Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
In an interview with Kato, he said that Ninja Gaiden III needed "to go into a new direction".
The magazine said that Ninja Gaiden III was the best Famicom game in display there, and that it "easily walked away with the best for this system!
The game was also previewed in the July 1991 issue of Nintendo Power, which said that the game contained all the old features of previous Ninja Gaiden games, which included ninja arts (however, they lamented at the lack of the "jump and slash" absent from Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos) and similar usage of cinematic cutscenes that made the original Ninja Gaiden popular.
GamePro magazine previewed the game in August, and said that the game's visuals were good and on par with the previous titles and that the scrolling was great.
The game was featured in Electronic Gaming Monthlys July 1991 issue as an "EGM Exclusive".
The review praised the usage and usefulness of the secondary weapons, Ryu's new ability to hang overhead, and the new addition of the sword power-up, which it said bore resemblance to the game Strider.
In March 1992, Ninja Gaiden III received three nominations in the "Nintendo Power Awards '91" in the following NES-related categories: "Best Graphics and Sound", "Best Challenge", and "Best Overall".
It was the ranked as the third "Best Overall" NES title for 1991, finishing close behind Tecmo Super Bowl.
While reviewer said the graphics during the cutscenes as highlights, they felt they had lost their luster as the series has gone on.
However, the magazine praised the controls and said the sound was fine, if "weird and spacy".
Electronic Gaming Monthly praised Tecmo for a good translation of the game from the NES to the Lynx – complete with good graphics, controls, and varied gameplay – while saying that "Ninja Gaiden [III] is a game that the Atari Lynx has been longing for".
Nintendo Lifes Damien McFerran gave lackluster ratings, saying that the game "passed under the radar of many a videogame enthusiast".
He said that many gamers would prefer the previous two Ninja Gaiden titles over this one.
As with the Nintendo Life review, Thomas similarly criticized the inconsistent level design as well as a storyline which "begins [...] compellingly" but progressively becomes more bizarre, including "weird science-fiction themes about bionics and clones".
In a retrospective of the Ninja Gaiden series, Eurogamer said that Ninja Gaiden III was the only game in the NES trilogy not to make it to Europe.
They said the story was too outlandish, calling the plot, of which a short-lived anime Ninja Gaiden series would loosely be based, "a glorious load of old bollocks".
While the version from Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for the Super NES remedied most of their criticisms, they said that the game added new frustrations which included slower framerates, lower-quality controls, and the omission and shuffling around of several tracks, which they said "is precisely the sort of thing that makes die-hard videogame fans apoplectic with rage".
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.
They also particularly praised the new moves Ryu had, as well as an excellent plot.
They praised the game, saying that "Ninja Gaiden gets better every time!
The review praised the usage and usefulness of the secondary weapons, Ryu's new ability to hang overhead, and the new addition of the sword power-up, which it said bore resemblance to the game Strider.
They slightly criticized the game for leaving out the "cloning" power-up from Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, as well as the limited continues and lack of passwords.
GamePro criticized the fact that the Lynx's small screen makes it difficult for players to see the various power-ups and enemies and to use secondary weapons.
However, the magazine praised the controls and said the sound was fine, if "weird and spacy".
VideoGames & Computer Entertainment praised the game for being better than the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden that was previously ported to the Lynx, but was disappointed that Tecmo did not port the first two NES Ninja Gaiden titles to the handheld as well.
Electronic Gaming Monthly praised Tecmo for a good translation of the game from the NES to the Lynx – complete with good graphics, controls, and varied gameplay – while saying that "Ninja Gaiden [III] is a game that the Atari Lynx has been longing for".
As with the Nintendo Life review, Thomas similarly criticized the inconsistent level design as well as a storyline which "begins [...] compellingly" but progressively becomes more bizarre, including "weird science-fiction themes about bionics and clones".
It was designed by Masato Kato, who took over for Hideo Yoshizawa, the designer of the first two games in the NES series.
They also decided to place the events of Ninja Gaiden III between the events of the first two titles in order to maintain continuity; they figured that it was too difficult to continue the story after Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, so they developed the plot sometime before the events of Ninja Gaiden II that revolved around the game's main antagonist, Foster.
Ninja Gaiden III was first released for the Famicom in Japan (under the title Ninja Ryūkenden III: Yomi no Hakobune) on June 26, 1991, followed by North America for the NES in August; the NES version was not released in Europe.
It was also one of the featured games in the August issue of Nintendo Power, where it received 11 pages of coverage, including a full walkthrough of the first four Acts and a brief plot overview of the entire game.
VideoGames & Computer Entertainment praised the game for being better than the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden that was previously ported to the Lynx, but was disappointed that Tecmo did not port the first two NES Ninja Gaiden titles to the handheld as well.
In a retrospective of the Ninja Gaiden series, Eurogamer said that Ninja Gaiden III was the only game in the NES trilogy not to make it to Europe.
The game was also previewed in the July 1991 issue of Nintendo Power, which said that the game contained all the old features of previous Ninja Gaiden games, which included ninja arts (however, they lamented at the lack of the "jump and slash" absent from Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos) and similar usage of cinematic cutscenes that made the original Ninja Gaiden popular.
The game was featured in Electronic Gaming Monthlys July 1991 issue as an "EGM Exclusive".
It was also one of the featured games in the August issue of Nintendo Power, where it received 11 pages of coverage, including a full walkthrough of the first four Acts and a brief plot overview of the entire game.
It was in this issue where Ninja Gaiden III was purported to be the final Ninja Gaiden game by Tecmo.
GamePro reviewed the game in its September issue and gave the game top ratings in all categories except sound.
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.
However, Tecmo released the game for the NES with a much higher difficulty level than the Japanese version by doubling the amount of damage the player took from 1 health bar per hit to 2 health bars per hit.
They also decided to place the events of Ninja Gaiden III between the events of the first two titles in order to maintain continuity; they figured that it was too difficult to continue the story after Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, so they developed the plot sometime before the events of Ninja Gaiden II that revolved around the game's main antagonist, Foster.
GamePro criticized the fact that the Lynx's small screen makes it difficult for players to see the various power-ups and enemies and to use secondary weapons.
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.
However, Tecmo released the game for the NES with a much higher difficulty level than the Japanese version by doubling the amount of damage the player took from 1 health bar per hit to 2 health bars per hit.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.