Week-Ending Game Endings – 09.25.09 – Ninja Gaiden II & III

Ninja Gaiden Σ 2, which Tecmo’s Team Ninja hopes will be the epitome of the Ninja Gaiden experience, will be released to PlayStation 3 owners in just a few short days. And as we did last week, we’re counting down to its release with endings from another age of ninja– the 8-bit era.

Following last week, when we saw Ninja Gaiden in both its arcade and NES forms, we will be taking a look at the ending to Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for the NES. We pick up as Ryu Hayabusa deals the final blow to the evil demon…

Of course, well enough is rarely left alone, and we got the third game, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, soon enough after. It wasn’t quite as well received as its two predecessors, however, and seemed to put the nail in the series’ coffin until Tomonobu Itagaki decided to include Ryu in Dead or Alive and revive the franchise soon after.

Following from the ending above, I’ve always wondered if Ryu somehow got the Dragon Sword back, or if he uses another blade in NGIII.

In any case, here is the ending to Ninja Gaiden III, which I myself have never seen personally; I’ve only owned and beaten the first two games, which my parents bought (and beat). I don’t think the rental of the third convinced any of us it was worth laying down the money for.

With this, I can’t help but wonder what we’ll see next from the series. Personally, as the NES games were basically Castlevania with ninjas, I’d love to see a game that follows the same evolutionary “Metroidvania” path that series did.

Maybe someday.