{{Infobox video game |title=Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom |image=Ninja Gaiden III The Ancient Ship of Doom.jpg | alt = Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom |caption=North American box art (NES version) |developer=Tecmo |publisher=Tecmo |composer=Hiroshi MiyazakiKaori NakabaiRika Shigeno |director=Masato Kato |designer= |writer=M. AkamaMasato Kato |series = Ninja Gaiden |released={{collapsible list|title=June 21, 1991|NESAtari LynxVirtual Console (Wii)Virtual Console (3DS)<ref>{{cite web |title=Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom |website=Nintendo.co.uk |url=https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/NES/Ninja-Gaiden-III-The-Ancient-Ship-of-Doom-846812.html |access-date=2020-05-19}}</ref>}} |genre=Platform |modes = Single-player |platforms = NES, Atari Lynx, Super NES }}Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom is a side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Tecmo. It was released in Japan on for the Famicom and in North America in August for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES version was not released in Europe. 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. It was also re-released as part of its Ninja Gaiden Trilogy Super NES compilation in 1995 in Japan and North America. Long after, it was released for the Virtual Console service in North America on for the Wii and in North America and Europe on and respectively for the Nintendo 3DS. It was designed by Masato Kato, who took over for Hideo Yoshizawa—designer of the first two games in the NES series. 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. The player controls Ryu Hayabusa as he is framed for the murder of Irene Lew and investigates the circumstances behind her death. 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 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. As with the previous titles, Ninja Gaiden III received mostly positive reviews from critics. 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