I'm a big fan of Ninja Gaiden, I love it.
But DMC3 is better.
More moves
Harder
Longer
More combat
More bosses
an actual story
1 hour of shimomura directed cutscenes
MANUAL combat system, none of that YXXY XYXY XYXY XYXXY dead or alive bullshit that NG does
having said that, i'll be the first to get ninja gaiden 2, but dmc3 fuckin whipped its ass. Some of you need to get off of the reviewers nut sack who bitched and moaned saying dmc3 is "too hard" blah blah, it's balanced. It's the few games out there thats actually balanced. I'm sick of playing games where my character is strong as hell, and the enemies and bosses are mindless morons, what the fuck is a point of a combat sytem if you don't even NEED it. dmc3, the enemies are hard, ruthless, a few mistakes and you're done. but you also have to realize that dante is a beast himself. 6 gameplay styles, 90+special moves, manual combat system, 4 instant weapon switching. dante is a fuckin war machine, and when you realize that and stop button mashing ala god of war style, you'll have no trouble with dmc3. also, remember the mindset of a reviewer is different than of a person who buys a 50 dollar game. one person sees difficulty as an obstacle to put out the review before deadline, the other sees it as a reason to get better...
ps: Im not a big fan of DMC1 though, which is another reason I loved NG so damn much, but DMC3 just has it beat, in my opinion sure, but, i just liked dmc3 more...