The addition of Ayane certainly doesn’t hurt the game. The crossover cameo from developer Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive brawler series lets you lace up the leather bustier of Ryu’s equally skilled colleague. She gets her own missions in Razor’s Edge, and her faster, nimbler play style serves as both a complement and a refreshing break from Ryu’s mainline quest.No matter who you’re in control of, however, Razor’s Edge is going to hurt you, badly and often. The Ninja Gaiden series has never been for the faint of heart, and players familiar with the original NG3 release will find that the game’s sadistic sense has been restored on the Wii U. Bosses have had their cojones digitally restored, to the point that you should expect to get stuck on some of them for extended amounts of time (between 30 and 60 minutes at the worst, in my experience). Heck, even the regular minions start to get soul-crushingly challenging when the zombies and demons show up about halfway through the campaign. I can almost guarantee you’re going to want to hurl your controller across the room at times; a masochistic tilt has always been an unstated requirement to enjoy this series.
Speaking of controllers, Razor’s Edge might seem like a $60 game, but you should really budget another $50 on top of that, as a Pro Controller is practically (but not technically) required here. While the system’s signature Wii U GamePad is plenty ergonomic, it’s simply not a good fit, literally, for the kind of action Ninja Gaiden 3 throws at you. And as far as the GamePad’s screen goes, it’s not put to much use, with a moves list for the equipped weapon on display before you rather than tucked away in a menu.Visually, Ninja Gaiden 3 is hardly going to make your PS3 and Xbox-owning friends envious. In fact, Razor’s Edge is arguably uglier than its cousins, with bland textures and a bad case of the “jaggies” combining to create a muddy look that would’ve been called out seven years ago during the Xbox 360’s launch. Still, the framerate stays (mostly) smooth, which is crucial for a game like this. Plus, at this stage it’s nice – if admittedly a novelty – to be playing a Nintendo game in high-definition.