He tells Ryu about a project he and Foster have been working on called the "Biohazard plan". When Ryu reaches Castle Rock fortress, he encounters the stranger whom he met after his trip to the laboratory, who reveals his name as Clancy. The look-alike flees, saying that Foster ordered him not to eliminate Ryu quite yet. They both thrust themselves at each other, and afterwards the look-alike tells Ryu that he has all of Ryu's strengths. After saying that nobody has ever made it through the fortress' defenses alive, Ryu inquires about Irene, to which Foster replies: "I don't know what you're talking about." Ryu vows to push on, Upon reaching the foundation of Castle Rock fortress, Ryu encounters his "original", or a person designed to look like Ryu, and finds out that it was he who killed Irene. On his way to the outer limits of Castle Rock fortress, Ryu encounters Foster, who was the head of the CIA's Special Auxiliary Unit in the first Ninja Gaiden game, via a video image. After going through the laboratory, a mysterious man appears and tells Ryu to go to the Castle Rock fortress, where he will give Ryu more information about Irene when he gets there. He first investigates a laboratory that Irene was investigating. Ryu is accused of Irene's murder but says it was not him, that it was somebody else who looked like him who tried to frame him. She gets chased to the edge of a cliff by a man who looks like Ryu Hayabusa, when the edge gives way, and Irene falls in the water to her apparent death. The story opens with Irene Lew, one of the protagonists in the first two Ninja Gaiden titles, an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency on a mission called "Cardinal". Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom takes place between the events of the original Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. 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.
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 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.Īs with the previous titles, Ninja Gaiden III received mostly positive reviews from critics. 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 player controls Ryu Hayabusa as he is framed for the murder of Irene Lew and investigates the circumstances behind her death. The game is the third installment of the Ninja Gaiden trilogy, in which the events take place between the first two games in the series, Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. It was designed by Masato Kato, who took over for Hideo Yoshizawa-designer of the first two games in the NES series. Long after, it was released for the Virtual Console service in North America on February 18, 2008 ( ) for the Wii and in North America and Europe on November 28, 2013 ( ) and January 23, 2014 ( ) respectively for the Nintendo 3DS.
It was also re-released as part of its Ninja Gaiden Trilogy Super NES compilation in 1995 in Japan and North America. It was later ported to the Atari Lynx by Atari Corporation and released in 1993 in North America and Europe, the European version retaining the North American Ninja Gaiden III title. The NES version was not released in Europe. It was released in Japan on June 26, 1991 ( ) for the Famicom and in North America in August 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom is a side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Tecmo.