So much better than 3! So much worse than 2...
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was pretty awesome. I didn't think that it would be...I mean KOEI are the guys who make all these great samurai games that feature blocky graphics and no gore. They kind of s*** the bed on the gore thing on Sigma 2, but the gameplay was just great.
Ninja Gaiden 3....
Well...
(Sighs). I think there were some interesting ideas at play. Team Ninja was trying to make some kind of statement about the humanity of it's characters, their morals, blah blah blah.
That's great, but most gamers that are playing a ninja game want Kill Bill gore, pretty scenery, and great gameplay. That's it. No social commentary. No hand-held mild violence.
RAZOR'S EDGE does away with the morality bit, for the most part. It also fixes the flat combat of NG3. Let's be fair...gore doesn't always make or break a game. With that said, Ninja Gaiden 3's gore was more badly done than "anti-violent". Every attack resulted the same way, and the enemies crying and running around was confusing, unsettling, and kind of repetitive.
For the sake of time here, I will break it down like this:
The games is much bloodier....limbs fly around, blood flows.
The game is a little bit harder...the "hard" setting is up there with NG2 on the 360.
The graphics are very bad for the most part, and that really sucks because Ninja Gaiden #1 on the original Xbox is one of the most artistic titles ever crafted....you will miss the flowing bamboo and animation of the originals right away.
The game is short. It is only a fraction of the length of it's predecessors. You can finish this in a day easily, provided you are single and have no social life or employment to interfere.
The bottom line: You will like this if you liked the others. You will like this if you like gore, Ninja crap, girls, and dumb action stories. You will not like this if you want a deep, involving game like Skyrim or Fallout. If you want to cut some enemies up mess around, then grab a couple of beers and play Ninja Gaiden 3, Razor's Edge. If you want an involved look at the existence of ninja's and their mortality, get a psychiatrist and a ticket to Hong Kong.