Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom is a 1991 platform game developed and published by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was later ported to the Atari Lynx by Atari Corporation in 1993, and was also re-released as part of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Trilogy Super NES compilation in 1995. It was designed by Masato Kato, who took over for Hideo Yoshizawa, the designer of the first two games in the NES series.

The game is the third installment of the Ninja Gaiden trilogy in terms of release, but is chronologically set between the first two games in the series, Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. Although the American box art and in-game dialogue suggests that the game takes place years after the first game, The Dark Sword of Chaos supposedly takes place one year after the first, while the Japanese version takes place in between the first two games; the ending screen briefly makes mention of this. The player controls Ryu Hayabusa as he is framed for the murder of Irene Lew and investigates the circumstances behind her death. He eventually discovers a plan by CIA agent Foster and another person named Clancy to utilize an interdimensional rift to create and control a race of energy-infused superhuman mutants. The game features similar gameplay to its previous two Ninja Gaiden titles and includes some new features such as the ability to hang overhead from pipes and sword power-ups.

As with the previous titles, Ninja Gaiden III received mostly positive reviews from critics. Early reviews praised the game for its plot, gameplay, and difficulty; later reviews criticized the plot, level designs, and the game's difficulty level, in which the North American version was intentionally made harder than the Japanese version through limited continues, stronger enemies, and omission of a password system. The Atari Lynx port, while receiving general praise for graphics and controls, received poor reception for its sound and for the inability for players to see characters and items, attributing it to the Lynx's small screen.

The game was re-released for the Virtual Console service in North America in 2008 for the Wii, in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, and on the Nintendo Classics service in 2026.

Plot Between the events of the original Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos,Instruction Manual (NES), p. 6. "After Ryu's victorious duel with Jaquio, Ashtar returned to the bowels of darkness and bided His time. But another evil creature was already on its way as another adventure awaits the unsuspecting Ryu Hayabusa..." CIA agent Irene Lew is chased by a man who looks like Ryu Hayabusa to a cliff edge, where she falls to her apparent death. In an effort to clear his name, Ryu investigates the laboratory where Irene was killed. A mysterious man appears there and tells Ryu to go to the Castle Rock fortress, where he will give Ryu more information about Irene.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "Go to the Castle Rock fortress...I don't have time to give you the details now, once you get there you'll learn all about Irene". On his way, Ryu encounters A. Foster via a video image, who claims to be unaware of Irene's whereabouts,Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Foster: "Hmmm...I don't know what you're talking about. I heard that you killed Irene". and the look-alike who killed Irene.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Ryu: "So you're the one who killed Irene and made me a murderer!"Look-alike: "Sooo...What are you going to do about it?!" The look-alike flees, saying that Foster has ordered him not to eliminate Ryu quite yet.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Look-alike: "Unfortunately, I can't get rid of you just yet, Foster's order".

Ryu encounters the stranger from the laboratory, who reveals his name as Clancy. Clancy reveals that he and Foster were working together until Foster began to design creatures called "bio-noids"Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "I'm Clancy. I've been working on the 'Biohazard' plan with Foster. I can't work with him anymore. He has secretly created a monster called a BIO-NOID!" – transformed superhumans that are infused with "life energy" from an interdimensional rift that appeared after the demon from Ninja Gaiden was defeated.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "There's an open seam between dimensions that was created when the Demon died. An unlimited supply of LIFE ENERGY is flowing from the seam inside the ruins of the fortress. Foster has rebuilt the fortress and was doing transformation experiments with life energy. Bio-noids are super humans that have been transformed with life energy". Clancy pleas to Ryu to stop Foster. When confronted by Ryu, Foster reveals his plan to kill him and make a powerful bio-noid from his corpse.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Foster: "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to get rid of you. Imagine the bio-noid I could make by blasting your tough Dragon Clan body with life energy. Instead I'll extract the secret of Dragon Clan from your corpse, then I'll make a superior bio-noid". Irene appears to the surprise of both Ryu and Foster.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Irene: "Did you think that I would die that easily? I had been working with the army when I discovered all about his plan". Ryu's look-alike transmutes into a bio-noid, which Ryu defeats.

A door to the interdimensional rift opens. Clancy appears, telling Ryu, Irene, and Foster that they were all used as pawns in his plan to take over the ruins and claim the life energy as his.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "Good work Ryu, and you too, Irene...Call it what you like. I'm not turning these ruins over to anyone. The subspace connection to the life energy is starting to open and I have to go now. The life energy and the secrets of the ruins will be mine!" Foster tries to follow Clancy through the door, but the energy destroys him utterly. Ryu goes through the rift into the subspace while Irene stays behind.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Ryu: "Irene..., get out of here now! ... I'll go after Clancy...No, Foster was torn to pieces by the power in the subspace. You need a special kind of power to make it in there". Inside the subspace, Ryu encounters his resurrected and strengthened look-alike,Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Look-alike: "Ha...I used all of my strength, but once here I was brought back to life by the energy...I've transmuted into a super being. I'll prove it by killing you". and kills him once and for all. Ryu is teleported from the subspace into a room where he meets Clancy once again. Clancy explains Castle Rock's ruins are a dimensional warship called the "Ancient Ship of Doom". He says that "these super-dimensional ruins are the foundation upon which a new world will be created", and that it will be where all new life will originate from.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "These super-dimensional ruins are the foundation upon which a new world will be created. It's the new source of ALL LIFE!" The ship reappears in the real world, and Clancy fires a test shot to demonstrate its power while Irene watches in horror.

Ryu fights his way back through the ship and confronts Clancy, who has turned himself into a bio-noid. Clancy gives Ryu the offer to join him and work to wipe out the human race and usher a new age,Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "Listen carefully, Ryu. I want to protect the earth from humans...You know they should be wiped out, don't you? ... Ryu, join me! I'll even let you bring a perfect human to ride the ship with us. Once the earth is cleansed of humans we can start a new world!" but Ryu refuses and kills him after a lengthy battle. Ryu is transported outside the warship and back to Irene. Both watch as the Ancient Ship of Doom is brought down and explodes, and Castle Rock crumbles. The two watch the sunrise as a new day begins.

Gameplay

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom is a side-scrolling platform game in which the player controls the player character Ryu Hayabusa as he investigates the events behind Irene Lew's death. In the game, Ryu can jump, hang, and climb up and down walls with the control pad; pressing the jump button while holding the control pad the direction away from the wall causes Ryu to spring off the wall. Ryu is also able to attack enemies with secondary weapons while on a wall by pressing the attack button.Instruction Manual (Lynx), p. 3. A new feature introduced in Ninja Gaiden III is the ability for Ryu to hang overhead from pipes or ivy; he can swing up on top or drop from them, and as with walls, he can only attack enemies while hanging with secondary weapons.Instruction Manual (Lynx), p. 4.

As with the previous Ninja Gaiden games, Ryu's physical strength is represented by a life meter on the top of the screen; it decreases when Ryu gets hit by enemies or other dangerous objects.Instruction Manual (NES), p. 8. Throughout the levels, the player can find "Recovery Medicine" bottles that partially replenish Ryu's physical strength; as with all other items in the game, they are located in crystal balls that Ryu must slash to open.Instruction Manual (Lynx), p. 5. The player loses a "life" when Ryu's life meter runs out, he falls into a pit, or if the timer runs out. The game ends when players lose all their lives, but they can continue and resume play at the beginning of the Act in which they have lost all their lives. However, in the US version of Ninja Gaiden III, players only get five continues total before being required to restart the game from the beginning.Instruction Manual (NES), p. 7.

Ryu can defeat enemies by attacking with his Dragon Sword or by using secondary weapons which consume Ryu's "ninja power"; such weapons include the following: "Windmill Throwing Stars" which move back and forth like boomerangs, "Fire Dragon Balls" which launch fireballs downward at an angle, the "Fire Wheel Art" which launches fireballs upward at an angle, the "Invincible Fire Wheel" that forms a series of rotating of fireballs around Ryu and destroys any enemy who comes into contact, and a new weapon in this series called the "Vacuum Wave Art" which hurls vacuum blades above and below Ryu simultaneously.Instruction Manual (NES), pp. 15–16. Players can collect red and blue capsules to refill Ryu's ninja power, and they can also collect "Scrolls of the spirit of the Dragon" to increase Ryu's maximum ninja power level. Another new item in Ninja Gaiden III is the "Dragon Spirit Sword" that increases Ryu range of his sword. At the end of each Act is a boss which has its own life meter that decreases when damaged; Ryu can defeat the boss by completely depleting its life meter. Ninja Gaiden IIIs first four bosses consist of the "bio-noids" – super-human creatures created and controlled by Foster to take over the world; they each represent the four elementals: earth, wind, fire, and water.Instruction Manual (NES), p. 18.Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Clancy: "I'm Clancy. I've been working on the 'Biohazard' plan with Foster ... He has secretly created a monster called a BIO-NOID! ... Bio-noids are super humans that have been transformed with life energy".

Tiger Handheld version