Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, which was formally exclusive to the Wii U, will be coming to both North America and Europe on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The ultra-violent game will released in North America on April 2nd, with a European release just a few days later on April 5th. The game will be available at both retail outlets and the PlayStation Store at launch. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge received an average review score of 69 on Metacritic.
Thanks, Simply G
The director of the Australian Classification Board, Lesley O’Brien, has announced that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is the first video game to receive the adult’s only rating, R18+, in Australia. Throughout most of the continent, it is illegal to sell R18+ games to minors.
In North America, Europe and Austrailia, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is published by Nintendo. For comparison’s sake, the original Ninja Gaiden 3 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which is published by Tecmo Koei, is rated MA15+ in Australia.
“Under the Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, R18+ computer games will have a high impact and it is for this reason that these games are not suitable for under 18s.”
“Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge contains violence that is high in impact because of its frequency, high definition graphics, and emphasis on blood effects.”
-Director of the Australian Classification Board Lesley O’Brien
Nintendo of America has uploaded a fast and frantic trailer featuring Kasumi from the Dead or Alive franchise for Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge on Wii U. Kasumi will be causing plenty of bloody mayhem when she will be available as free download content sometime in the near future. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is already available to purchase in both Japan and North America, and will released in Europe on January 11th.
Dead or Alive director Yohei Shimbori has admitted that the development team were actually shocked at the amount of backlash there was for Ninja Gaiden 3 by both the fans and the critics. Shimbori says that they soon realised that they needed to pay closer attention to the fans, and what they wanted out of a Ninja Gaiden game. Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi says that the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden: Razor’s Edge for Wii U will be the ultimate version of the game for the fans.
“Everybody at the studio was pretty shocked. It really made us take another look at the game and why that reaction was there. One of the things that I learned was the power of having a series behind you, and what it means to be part of a series. There are existing fans out there, and you have to think about the people who have supported the series for so long, and you want to make sure that the game that you make appeals to them first, and satisfies those fans first.”
Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi has once again admitted that the Ninja Gaiden 3 development team spent far too much time trying to make an action game, and subsequently forgot about the fans and what they wanted,. Hayashi says he now knows what the fans want from Ninja Gaiden and is set to rectify these mistakes with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.
“After launch, we learned again what fans of the series expect from the series and a Ninja Gaiden game,”
“We feel we focused too much on getting new action game fans and perhaps not enough on the fans who have supported the series for so long. Now, we have heard those voices and know very well what fans of the franchise expect from a Ninja Gaiden game and we’re ready to start again. That’s Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge for Wii U.”
Team Ninja has announced that Dead or Alive female brawler Ayane will feature as a Wii U exclusive playable character in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge. Team Ninja came under quite a bit of criticism for the original Ninja Gaiden 3 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The development team has said that to resolve this they have been working closely with Nintendo to create the experience that Ninja Gaiden fans deserve.
Compared to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, developer Team Ninja insists that Ninja Gaiden: Razor’s Edge for Wii U will be a much better title. The developer now claims that the Wii U version will be the definitive version for followers of the series, and will be the ”hardcore fan package.” According to Team Ninja leader Yosuke Hayashi, hardcore aspects that were left out from the other versions will be included in the game for Wii U.
“We left out some of the things the series was well-known for. We did leave some of our fans out.”
“We had this opportunity to put those hardcore aspects back in [Wii U version]. It’s kind of the hardcore fan package of Ninja Gaiden 3.”
Team Ninja head, Yosuke Hayashi has insisted that Ninja Gaiden: Razors Edge for Wii U will be a much better game than the controversial Ninja Gaiden 3, which appeared for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Hayashi says that with Ninja Gaiden Razor’s Edge, Team Ninja simply intend to make a good game.
“The concept for the Wii U version of Razor’s Edge is for it to be its own action game, an action game that doesn’t try to be anything else. It just tries to be its best.”
“We looked at the game industry and how things were shaping up, and we felt we couldn’t get left behind,” he shares. “And we had to advance ourselves. And that was the idea behind some of the changes in NG3.”
“We re-examined what the series was, what the game was, what people want. We’re going back to rethinking what the series means.”
Team Ninja has uploaded five minutes of ultra-violent footage from the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden 3 onto Youtube. Ninja Gaiden 3 is already confirmed as a launch title for Wii U so expect to see it sometime later this year. I presume the footage shown in the video is from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, but the Wii U version shouldn’t be too different.
Tecmo Koei localization head Peter Garza has told VG247 that Team Ninja are trying their absolute hardest to push the Wii U hardware to its limits with the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden 3. The game itself is still in the very early stages of development, but the team are already tinkering around with the Wii U controller to find out how to make it shine.
“We’re still finding out what the hardware can do and how to work with the hardware itself. Right now, we’re at a very early stage, so we can’t say that we’re pushing it to its limits right now.
“But I can tell you that the team being what it is is definitely interested in pushing the hardware as hard as it can. With 3DS, when we brought out Dead or Alive: Dimensions, that was one of the best looking 3DS games out there.”
“And we really wanted to use whatever hardware we were on, we want to use to its full potential and really push that. Not just in spec, but the features that make that hardware unique. So for right now with Wii U, we’re just starting to know what Wii U is and how we can make it fun.”
