REVIEW: ‘Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’ Is Excellent Nostalgic Chaos

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is The Game Kitchen and Dotemu’s upcoming side-scrolling action adventure game and a spinoff installment in the beloved Ninja Gaiden series. Reminiscent of the first few classic 8-bit Ninja Gaiden games, players control the new character, Kenji Mozu. He’s a freshly trained ninja in the Hayabusa village who must protect the village from a fiend outbreak following Ryu’s departure from the village.

He goes on a quest to destroy the fiend leaders before they fully plague the human realm. During his journey, Kenji meets a rival spider clan member called Kumori right after the fiends betrayed her. In a desperate situation, the two essentially merge their souls and embark on a mission to stop the fiends, each with their own distinct motivations. The game’s events take place during the first Ninja Gaiden game but serve as an alternate story that’s new to the franchise.

Despite being a short side-scrolling action game, the story in Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is quite engaging and interesting. It not only fleshes out the events of the first game but also includes cameo appearances that series fans will appreciate. This includes a Ryu Hayabusa appearance and a boss fight, along with references to the Spider clan.

In Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, we gain more understanding of what happened in the first game.

One of the best parts of the story is the relationship between the two main characters. They offer a nice contrast to one another and have distinct personalities. It’s a shame that there’s no voice acting, as that would have greatly enhanced the narrative experience.

Nonetheless, the story is easy to follow and effectively highlights its characters. However, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound’s story is secondary to the gameplay, as the narrative, while engaging, is brief and somewhat barebones, focusing mainly on defeating the fiends.

The gameplay in Ragebound is where the game truly shines. Combat is incredibly satisfying but also incredibly challenging, with no difficulty options outside accessibility options, so players should be prepared to die a lot. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is a mix of fast-paced platforming, puzzle solving, and hack-and-slash combat.

While the game itself is short, the combat and gameplay are satisfying. 

Players switch between characters in specific sections of the game, use different weapons and abilities, and fight challenging but fun bosses. Each boss presents a distinct type of combat difficulty to overcome, forcing players to utilize all the skills and tools they have acquired to defeat them. While there aren’t many bosses, players fight most of them multiple times, getting better with each encounter.

The game adds variety by including several special combat skills, such as ultimate attacks and unique abilities that activate under specific battle conditions. There are also various collectibles and additional features. Players who want the full experience can also challenge themselves to complete all level objectives, such as finding all collectibles, completing missions without dying, and utilizing specific skills.

The only gameplay flaw is that in some levels, it can be a hassle while fighting several hordes of incoming enemies over obstacles when you can’t see the next screen. Other than that, the game has no other issues and runs smoothly on PC from start to finish. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound‘s gameplay experience is incredibly fun and engaging from start to finish. This puts it on a pedestal among side-scrolling action-adventure games.

Despite being a short experience that lasts about 7 to 8 hours, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound offers great replayability thanks to its several challenges, secret levels, collectibles, and more. As such, while not as long as the other games in the series, it does offer better replayability than most of the games.

The retro visuals are a fun throwback that taps heavily into nostalgia.

Visually, Ragebound presents a unique blend of retro 8-bit aesthetics with a modern flair. The game features Crisp 2D models, an amazing Japanese feudal art direction and great level designs, and fluid combat and cutscene animations. Despite being 2D, it’s by far one of the best-looking games this year. The game also features a CRT filter that enhances the nostalgic effect, looking remarkably good.

The soundtrack also greatly supports the experience through several amazing tracks that perfectly match the on-screen chaos. The sound effects are also impressively detailed, allowing players to hear and feel each attack and the movement of enemies around the characters.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is an incredibly engaging game, offering several excellent combat elements, great replayability, an amazing art style, and much more. It also sports great references that series fans will appreciate, and an overall phenomenal experience, making it one of the best games of its genre.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound will launch on July 31 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.