Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge spotted in Australian stores

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge was one of those games that frustrated many Wii U owners in Australia. Nintendo had the rights to publish it, but for some reason, never actually got around to doing so. For those who weren’t keeping track, we’ll do a quick recap of the events.

The game was released in North America on November 18th in 2012. Japan got the game in December that year, while fans in Europe were able to play it on January 11th, 2013. Despite the game being release in almost every region for the Wii U, the Australian version was yet to be seen or released in Australia. Rumours persisted as to why but none of them were ever given any legitimacy.

Around the same time that the game was released in Europe, the Australian Classification Board rated the game R18+, making it Australia’s first R18+ rated game (although the first game to release with such a classification was a Vita version from the same franchise, as Nintendo took their time releasing this).

A whole month later, Nintendo had still not released the game in Australia. During that time, it was announced that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge would be making it’s way to other consoles and would not remain a Wii U exclusive. Despite this announcement, the game was still not released in Australia.

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge then appeared on Playstation and Xbox a few months later throughout the rest of the world. Nintendo’s own published Wii U version was still yet to be released in Australia. The same month, the Wii U received a system update adding functionality for parental controls for the R18+ rating. This lead many to believe this was why the game was still not released in Australia, however for that entire month no announcements were made.

The next month, in May 2013, Nintendo Australia announced that the game would be released in Australia, but was only an eShop title. People were disappointed, but it seemed like the best and only way to get the game for people who really wanted it.

Until now. We’ve received word from keen shoppers in Australia that copies of the game have started appearing in EBGames stores around the country. One of our keen eyed readers has even purchased a copy. It’s interesting and worth noting that these seems to be European copies that have been imported and slapped with an R18+ rating sticker.

This makes us wonder if Nintendo Australia have published the title (after so long) or if EBGames have taken the release into their own hands. If anyone has heard or seen other retailers selling the game, we’d love to hear from you.

The game is available from EBGames stores (and maybe more) for the typical RRP of first party Wii U titles, at AU$79.95.

Will you be grabbing a copy?