Ninja Gaiden followers are feasting in 2025. Along with January’s surprise-dropped Ninja Gaiden 2 Black and a correct, long-overdue sequel in Ninja Gaiden 4 coming this fall, there’s a brand new 2D platformer-action sport from the developer behind the Blasphemous collection. Whereas The Recreation Kitchen’s 2D tackle Ninja Gaiden might simply dwell within the shadow of its bigger-budget 3D siblings, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound appears to be an thrilling and refreshing tackle the franchise that deserves consideration.
As with Ninja Gaiden 4, collection common Ryu Hayabusa shouldn’t be the first protagonist of Ragebound. As an alternative, gamers management Kenji Mozu, an apprentice of Ryu’s and a member of the Hayabusa village ninja clan. And in an intriguing twist that provides each story and gameplay depth, Ragebound can even give gamers management of one other ninja, Kumori, a kunoichi from a rival clan.
Kenji and Kumori not solely play independently at occasions, they’ll additionally play as a unified pressure of ninja energy, fixing puzzles and platforming challenges collectively. And I imply collectively fairly actually; Kenji and Kumori fuse our bodies at one level through the sport and mix their abilities to turn into a magically super-powerful ninja.
Picture: The Recreation Kitchen/Dotemu, Koei Tecmo
Ryu is sitting out a lot of Ragebound as a result of he’s off in America coping with private issues. In his absence, a rift between the demon world and our world opens, threatening Hayabusa village. With Ryu away, gamers will spend lots of time with Kenji, who can carry out dashes and slashes, and may bounce off of enemies and projectiles utilizing a transfer known as the Guillotine Increase.
Just like the somersaulting Ryu Hayabusa of the 8-bit Ninja Gaiden video games, Kenji can flip round along with his sword out; however as an alternative of simply slicing by means of foes, his Guillotine Increase lets him ricochet off of enemies, launching him into the air. Kenji also can carry out Hypercharged Assaults, {powerful} slashes that may be charged up for a restricted time and may slice by means of heavy armor.
A lot of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s platforming and fight challenges are primarily based on these strikes, plus dashes and wall climbs, however Kenji and Kumori have much more {powerful} talents to name upon. Kumori specifically can work together with objects known as Demon Altars that permit her enter the demon world — an otherworldly model of Kenji’s actuality. The 2 can work collectively to beat challenges in each variations of Ragebound’s world, switching backwards and forwards in intelligent, platforming-based puzzles.
Picture: The Recreation Kitchen/Dotemu, Koei Tecmo
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound itself lives between two worlds: It has a retro, 2D pixelated type within the vein of traditional 8-bit and 16-bit Ninja Gaiden video games, however it additionally borrows from the Staff Ninja-led 3D video games. Developer The Recreation Kitchen mentioned in a hands-off preview of Ragebound that it needs the sport to be robust, however truthful — not like the merciless NES-era Ninja Gaiden releases. And for the sport’s extremely detailed pixel artwork, it needs to present gamers sprites that really feel “as agile, responsive, and {powerful} as they do in 3D installments.”
I obtained to play a little bit of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound in February, and located the sport each difficult and satisfying to play, with a beneficiant studying curve that slowly introduces Kenji and Kumori’s powers. Whereas the issue was usually forgiving, I by no means ranked above a “B” grade throughout my quick stint with the sport; I wasn’t avoiding hits nor chaining collectively combos within the sleek method proven in gameplay launched by The Recreation Kitchen. However Ragebound was extremely enjoyable, and the platforming/fight puzzles that require utilizing Kenji and Kumori’s respective talent units appear very properly designed. I’m actually wanting ahead to seeing a number of the extra complicated, later-game play — and admittedly extra enthusiastic about Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound than Ninja Gaiden 4 at this stage. No offense to the builders at PlatinumGames, however The Recreation Kitchen is doing a little intelligent, compelling issues with 2D ninja motion in Ragebound.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound can be launched this summer time on Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X.
