Ninja Gaiden is having a renaissance. The last mainline entry was originally released more than a decade ago, but by the end of 2025, there will be three new Ninja Gaiden titles. Two are 3D: Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a modern-day remaster of Ninja Gaiden II released earlier this year, and Ninja Gaiden 4, co-developed by PlatinumGames and set to release in October. But there’s a new 2D game, too. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a retro-styled side-scrolling platformer from Dotemu and the developers of Blasphemous — and it absolutely rips.
In Ragebound, you play as Kenji Mozu, a young ninja trained by usual series star Ryu Hayabusa. Early on, Kenji’s body becomes inhabited by the spirit of Kumori, a member of the rival Black Spider clan who adds throwable kunai weapons to Kenji’s arsenal and is briefly playable in special sections.
As you jump and climb through levels, you’ll have to take on hordes of enemies that impede your path. Many enemies are strategically placed to just get in your way, forcing you to find clever ways to dodge them or take them out.
Most enemies can be killed with one hit, but a few bigger ones take a few attacks to wear down and are better at standing their ground. However, you can get a superpowered strike that defeats those bigger foes in one shot by killing nearby enemies with glowing auras around them. A turquoise glow means you need to do a sword kill, while a magenta glow means you need to toss a kunai at them. These glowy enemies are also strategically placed throughout levels to generally set up a one-two punch of killing a small fry and a big guy, and nailing the dance of taking out enemies in the right order is extremely satisfying.
The bosses are typically giant monstrosities that are thrilling to fight, and they can be pretty tough. Fortunately, the game has an Assist Mode you can activate whenever you want to tweak the difficulty, which I often used to turn down the damage so I could persevere through a battle for a little bit longer or just to help me get unstuck.
I loved exploring the game’s levels, which are drawn with gorgeous pixel art and take place in some creative locales, like a pirate cave and a construction site. There are also hidden collectibles, including scarabs you can use to unlock upgrades and scrolls that open up extra-hard secret stages. And the soundtrack is filled with heavy guitar, synth, and drums to make you feel like a ’90s-era action hero.
If I had one nitpick, it’s the game’s story and writing, which isn’t as strong as the moment-to-moment action. It’s just weird to see Kumori, a badass ninja lady, say “good grief” to kick off one of the levels. But it’s not that big of a deal; this is a game with a sequence where you ride a jet ski to escape a military boat, after all. In a way, the weak writing adds to the generally campy vibe.
In a moment where there are a lot of great retro action games to play, Ragebound shows what makes the Ninja Gaiden series special. After my nearly six-hour playthrough, I feel like I might like other Ninja Gaiden games — and even if I don’t, Ragebound stands out well on its own.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
