It is FAR inferior to it's predecessors, but Ninja Gaiden 3 is still a fun time if you can look past it's faults.
Story:
It's your typical Ninja Gaiden story, aka who cares? Basically Ryu's arm gets cursed and he has a week to live. Also there's something about Alchemists trying to make a god like monster or something.... I don't know.
Gameplay:
The heart and soul of Ninja Gaiden is it's gameplay, always has been. Now, the games biggest flaw is the toned down difficulty. This game is stupidly easy and REALLY unrewarding. The gameplay is still fast paced like the old games, but because it's so easy, it's extremely unsatisfying to do anything. Decapitation and limb removal have been removed to make room for the new "Steel on Bone" gameplay mechanic where you see Ryu cut through the enemy. It's cool at first, but gets really old, really fast. Also, there is only 1 weapon now....... What?! Speaking of that, the way you use your ultimate techniques is different now aswell. Instead of charging your attack, you kill a bunch of dudes and your arm glows red. At that point you can proceed to murder everything. Also your ninpo is completely revamped. In the previous games there were slots you could use to do this, now there's a meter that fills up when you use it. When it's full, a giant dragon appears and kills everything. When you see it once it's like "ZOMG BEST THING EVER!" Then you realize, that's the ONLY Ninpo attack. Also they added a lot of Quick Time Events. I don't know why. But the worst thing, the WORST thing is the Kunai Climbing. It's like those really sh!tty olympic games on the Wii where you have to alternate button presses. It's bad.
Graphics:
It's actually quite a pretty game believe it or not. All the character models look nice and the environments look good. I mean there are better looking games out there, but there is visual thrills to be had here.
Sound:
This isn't anything to write home about. Ryu's voice isn't bad, but everyone else seems to not care. The soundtrack isn't anything special either, which is a shame honestly since I loved the scores of the first 2.
Overall:
Ninja Gaiden 3 is a MAJOR disappointment. It's not a good as the previous 2 games by any means. Though, if you were scared of Ninja Gaiden previously, this might be the time to check it out. It can still be a fun game if you look past the faults.