The original version of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge was not well-received. With a series of improvements made for the Wii U version though, IGN has scored it 7.6/10, and said that the game’s “unflinching action and unabashed violence is a great sign for the Wii U as a core gamer’s platform”. You should read the full review for their complete thoughts.
GamesRadar has shared a detailed look at the changes between the Xbox 360 and Wii U versions of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, and there’s quite a few of them. I’m not sure if the differences will be enough to save it from the poor reviews the original received, but the developers have put some actual effort into the port.
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is a launch title in North America. That means it’ll be available the day the system is released. In Europe, however, gamers will have to wait a bit longer, since the game won’t be released until January 11th. That’s probably a good thing though, since the game wasn’t very received on other platforms, so it’s a good idea to wait anyway to make sure the updates actually change something.
(via nintendoworldreport.com)
Ninja Gaiden 3 wasn’t well-received on other platforms, which does make the Wii U version a hard sell. But Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja has admitted that they did leave out “some of the things the series was well-known for” in the original version. With that awareness, he’s hopeful for the Wii U version:
We had this opportunity to put those hardcore aspects back in. It’s kind of the hardcore fan package of Ninja Gaiden 3.
I’m curious to see how drastic (or minimal) the changes are. Team Ninja has a great opportunity to redeem themselves, so hopefully they don’t waste it.
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is coming to the Wii U, but considering the game it’s based on – just plain ‘ol Ninja Gaiden 3 - wasn’t well-received, you would be forgiven for not being super excited. But there’s still hope that it may be worthwhile. Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja has said:
For Razor’s Edge, we listened to the feedback (from Ninja Gaiden 3). And we reexamined what the series was, what the game was, what people want. We’re going back to rethinking what the series means.
And:
The concept for the Wii U version of Razor’s Edge is for it to be its own action game, an action game that doesn’t try to be anything else. It just tries to be its best.
It’d be a shame if this is just marketing hype though.
