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 recreation from the developer behind the Blasphemous sequence. Whereas The Sport Kitchen’s 2D tackle Ninja Gaiden may simply stay within the shadow of its bigger-budget 3D siblings, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound appears to be like to be an thrilling and refreshing tackle the franchise that deserves consideration.
As with Ninja Gaiden 4, sequence common Ryu Hayabusa isn’t the first protagonist of Ragebound. As a substitute, 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 will even give gamers management of one other ninja, Kumori, a kunoichi from a rival clan.
Kenji and Kumori not solely play independently at instances, they will additionally play as a unified drive of ninja energy, fixing puzzles and platforming challenges collectively. And I imply collectively fairly actually; Kenji and Kumori fuse our bodies at one level throughout the recreation and mix their abilities to turn into a magically super-powerful ninja.
Picture: The Sport 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 a whole lot of time with Kenji, who can carry out dashes and slashes, and may bounce off of enemies and projectiles utilizing a transfer referred to 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 via foes, his Guillotine Increase lets him ricochet off of enemies, launching him into the air. Kenji may also carry out Hypercharged Assaults, {powerful} slashes that may be charged up for a restricted time and may slice via heavy armor.
A lot of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s platforming and fight challenges are based mostly on these strikes, plus dashes and wall climbs, however Kenji and Kumori have much more {powerful} skills to name upon. Kumori specifically can work together with objects referred to 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 forwards and backwards in intelligent, platforming-based puzzles.
Picture: The Sport 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, nevertheless it additionally borrows from the Workforce Ninja-led 3D video games. Developer The Sport Kitchen mentioned in a hands-off preview of Ragebound that it needs the sport to be powerful, however honest — not like the merciless NES-era Ninja Gaiden releases. And for the sport’s extremely detailed pixel artwork, it needs to offer 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 typically 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 means proven in gameplay launched by The Sport Kitchen. However Ragebound was extremely enjoyable, and the platforming/fight puzzles that require utilizing Kenji and Kumori’s respective talent units appear very nicely designed. I’m actually trying ahead to seeing a few of the extra advanced, 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 Sport Kitchen is doing a little intelligent, compelling issues with 2D ninja motion in Ragebound.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound will likely be launched this summer time on Nintendo Change, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X.
