking forward to it.  From what I have read and seen, it looks fairly good, but other than the odd preview and trailer I have not looked into it that much.  If you are a big Ninja Gaiden fan, you will no doubtfully pick Ninja Gaiden 3.  For everybody else, I would  read the reviews, watch gameplay videos, maybe even rent it before putting down 60 dollars for this game.