Ninja Gaiden Ragebound Review
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is a great game, but it feels nothing like the retro Ninja Gaiden titles that I remember from the early 90’s and that’s ok, so let’s talk about why
CLASSIC LOOK WITH A MODERN FEEL
Instead of focusing on feeling like retro Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound focuses on a more modernized gameplay approach. A gameplay that’s reminiscent of the Blasphemous series for obvious reasons, but with a massive increase in speed and momentum. However, more important than feeling like Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound perfectly captures the spirit of Ninja Gaiden, which results in the best of both worlds.
Within seconds, it’s obvious that Ninja Gaiden is in great hands with The Game Kitchen. The studio isn’t trying to rewrite the history of the series, but instead use the existing foundation to craft an interesting narrative. After playing the demo, I wasn’t expecting to relive the fateful night when Ryu’s father was killed in the iconic battle that put Ninja Gaiden on the map.
The prologue sets the a very strong tone as Ninja Gaiden Ragebound seamlessly splices together the old and the new in such a satisfying manner. After the prologue, you are put into the shoes of Kenji Mozu, a young Ninja apprentice being trained by Ryu Hyabusa.
The Game Kitchen have weaved magic with a story that is both great for fans of the original, but also great for people who have never played a single Ninja Gaiden in their life. The story of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is completely bespoke and begins at the exact moment that the original Ninja Gaiden story begins. However, as Ryu leaves to America to avenge his father as he did in the 1988 NES version, you play as Kenji who stays behind to protect the village from the demon outbreak. Ragebound also featured some funny writing that broke the fourth wall with references to some of the odd locations from the original trilogy.
The Game Kitchen continue to honour the IP as Ninja Gaiden Ragebound delivers gameplay that aligns with history. Ragebound is an hardcore action platformer and nothing else. There are no metroidvania or rogue-like elements, just pure 2D platforming. You even lack the ability to swipe your sword up or downwards, only left and right.
It isn’t just the 2D generation as Ragebound is also able to incorporate some of the elements that made the 3D resurgence of the series beloved with demanding gameplay and ninja ranks. You have infinite lives and when you die, you will restart from a checkpoint, but the farther you progress in the game, the more unforgiving these checkpoints become. Living up to their reputation, The Game Kitchen have crafted 12 disturbing and crushing boss fights that will constantly push you to your limits. However, thanks to the level of precision in Ragebound and the fair design of the bosses, you always want to return for more punishment.
Parallel the preserving the legacy of the series, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound introduces plenty of modern and fresh ideas. To begin with, Ragebound is built around speed with abilities such as the guillotine boost, which allows Kenji to parry jump off of almost anything and the hypercharges. Certain enemies feature a glowing aura and killing them grants Kenji a hypercharge, which kills every enemy except bosses in one hit. The hypercharge is time sensitive, which means that you need to move fast and constantly prioritize what is happening on screen.
Furthermore in a twist of fate, Kenji must make a pact with Kumori, a member of the Black Spider Clan and this allows you to also take advantage of new skills Kumori harnesses such as her Kunai. Once the pact is made, Hypercharge auras now show up in blue or pink deepening the strategy as you need to use the correct attack to gain a charge.
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is relatively short, at around 6-8 hours long to finish the campaign, but I would be amazed if anyone that plays doesn’t sink a lot more time into this game finding the secret levels and trying to achieve S rank on every single level because it’s punishing but fair, which leads to a huge sense of accomplishment and reward. There are 17 levels on the main campaign with 12 featuring some type of boss fight. There are also 8 hidden levels, multiple endings and once you beat the game, you will unlock hard mode.
There are collectibles to find around each level. Although, they are necessary for complesionist looking to find everything, the more important reason to find them is because they are currency to use at a shop for talismans and secret arts. The talismans mostly act as passives such as refilling your health at checkpoints, while the secret arts will drastically help even the playing field for Kenji for example “healing fountain” created a sphere that regenerated your heath as you stood inside, which is important because there is no healing in the game. As mentioned, Ragebound is about speed and you are never allowed to remain in the same place for long. The Ragebound Art that seemed most essential was “Kunai Barrage” as that had the ability to turn the tide on boss fights or challenging sections as it released homing kunai missiles.
Criticisms
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is over before you know it with most of the time being spent on bosses during my 6-8 hour play-through.If you happen to be extremely proficient on the boss fights, you could probably shave that down a few hours as some of the later boss fights took around 20-30 minutes to find success.
Considering the original trilogy was around the same length, I was hoping for a slightly longer experience. However, it’s a fine line and I would always rather have a shorter experience that leaves me wanting more, instead of a longer experience that loses my interest.
One of bigger features that put Ninja Gaiden on the map back in 1989 on the NES was the high level of quality of the cinematics. In the reveal trailer for Ragebound, there were fully animated recreations of the earlier cutscenes. The hope was that Ragebound would be full of animated cutscenes throughout. Although, The Game Kitchen stayed faithful to the original with pixel art cutscenes, they were more moving stills and didnt capture that cinematic feel.
IS NINJA GAIDEN RAGEBOUND WORTH IT?
Often times when there is a mashup in the gaming sector, the outcome can be less than predictable. Thankfully, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is exactly what you would expect if you gave the iconic Ninja Gaiden IP to The Game Kitchen, who have put themselves on the map with their incredible work on the Blasphemous series. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has all the necessities that anyone could ask for. Gorgeous pixel art, extremely precise gameplay, a soundtrack and story that are highly evocative of the 90’s, and disturbingly fantastic, rage inducing bosses.
2025 is the year of the ninja with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound and Shinobi Art of Vengeance. We expected both games to be great, but gave the edge to Shinobi, but after Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has exceeded our expectations, The Game Kitchen has thrown down the Ninja Gauntlet with the release of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, which utilizes the studios expertise and the iconic Ninja Gaiden’s IP to the fullest.
Fans of Ninja Gaiden, 2D platformers, or Blasphemous all need to check out Ragebound and the bar has now been set high for Shinobi Art of Vengeance
