Actually, you have heard wrong a liiiiiiiiittle bit. Ninja Gaiden 3 is horrible beyond words. But the Razor's Edge update on the other hand is phenomenal. A few core issues remained, but the gameplay was revamped, remade, and left players with a ton of room to do even more than we could in the original. Pretend that one doesn't exist and go for Razor's Edge. Trust me on that <.<
NG3:RE is no Sigma 2 but it is indeed a huge improvement over NG3 and does not shame Sigma 2 as much and is worth playing while avoiding NG3 like the plague.Yaiba is not a "Ninja Gaiden" game but simply set in that world so you should not have any expectations as it's simply a spinoff, it's an ok game.
I'll probably pick up both NG3:RE and Yaiba on sale sometime. Cool that most of you liked NG3:RE - changes the way I think if I had just gone off of online site reviews.
Ninja Gaiden Black > Ninja Gaiden 2 > Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge
I only mention those because I haven't played the original version of NG1, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, or the original NG3.
But put more simply: NG1 > NG2 > NG3.
To me something just feels off with NG3. Gameplay and story. I haven't been playing NG for -that- long, and I can't pinpoint everything I find wrong with NG3's gameplay. With the story, though... I can.