This Ninja Gaiden spin off is not only amazing, it's converted me into a franchise fan — a retro gateway for newcomers

Back during the 2024 Game Awards, one of the new games announced there that caught my attention the most was Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a side-scrolling action platformer which paid homage to the earliest titles of the Ninja Gaiden series.

I was captivated by Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s gorgeously bloody pixel-art animations, intimidating bosses, and lightning-fast hack n’ slash gameplay despite never having played a single Ninja Gaiden in my life.

I was way too intimidated to play Ninja Gaiden when I was younger because of the series’ infamously brutal difficulty, where death traps lurked around every corner and enemies could stun-lock you into oblivion or one-shot kill you if you weren’t on guard.

However, after hardening my gaming skills over the years and being enraptured by Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s retro aesthetic, I was finally considering giving the Ninja Gaiden franchise a shot with this new upcoming Xbox title. Then in April 2025, I put Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound on my wishlist after seeing its 2nd playable character reveal trailer, which wowed me even more with its over-the-top combat and platforming gameplay showcase.

I couldn’t wait to get a hold of this game and thanks to a review code sent to me by Koei Tecmo for the Xbox game, I was at last able to. Does this new Ninja Gaiden spin-off successfully pay homage to its legacy while providing a comfortable invitation for newcomers like me?

Let’s find out as we dive into Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.

What is Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound?

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a side-scrolling, action platformer where you play as Kenji Mozu, a member of the Hayabusa ninja clan, and Kumori, a member of the Hayabusa clan’s arch rivals, the Black Spider ninja clan.

These two opposing ninjas are forced to work together after an unfortunate encounter with evil demons ends up with their body and souls fused into one. Now, Kenji and Kumori are on a race against time to get back to normal and stop the demons plotting from resurrecting their evil Demon Lord, who plans to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s gameplay has a very old-school, linear structure where you will complete a series of levels packed with many enemies and bosses.

You will need to utilize Kenji and Kumori’s acrobatic ninja skills to chop up enemies and traverse precarious obstacles, switch between them to complete optional platforming challenges, uncover hidden collectibles that can be used to purchase upgrades, and take on gigantic bosses that will crush you lest you are focused at all times.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound rekindles my love for action platformers

It’s been a long time since I played a side-scrolling platformer and I gotta say, it feels good to play one again because Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound rocks hard. For starters, I love the presentation of this game. The environments and cool character designs are all wonderfully detailed with intricate 16-bit sprite graphics and animations.

I especially love it when enemies explode in a shower of pixelated gore that sometimes remain persistent in the background, adding extra immersion to combat. I was also a big fan of the combat system and platforming gameplay.

Kenji and Kumori have a ton of cool ninja weapons and abilities at their disposal to lay waste to the opposition. These include fast sword swipes that deflect projectiles, a Guillotine Boost jump that can allow players to bounce off enemies and projectiles to reach inaccessible platforms. Charged-attacks that can only be performed by killing certain enemies or sacrificing your health, powerful supermoves that can clear the entire screen of enemies, and more.

The level design is also top-notch, with various deathtraps and obstacles that required quick thinking and creative use of the game’s mechanics in order to overcome.

For example, in some levels, I intentionally left some enemies alive so I could use the Guillotine Boost jump to bounce off them so I could more easily reach platforms I had trouble getting to normally.

There were also some cleverly hidden, Metroidvania-style side-paths in each level containing lucrative rewards that unlock secret, super-hard levels or items used to purchase upgrades for your characters, rewarding eagle-eyed players who pay attention to the environment.

Ragebound is strict but will reward and help newcomers without sacrificing Ninja’s Gaiden iconic challenging difficulty

What helps ties it all is its tough but fair difficulty. It can be overwhelming at first with the sheer number of enemies rushing towards you and traps laden at every corner.

However, once you learn the enemy’s attack patterns and master the tools at your disposal, you will feel like a true ninja master slicing and dicing through enemies in the blink of an eye without getting hit, and it is so satisfying.

In addition, the game has a few quality-of-life improvements to help make the experience less frustrating for newcomers. For instance, the archaic lives system from the original NES Ninja Gaiden is gone so you don’t have to worry about starting the entire game over if you die.

Plus, if you get hit while jumping, you can use the Guillotine Boost technique to rebound in midair to reorient yourself and safely land on a nearby platform to avoid falling to your death (most of the time anyway).

However, these quality-of-life improvements don’t diminish the challenge of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound as enemies, bosses, and the sadistic traps in each level will still rip you to shreds over and over again if you don’t pay attention.

Additionally, there are purchasable items that can make the game harder (restarting a level from scratch upon dying, taking extra damage from enemies etc), super-hard side missions to complete, and an unlockable Hard Mode upon beating the game once if you want to up the difficulty even further.

This what I love most about this game. It’s brutal, but it will help and reward newcomers who want to get better at the game without alienating long-time veterans who play Ninja Gaiden for its hardcore difficulty.

Should you buy Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound?

Overall, I loved Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It’s a well-crafted, short but sweet tribute to Ninja Gaiden’s origins packed with superb gameplay, beautiful pixel-art graphics, and tough but fair difficulty.

Not to mention, it has a fair amount of replay value, with plenty of post-game unlockables and challenges to discover. Granted, it’s not entirely perfect.

Its simple plot purely exists to get players to the next action scene ASAP, the gear system feels restrictive as you can only equip a very limited number of items and weapons, and there are a couple of bugs that caused me to suffer unintentional, unfair deaths like making certain platforms invisible.

If you grew up playing the original NES Ninja Gaiden games in the 1980s and 1990s, or you just love action platforms that will test your skills to their limit like Hollow Knight or Cuphead, then this game is a must-have.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound releases July 31 on Xbox, PlayStation and Steam.