The Game Kitchen and Dotemu, along with Joystick, have teamed up to craft a masterful 2D platforming action-fest in the form of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. The game certainly looks fantastic, but does it actually play out well, too?
Let’s grab our Dragon Sword and dive right into answering that question!
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
Ryu Hayabusa’s dad, Jo Hayabusa, ventures out on a mission but ends up being killed. While he was out on his mission, his son Ryu and prodigy Kenji were training back at the Hayabusa clan village. While they were sparring, demons suddenly attacked the village, and a Shrine Maiden informed the duo that Jo had died. She reads out a message in his Will, where he specifically tells his Ryu to head West to put an end to the shenanigans that’s afoot. And this is where the story of the game really kicks off.
Players will take on the role of Kenji and venture out into the game’s world, slaying demons and other ninjas as they battle their way through multiple levels. The Game Kitchen, known most recently for their Blasphemous games, teamed up with Publishers Dotemu and Joystick to craft a masterpiece here. Dotemu are no stranger to 2D side-scrolling goodness, having numerous titles such as Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge under its belt, so Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has some high expectations of it.
Thankfully, the game plays like an absolute dream. The controls are incredibly responsive and straightforward enough to grasp within minutes. Players will be able to run, slice, dodge roll, jump, and deflect projectiles easily in no time. As the game progresses, you will also gain access to new abilities, and these all enhance your damage output and overall survivability. Standard fare for a platforming action game, but it’s done so well that you’ll want more and more as you get through the game.
The game’s pacing is also rock solid, with the prologue, intro chapters and even later levels being perfectly crafted. You will die. A lot. Not because of the challenge the game presents, but because of your own mistakes, usually. The same could be said for Blasphemous, and The Game Kitchen definitely brought their expertise and experience from that franchise to this game, too.
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound has an extremely fun one-shot kill mechanic, too, in the form of Hypercharge. Defeat a glowing enemy, and your next attack will instant kill whatever foe you slice at next, provided they aren’t a boss enemy. This not only looks fantastic in action but feels great too. You can also choose to sacrifice some of your own health at will to become hypercharged, and this really can come in clutch throughout the game.
Graphically, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound looks absolutely fantastic. Everything in this game looks beautiful, from the backgrounds to the enemy sprites to your own character and the flashy attacks. It’s a visual feast for the eyes, and the developers were so kind as to even include a CRT filter in the options menu, should you want to play the game with rose-tinted nostalgia glasses on. This is a beautiful 2D platformer, and it’s great to see!
The soundtrack of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is exceptionally good, with banger after banger after banger featuring in every single level. The music perfectly fits the theme of the game with adrenaline-pumping electronic music tracks interspersed with more atmospheric themes. While there’s no voice acting here for the character’s dialogue, the game doesn’t really need it since it’s a retro-inspired title.
Circling back to the gameplay, though, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound features some truly specatuclar boss battles and learning to dodge, counter and obliterate them will certainly bring a lot of enjoyment to gamers who like a challenge. The game on normal difficulty is just the right level of toughness, but thankfully, there are plenty of checkpoints throughout the game anyway to keep you progressing forward. You can also gain access to Talismans, which augment your abilities, and these help alleviate some of the difficulty, too.
Later on in the game, you’ll unlock a second playable character in the form of Kumori, a Black Spider Clan ninja. Playing as her is quite different to Kenji, and both characters have their own strengths and weaknesses based on how they attack. It’s great, and going in blind to this game, I honestly did not expect this!
There’s additional replayability in the game in the form of collectables in every level, and some of these are actually quite dastardly to get, so you’ll have to weigh up the risks of trying to get them in your first run through levels. There are also challenge objectives that can be completed, and completionists will have a fun time trying to chase these.
The game is rather short, coming in at around 5 hours, but there’s plenty of bonus content to get through with the hard difficulty and the collectables and secret areas. If you plan to 100% it, it will take you upwards of 12 hours or more, depending on how skilled you are at platform action games that require precise gameplay input.
Overall, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is an action-filled 2D platforming side-scrolling blast. The game looks gorgeous and plays out perfectly well, with combat being so satisfying throughout. There are some sections which could be quite challenging to beat, but once you do, the sheer satisfaction you’ll feel is immense (There is an “Assist mode” too if you’re really struggling, though.)
If you want a 2D platformer that doesn’t overstay its welcome and that delivers in all aspects from graphics to gameplay to the soundtrack, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is for you. It’s also quite literally perfect for playing on the go with a Steamdeck so do give this game a chance if you can.
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound Trailer
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Game code was provided by the Publisher.
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