Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (2025)

Like shinespark, I was having a decent time with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound at the start (as it picked up after some initial lows) but the rigidity of the game’s mechanics eventually lead to a very flat overall experience. And without the incredible atmosphere and thematic weight that The Game Kitchen brought to its two Blasphemous titles, I think I have to accept that I’m just not a fan of their actual game design. As much as I liked the Blasphemous games well enough for their gorgeous visuals and Catholic allegory and symbolism, I found the games simply fall flat on the mechanical side, both in terms of overall movement and combat, and in overall challenge. If not for the fact that the games are oozing in style, I don’t think I’d have a lot to remember them by.

I was hoping Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound would be a departure, something with snappier movement and challenging bosses. But it didn’t deliver on either front. The game is laser focused on hyperboost and guilotine boost attacks that it funnels everything you do towards the two, providing little in the way of variety. It’s quite fun in bursts but when you spend the entire game repeating these two actions, and knowing to expect a mob that will grant you a hyperboost each time you see a heavy enemy, the game begins to feel like it has tunnel vision. I really wish the Game Kitchen had built more options into their combat system and not leaned on something that grows to be one note carried across an entire game.

And as much as the pixel art is pretty, it lacks the thematic weight that the imagery in Blasphemous to carry the game in the wake of its limited combat options. Which worries me, because after three games I’m starting to feel The Game Kitchen’s strength is style over mechanical substance. But if that style is heavily bound to interesting themes that they can’t bring to an existing franchise like Ninja Gaiden, will their competent yet routine mechanical design start to wear thin. I hope I’m wrong, but given I’ve had reservations about their mechanical design as early as the first Blasphemous I’m not overly surprised this game isn’t as much fun as I hoped it would be.

Started out pretty high on Ragebound, but ultimately I think its central gimmicks (Guillotine Boost and Hypercharge) flatten out the game's level design and make it feel too repetitive.

With ninjutsu still on the brain though, I thought I'd make a subjective list of my Favorite Ninja Games of all Time!

• Best All-Around Ninja Game - Nikujin. Its lightning-quick flow between sword slashes and wallruns is still unmatched, and the skullcracker high jump is still the coolest one-hit KO move to ever do it.

• Best Ninja Stealth - Dishonored 2. Weaving through patrol routes completely unseen, across rooftops and interstices without a sound, made me feel like the sneakiest saboteur.
• Best Ninja Teamwork - Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. This one's all about concocting elaborate chain reactions with your whole crew. Yuki whistles to draw the mooks away from the samurai, who Takuma staggers with his rifle fire, buying Hayato a fleeting opportunity for the perfect backstab.
• Best Ninja Grappling Hook - Ninja Five-O. Tricky to learn, incredibly fluid in practice. Swinging up and around a chandelier and whirling death onto unsuspecting minions below never gets old.
• Best Ninja Slicing - Cyber Shadow. Dash slashing in midair resets your double jump, which resets your dash slash! You never need to touch the ground if you can keep finding fools to bisect.
• Best Ninja Aggression - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. More than any other, Sekiro is a game that rewards constant offensive pressure. Press forward, hold your partner close, and dance until one of you is dead.

Kind of a strange thing to consider, but I think in my older years, I am simply not interested in or perhaps not able to keep up with fast action games. I'm really gravitating much more heavily to slower-paced, narrative-heavy games... Survival horror, action-adventure, that kind of stuff.

I think perhaps I'll experiment with the accessibility settings, but I completed the pirate cave level last night, and it was just difficult to the point of being annoying. I didn't finish it and think, "That was a good challenge to overcome," I just felt, "Well that always annoying, glad it's over with." I just don't feel like getting angry with games and "locking in" anymore, I just don't find it fun.

Oh fun, ranked levels out of the gate. At least Shinobi saved that for the post game for the sickos who want high scores. Nothing is more enjoyable than being told you played the game wrong and didn’t kill X demons the way the devs wanted instead of letting you live your life. I appreciate that people enjoy high scores and ranks, but this is why I like games like Hollow Knight and Silksong. In those games I’m never told I’m doing it wrong, I’m left to my own devices to do things how I see fit. I’m never reminded that I could have pogoed off five more enemies for an S rank.

Each is a separate pleasure but this is why I relish the way Team Cherry builds everything into the mechanics of the game, and encourages you to experiment through gameplay, rather than putting up a screen to tell you all the ways you could have approached the game other than the way you did.

Things I like so far:

You can deflect enemy projectiles which makes combat against multiple enemies breezier when there is a projectile based enemy in the mix.

Thinks I don’t like so far:

Projectiles pass through solid objects like walls.

Too many collectables right out the gate and all of them are just the boring old search for secret passage ways with hidden items in them. I’m not going to go back because I missed one unless the level is super entertaining (which unfortunately none are so far).

Challenges: please devs make your games fun instead of hitting us up with arbitrary challenges to create busy work. If I want to kill five enemies with lunge attacks, design your game to make that a fun activity and not some milestone to achieve at random.

So I guess "a man and a woman merging into a single form" is just going to be a theme for 2025, this is the THIRD PIECE OF MEDIA I've experienced this year where that happens.

And I'm here for it, it's super Jungian.

But real talk though, this game freaking rules. I was kinda thinking, "Eh, I don't think I really like action games these days, they just don't grab me." Nah, I just wasn't playing the right ones.

I know this game was gonna be good, but it was excellent. Amazing pixel art, great music inspired by the chiptune melodies of the classic Ninja Gaiden and PERFECT gameplay that keeps the simple, elegant style of the old game with new ideas that create really interesting gameplay moments. The level of challenge is also perfect, with a lot of optional harder challenges and accesibility options for those who just want a chill ninja adenture.

The story is mediocre but some will say that it doesn't matte in this kind of games. Even with that issue, is one of the best games of 2025. Read my full review in spanish here.

Also, the CIA are the bad guys. That's on point.

I enjoyed this one more than the first two Ninja Gaiden's(Sigma and Black 2) I played earlier this year, although its hard to compare 2d action to 3d action. Very tight and fun gameplay, with some cool twists on the genre. Game can be quite tough and even reach "NES Hard" but never goes too overboard, except maybe in some of the optional content. There was one specific secret challenge I tried for over an hour and I'm not convinced it's possible without pixel perfection.

For what little the story is, what's presented is pretty nice. The main character(s) are quite enjoyable and charming, and the bosses are great. I saw another review here pointing out art style isn't great, and I agree. This feels like a game from a previous era, but if it were released during the SNES years it would be considered one of the best,

8.5/10