Team Ninja has always done better on the rebound, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge is a testament to this fact. The technical excellence of the 2004'sNinja Gaiden was one-upped in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Ninja Gaiden 2 was improved dramatically in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Razor's Edge carries that trend forward into the series' latest entry, with surprising results. It's one thing to turn a great game into an even better one, but to turn a once-terrible gameinto a launch lineup highlight? Impossible!
Apparently not. Team Ninja cuts liberally from Ninja Gaiden 3 in Razor's Edge, stripping away everything from the obnoxious "steel on bone" QTE-style button mashery to the multitude of joy-killing sequences in which players guide a stumbling, curse-afflicted Ryu through neutered enemy encounters. Even the questionable presentation is erased, exemplified by an early moment that forces Ryu, and thus the player, to murder a man in cold blood as he pleads for his life. This insufferable moment has been excised from Razor's Edge, and for that we can all be thankful.