Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
From Ninja Gaiden Wiki
| Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom | |
|---|---|
 North American boxart, NES version | |
| Developer | Tecmo |
| Publisher | Tecmo |
| Platform | NES, Atari Lynx, Virtual Console |
| Release date | JP June 21, 1991 NA August 1991 |
| Genre | Action platform game |
| Mode | Single player |
| Media | Cartridge |
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, known in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden III: Yomi no Hakobune, is the third installment of the trilogy for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later ported to the Atari Lynx. Unlike the previous installments, this game was never released in Europe. It was released on the Virtual Console on Feb 18, 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Story
The plots explores the exploits of Ryu Hayabusa, who must clear his name after being framed for the murder of his girlfriend, Irene Lew.
As Ryu makes his way to the last known location of Irene, he finds a dubious ally in Clancy, a former associate of Foster, the director of the CIA and a former acquaintance of Ryu. Apparently, Foster and Clancy were involved an experimentation, part of the "Biohazard Plan", using paranormal energies from a trans-dimensional rift created when Ryu killed The Demon, within the ruins of Castle Rock Fortress. Using these energies, Foster created superhuman Bio-noids; one of which was a doppelgänger of Ryu Hayabusa. And it was this bio-noid that murdered Irene when she uncovered Foster's operation. Subsequently, Ryu would come face-to-face with his bio-noid doppelgänger; however, Ryu is bested in armed combat but is spared, as per the doppelgänger's orders from Foster.
Despite this setback, Ryu forges on and eventually arrives at his ultimate destination, the ruins of Castle Rock Fortress, where all of his questions would be answered. There, Foster divulges his agenda. Ryu is then forced into a stand-off with his doppelgänger when Irene resurfaces, apparently surviving her near-death encounter and rendezvouses with USA military to stage a raid on Foster's stronghold. Ryu then engages his bio-noid doppelgänger a second time (this time in a transformed state), ending in the doppelgänger's destruction. However, with its destruction, Clancy steps in to usurp control of the ruins, to the surprise of Foster. Retreating through the trans-dimensional rift, Clancy eviscerates Foster, who is caught in the wake of his trans-dimensional shift. Ryu follows in pursuit, leaving Irene behind despite her insistence to follow.
Within the trans-dimensional ruins, Ryu is welcomed by a superhuman Clancy, transmutated by the life energies of the ruins. After a brief conversation, Ryu is warped to the ruins' lower levels where he contends with hordes of monstrous creatures. Coming face to face with Clancy once again, Ryu is enlightened to the true nature of the ruin: that they are in fact a super-dimensional warship. Using its enormous power, Clancy intends to reshape the world and establish a new world order, starting with genocide of humanity. Ryu enters one final confrontation with Clancy and emerges victorious. With Clancy's death comes the final boss of the "Ship of Doom," a massive robotized form of Clancy. Upon the robot's defeat Ryu is warped back to normal dimensional space where he escapes the collapsing ruins with Irene.
[edit] The Four Great Beasts
See also: List of Ninja Gaiden characters
These Four were created by Clancy and Foster, and are used to keep Ryu from entering Castle Rock Fortress. They are believed to have been created through the use of technology, along with combining living things with Life Energy.
♦ Mantis Warrior The beast commander of fire. In reality, he is a robot equipped with arm sabers and a hidden flamethrower. The fire that is released from its chest crawls along the ground and burns Ryu. Despite having sabers equipped on both arms, he has low maneuverability and lacks close combat skills, thereby making him the lowest rank of the beast commanders.
♦ Night Diver The beast commander of the sky. Being an android equipped with a jet propulsion pack, he is able to fly freely through the sky. He attacks Ryu by showering him with glowing fireballs. He is third rank of the beast commanders.
♦ The Great Kogane
This BIO-NOID is a result of combining a lizard with life energy. He is the beast commander of water, as well as the second rank of the great beasts. Being skilled in Ninjitsu, he can split his body and uses shurikens to plague Ryu.
♦ The Sandeater Being the beast commander of earth, he is considered the top rank of all four beast commanders. He is able to dig and move freely through the earth. As another beast commander skilled in Ninjitsu, he is able to attack Ryu using "The Art of the Fire Wheel".
[edit] The BIO NOID Project
See also: List of Ninja Gaiden characters
♦ Doppelgänger
He is a BIO-NOID created with a exact likeness of Ryu, as well as similiarities in abilities. He is responsible for framing Ryu, and the dissapearance of Irene. He appears to be superior, as he simply harms Ryu upon first encounter. However he is no match for Ryu, for only he has the Dragon Sword.
♦ Foster
A devious man who was once apart of CIA who organized the "Biohazard Plan", alongside with Clancy. He is responsible for the creations of the BIO NOIDS along with the framing of Ryu.
♦ HP Clancy
[edit] Gameplay
The game featured the same gameplay mechanics as the first two games, but with noticeable changes and additions...
- Ryu's falling speed has been reduced, and upon taking damage, he is knocked back far less than in the previous games.
- Ryu's jumping mechanics have altered. He jumps over a wider arc but is more difficult to control in midair.
- Powerups can now be seen inside the spherical containers, instead of being hidden until the containers were broken.
- The Vacuum Wave Art and Dragon Sword extensions were added. The Vacuum wave sends vertical blasts above and below Ryu. The Sword Extension increases the range of Ryu's attack for the duration of the level or until death.
- Ryu can now grab onto horizontal surfaces, such as pipes, vines, and the bottoms of some platforms, and climb across.
- The Ninja clone-powerup was removed.
- The player is now able to climb to the top of a structure by scaling the side, then pressing the Directional pad in the direction of the top of the structure and pressing A. Previously, the player had to jump off of the side of a structure and reverse direction in mid-air to land successfully on top.
Notably, the game difficulty was increased for the American release, by limiting the number of continues, increasing the damage done by enemies, and removing a password feature present in the Japanese version.
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ninja Gaiden Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
