Honestly, if you were following the Wii U back in 2015, you probably remember the absolute circus surrounding Devil's Third. It wasn't just a video game; it was a five-year soap opera involving bankrupt publishers, engine swaps, and a legendary director who seemingly lived in sunglasses. Tomonobu Itagaki, the man who brought us the modern Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, promised the world a "breakthrough" that would change action games forever.
What we got was... well, it was something else entirely.
Depending on who you ask, Devil's Third on Wii U is either a misunderstood cult masterpiece or a technical car crash that should have stayed in development hell. There isn't much middle ground here. Even today, in 2026, collectors are paying hundreds of dollars for physical copies, not because the game is a masterpiece of polish, but because its story is one of the weirdest failures in Nintendo history.
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From THQ's Collapse to Nintendo's Rescue
The game started as a high-budget project for PS3 and Xbox 360 under THQ. When THQ went belly up in 2013, the rights reverted to Itagaki’s Valhalla Game Studios. It looked like the game was dead. Then, in a move that shocked everyone at E3 2014, Nintendo swooped in.
Nintendo? The company of Mario and Zelda? Publishing a game about a shirtless Russian terrorist named Ivan who plays the drums and slashes throats? It felt like a fever dream.
Nintendo wasn't just being nice; they were desperate for "core" games to fill out the Wii U’s thin library. But the transition wasn't smooth. The game had already cycled through multiple engines—starting with a proprietary one, moving to the Darksiders II engine, and finally landing on Unreal Engine 3. This "Frankenstein" development cycle is why the final product looks like a high-end PS2 game in some spots and a blurry PS3 game in others.
The Weird Hybrid Gameplay of Devil's Third
Basically, Devil's Third tries to do two things at once: third-person character action and first-person shooting.
When you’re running around with a katana or a giant hammer, it’s a hack-and-slash. As soon as you pull the left trigger to aim your gun, the camera snaps into Ivan’s eyes for a traditional FPS feel. It sounds cool on paper. In practice, the transition is jerky, but there’s a strange, addictive rhythm to it once you stop fighting the controls.
- The Melee: It feels heavy. Not "weighted and precise" like Ninja Gaiden, but heavy like you’re swinging a bag of wet laundry. Itagaki’s signature gore is there, though. Limbs fly, blood splatters the screen, and Ivan’s tattoos glow when you trigger his "Rage" mode.
- The Shooting: It’s functional but dated. It feels like a mid-2000s military shooter.
- The Kessler Syndrome: The plot is actually based on a real scientific theory where space debris destroys all satellites. This justifies why modern armies are suddenly back to using swords and old-school radio—no GPS, no high-tech drones. Just raw, bloody ground war.
The frame rate is the real villain here. On the Wii U, it frequently dips into the teens. During a hectic boss fight, the game can feel like it's running through molasses. If you can't stomach a fluctuating 20-30 FPS, you'll hate this. But if you’ve got a high tolerance for "jank," there’s a weirdly sincere soul under the technical mess.
Why is it so expensive now?
If you want a physical NTSC (North American) copy of Devil's Third, get ready to empty your wallet. At the time of its release, the reviews were so savage (it sits at a 43 on Metacritic) that Nintendo did a "silent" launch. They barely printed any copies.
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Rumors at the time suggested GameStop only received a few hundred copies for their entire online store. It was a classic "low print run" scenario. Scalpers smelled blood immediately. Because the Wii U eShop is now closed, physical discs are the only legal way to own the game, driving prices to absurd heights—often ranging from $250 to $500 depending on the condition.
The Lost Multiplayer
The most tragic part of the Devil's Third saga is the multiplayer. Itagaki actually designed the game around the online component. It featured a massive "Siege" mode where clans could build their own bases, manage resources, and engage in diplomacy or total war to control North American territories.
It was surprisingly ambitious for 2015. You could buy "Golden Eggs" (microtransactions) to speed up your clan's growth, and there were bizarre customization options like fighting in a cardboard box.
Nintendo shut the servers down in December 2016, barely a year after launch. Just like that, about 60% of the game's content vanished forever. A PC version called Devil's Third Online was launched in Japan shortly after, but it also folded quickly. Today, if you pop in the disc, you're stuck with the single-player campaign, which feels like looking at a skeleton of what the game was meant to be.
Is it actually worth playing?
Kinda. Look, if you’re looking for a polished masterpiece, stay away. This isn't that.
But if you love "B-movie" energy—the kind of game that is unashamedly violent, slightly broken, and directed by a man with a singular, eccentric vision—Devil's Third is fascinating. Ivan is a hilariously stoic protagonist. One minute he’s in a high-security prison cell playing a guitar, the next he’s taking down a stealth jet with a rocket launcher while sliding on his knees.
It’s a relic of a time when Nintendo was willing to take weird, misguided risks. It’s a "kusoge" (crap game) in the most endearing sense of the word.
Actionable Next Steps for Enthusiasts:
- Check Local Retro Shops: Don't trust eBay prices immediately. Some local stores still price this based on its "bad" reputation rather than its rarity.
- Wii U Pro Controller is Mandatory: Do not try to play this with the GamePad. The layout is too cramped for the rapid switching between melee and shooting.
- Watch a Longplay: Since you can't access the multiplayer anymore, watch some of the old clan war footage on YouTube. It explains why Itagaki was so hyped about the project in the first place.
- Emulation: If you can't afford the $300 price tag, the Wii U emulator Cemu can actually run the game at a stable 60 FPS and 4K resolution, which fixes most of the technical complaints critics had in 2015.
The story of Devil's Third is a reminder that even the biggest names in the industry can stumble when development hell freezes over. It’s a piece of gaming history that is as ugly as it is interesting.