 A few modern video gaming websites reviewed Ninja Gaiden III upon its release to the Virtual Console in 2008 . Nintendo Life 's Damien McFerran gave lackluster ratings , saying that the game " passed under the radar of many a videogame enthusiast " . He added that while the presentation was great , he pointed out flaws in the " silly " plot , the inconsistently laid @-@ out level designs , and frustrating difficulty in addition to the five @-@ continue limit . He said that many gamers would prefer the previous two Ninja Gaiden titles over this one . IGN 's Lucas Thomas appreciated the improvement in Ryu 's ability to scale and climb on top of walls , his ability to hang overhead , good storyline , and the new items such as the Dragon Sword power @-@ up and the Vacuum Wave . His chief criticism was the game 's difficulty , saying that it 's not the " rewarding kind of difficult " but instead " the cheap , annoying kind of difficult that makes you want to throw your controller at the TV screen and just go read a book " . As with the Nintendo Life review , Thomas similarly criticized the inconsistent level design as well as a storyline which becomes progressively more bizarre , including " weird science @-@ fiction themes about <unk> and clones " . 
