Absolute Nintendo - Ninja Gaiden III on NES
Sep 13, 2026 · 25 min · 11 segments
Battle bionoids in The Ancient Ship of Doom, preferably on the Nintendo Famicom.
Sep 13, 2026 · 25 min · 11 segments
Battle bionoids in The Ancient Ship of Doom, preferably on the Nintendo Famicom.
In short, from what I gather, uh, mostly from an old interview from, uh, Hardcore Gaming 101, I've mentioned them a few times on the podcast, the Ninja Gaiden III developer and the game's publisher didn't have a meeting of the minds.
The former wanted to change the difficulty to attract a, a broader audience, uh, you know, have a normal difficulty instead of an NES hard difficulty, uh, which is what happened with the Famicom original.
But, uh, Tecmo or their localizing team said no, uh, for the NES North American release.
They had a very short-sighted view of, uh, the growing and the changing NES market.
But maybe rentals were a factor, but, uh, you know, if a game's too tough, are people gonna buy it? Uh, because there was a lot more NES carts to choose from by summer '91.
Had they kept the dev's original vision, could part three have been the best-selling of the NES trilogy? I think it's fun to think about.
Um, and as for my answer, it would be, yeah, maybe, and I'll get into some reasons why I think that, but at the same time, maybe not.
I mean, Ninja Gaiden III was sandwiched between, uh, Battletoads, which I plan to cover soon, another really hard game, and NES Open Tournament Golf, uh, which I already covered for big NES summer releases.
I mean, timing's everything, right? Well, not everything, but a, a significant consideration, wouldn't you agree? Uh, lots of differences between the regions.
Some are minor, some are major, but all add up to a near universal consensus that Ninja Gaiden III isn't just the hardest of the NES trilogy, uh, for North American players, but one of the hardest NES games, period.
Um, you know, of course, uh, some say the first is harder or, or the second harder.
I mean, uh, opinions are, are varied, but, you know, by and large, the third is considered the toughest.
And some of the differences that make it that way I'll mention in the course of this episode, but the biggest in my opinion, uh, and the opinion of many if, if not most, from what admit- admittedly little reading I've done, you know, just a cursory scan, the biggest is having no more unlimited continues.
Uh, unless you entered a code, but it's, it's clunky, and how many knew about it, right? Uh, the original and the sequel, they both had unlimited continues as a default as you were getting accustomed to and learning the games.
Uh, you know, it would've helped in part three, but again, the, the word was no in North America.
Uh, but if I was to say it was a change for the better, uh, I, I wouldn't be speaking honestly, and I, I think few would agree with me if I said that, especially because if, you know, if you don't care for unlimited continues, right- I mean, they're optional.
In short, from what I gather, uh, mostly from an old interview from, uh, Hardcore Gaming 101, I've mentioned them a few times on the podcast, the Ninja Gaiden III developer and the game's publisher didn't have a meeting of the minds.
The former wanted to change the difficulty to attract a, a broader audience, uh, you know, have a normal difficulty instead of an NES hard difficulty, uh, which is what happened with the Famicom original.
But, uh, Tecmo or their localizing team said no, uh, for the NES North American release.
They had a very short-sighted view of, uh, the growing and the changing NES market.
But maybe rentals were a factor, but, uh, you know, if a game's too tough, are people gonna buy it? Uh, because there was a lot more NES carts to choose from by summer '91.
Had they kept the dev's original vision, could part three have been the best-selling of the NES trilogy? I think it's fun to think about.
Um, and as for my answer, it would be, yeah, maybe, and I'll get into some reasons why I think that, but at the same time, maybe not.
I mean, Ninja Gaiden III was sandwiched between, uh, Battletoads, which I plan to cover soon, another really hard game, and NES Open Tournament Golf, uh, which I already covered for big NES summer releases.
I mean, timing's everything, right? Well, not everything, but a, a significant consideration, wouldn't you agree? Uh, lots of differences between the regions.
Some are minor, some are major, but all add up to a near universal consensus that Ninja Gaiden III isn't just the hardest of the NES trilogy, uh, for North American players, but one of the hardest NES games, period.
Um, you know, of course, uh, some say the first is harder or, or the second harder.
I mean, uh, opinions are, are varied, but, you know, by and large, the third is considered the toughest.
And some of the differences that make it that way I'll mention in the course of this episode, but the biggest in my opinion, uh, and the opinion of many if, if not most, from what admit- admittedly little reading I've done, you know, just a cursory scan, the biggest is having no more unlimited continues.
Uh, unless you entered a code, but it's, it's clunky, and how many knew about it, right? Uh, the original and the sequel, they both had unlimited continues as a default as you were getting accustomed to and learning the games.
Uh, you know, it would've helped in part three, but again, the, the word was no in North America.
Uh, but if I was to say it was a change for the better, uh, I, I wouldn't be speaking honestly, and I, I think few would agree with me if I said that, especially because if, you know, if you don't care for unlimited continues, right- I mean, they're optional.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
