Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Tecmo's 1991 NES game, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom.

For all the ire that I might draw in saying so, this is my second favorite Ninja Gaiden game after the 1989 original. The graphics are an incredible showcase for the NES' capabilities in the hands of an experienced developer, the music is just as good as the older ones, this time even going so far as to include super-distorted digital samples in the music, as well as including an obnoxious "Ha!" sound every time Ryu swings his sword.

The controls are the smoothest and most intuitive of the three games, with a hanging manoeuvre that allows Ryu to flip up onto platforms above him.

A lot of hullabaloo has generated as a result of the game's hugely increased difficulty over the original Japanese version, but it is actually a fair amount easier than the first two. The major difference is that each enemy dishes out way more damage per hit, and you're limited to five continues, but it really just comes down to playing the game enough to anticipate the upcoming bad stuff - things are much easier to avoid in this game over the first two, and they have a far smaller tendency to swarm the **** out of you.

The only HUGE oversight in my mind in the game play is the goof with the time in the final area. Someone correct me if you know otherwise, but as far as I know, you cannot finish the game without losing a life: Act VII doesn't give you anywhere near enough time to get through the level before the timer kills you. It's quite difficult to get that far in the level without dying first (therefore resetting the timer), but still - isn't it enough of a challenge without forcing a death on the player at the very end?

The story... *sigh* could have been much better. There are tons of appearances from old characters (it takes place between the original and NG2), but they really force quite a few leaps in logic, and a lot of it seems kind of random. The graphic quality of the cinematics, however, utterly destroys just about anything else that Tecmo ever did with their "Tecmo Theatre" system.

Finally, if you really dislike the limited continues, you could always try to play the SNES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy version... complete with butchered sound and ugly graphics (....errr, wasn't it supposed to be an upgrade?).

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[nexgen.graphics]

With so much deadly enemies, cool music, awesome actions and many levels, can you believe this game is just 265kb?

[essex__union]

I remember seeing my little brother beating the final boss and completing the whole game on a Snow Day beside a cracking warm fire.
We were amazed that he did it with only 1 live left... Good times.

[RAW_GHC]

I grew up playing Gaiden, Castlevania, Contra and Double Dragon and beating them. Haven't gamed for 30 years and still beat my nephew and his friends at whatever game they are playing. Now I know why! These games were insanely difficult!!!

[augustoandresdeolmosjerez]

Watching in 2019 Ill never forget this game.

[travisberndt]

The thing I like about 3 is that he can finally take a damn hit without flying backwards 97 feet, usually off a cliff.

[kadajtribal]

I still love the Nintendo Ninja Gaiden series. So many great memories.

[timothypierce]

So all it takes to get Ryu to do something is to tell him he's the only one that can do it?

"Ryu, my dry cleaning...you're my last hope."

[armandomiranda]

The soundtrack is freacking awesome!! I recall when my middle brother and I play this on weekends when we were 9 and 7 years old! Good times!

[NintendoComplete]

This is another fantastic edition of the series to round out the original trilogy, though it's often blasted for it's (totally convoluted) story and it's difficulty level. It really isn't that hard, and sure the story is insane, but it plays SOOOO smoothly.

[Deathlikesensation]

Damn this really pushed the limits of the NES!! Such a step up from other games in that era

[Crimsonking]

The Ninja Gaiden trilogy on the 8 bit NES is a classic, one of my favorites of all time.

[michaelporter]

Knowing now that Ninja Gaiden III comes before Sword of Chaos story wise, this game takes on a new meaning. Irene takes on tough assignments and Ryu helps her get out of the jams. I like their interaction throughout the whole NES trilogy. The gameplay addition of the powerup to increase the sword swing distance is reminiscent of Stryder. I think in this part of the story they wanted to go more "out there" with the idea of Life Force, transmutation, and Bio-Droids. So, this part of the trilogy, to me, transitions into more science fiction. The first Ninja Gaiden sits in the realm of revenge, justice, and love, while Sword of Chaos takes us into darkness vs. light and the transition between the two. All in all, a wonderful series. Thank you, NintendoComplete, for your gameplay throughout the whole series. Well done!

[jayebrown]

Hits all the right notes with mild to 'just-right' flair; unlike modern gaming, classics told great storylines without long drawn-out narration.

[DeepakKamat]

That intense music. Reminds me of my childhood!

[PizzaRatJC]

"You're alive?!"
"Did you think i would die that easily?" She smugly says after having been thrown OFF OF AN ACTUAL CLIFF... but she has a gun so i won't argue

[Shredder-_-]

Those Good old days... I am watching it in 2020

[RandyBandana]

I'm 45 now but I beat 1 & 2 as a kid...idk if I could've beat this one...the levels in 3 looked REALLY tough 😮 definitely couldn't now 😅

[SIMPLE]

When I played this game almost 10-12 years back, the subtitles were in Chinese or Japanese. Thank god I got to know the story. Proud to have completed this difficult game.

[audnu]

Back when I first played this game, I was shocked by how good the graphics was

[evieraotacon]

All 3 Ninja-Gaiden games... ICONIC still holds strong after 30 plus years. Still have my copies.