Leaping into action

When Ninja Gaiden 3 arrived on the HD systems, it divided critics due to its attempts to shift the focus of the series towards a mainstream-friendly style, alienating long term fans in the process. Our Ninja Gaiden 3 review on Push Square matched the opinions of some other critics, arguing that Team Ninja had lost sight of what made the series popular in the first place.

The announcement of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge for Wii U perhaps didn't set the pulses racing for fans of the series, with a fear that it would take the mis-steps of the original version and add gimmicks to accommodate the Wii U GamePad, with some cursory extras thrown in. Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi has spoken to Eurogamer to assure fans that this won't be the case, and has stated that the Wii U version has been re-worked in order to bring the series closer to its roots, while acknowledging the complaints about the original.

We had this opportunity to put those hardcore aspects back in. It's kind of the hardcore fan package of Ninja Gaiden 3.

There were good elements and bad elements of it [the original]. Obviously there are new things in there too, but we shouldn't try and throw out what Team Ninja is good at.

For the 'hardcore' fans of the series, this may be promising, and we'll see whether the final result delivers.

[source eurogamer.net]