If you’ve never touched a Ninja Gaiden game before, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is the most welcoming hell you could ask for. Between the surprise stealth-release of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black in January, the upcoming October release of Ninja Gaiden 4, and this week’s new 2D adventure, fans are finally feasting after years of starving.
Developed by The Game Kitchen (Blasphemous) and published by Dotemu, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a stylish, addictive throwback to the series’ 8-bit roots, fused with a modern design philosophy that prizes replayability, flow-state combat, and just the right amount of punishment. It’s easily my favorite entry in the Ninja Gaiden saga to date.
A Tale of Two Ninjas
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound picks up after the events of the original NES trilogy, introducing a new protagonist: Kenji Mozu, a rookie ninja freshly trained by series veteran Ryu Hayabusa. When Ryu sets out to find his father, Jo, who disappears during the games prologue, Kenji is forced to defend the Hayabusa Village from a surprise invasion of demonic fiends.
But he’s not alone. Kumori, a cheeky assassin from Ryu’s arch nemesis Black Ninja Spider Clan, finds herself pulled into the same fight. After a brutal ambush, Kenji and Kumori are captured and ultimately fused together through an ancient weapon-binding ritual. Now stuck sharing a body, their uneasy alliance fuels a clever, character-driven story full of sharp banter and ideological clashes.
Kenji is all heart and naivety. Kumori? Ruthless with a tongue as sharp as her kunai. Their dynamic turns what could’ve been a stock “avenge the clan” plot into something special. This ultimately made Kumori my favorite series heroine, with her unique personality matching her deadly beauty. She was especially refreshing for a series filled with heroines who often lack depth beyond absurdly jiggly, hollow dolls of fan service.
Looks and Sounds: Incredible
The Game Kitchen’s pixel art is as sharp as ever, even if it’s missing some of the unique background ideas or the enemy variety that made its previous games stand apart. Every slash, every dodge, every death is animated with painstaking detail. From jungle temples to crumbling sewers and pirate caves, each level offers a vibrant, deadly backdrop for your ninja carnage.
The music? Absolute fire: a genre-blending mix of ‘80s synth, traditional Japanese instrumentation, and high-octane action cues. Bonus points for roping in Ninja Gaiden NES soundtrack legends Keiji Yamagishi, Ryuichi Niita, and Kaori Nakabai to work with Blasphemous composer Sergio de Prado. The result is an atmosphere that’s retrofuturistic and cinematic all at once.
Classic Combat With a Modern Edge
At first glance, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound seems forgiving. Most enemies drop with a slash or two. Movement is snappy. Controls are crisp. But that’s just the bait.
Before long, the screen floods with fiends, kamikaze skulls, shuriken-tossing ninjas, and stage hazards straight from platforming hell. It’s glorious chaos, and unlike Ninja Gaiden 2 Black’s 3D brawls, Ragebound demands a different kind of precision timing and memorization — not to mention a surprising amount of finesse — to match its 2D-platforming design.
Each level is loaded with optional challenges, including kill counts, no-damage runs, and style-based objectives, with every performance feeding into a ranked score system. Secret levels, collectible items, and optional difficulty modifiers further crank up the replayability.
While the game gets tough, it can also be generous, with multiple checkpoints refilling your health, and health orbs dotted strategically throughout the level. This leaves a more balanced experience that may leave some hardcore series masochists disappointed.
Want more pain? The returning Muramasa shop lets you purchase difficulty-enhancing talismans that disable healing, increase enemy damage, and strip you of safety nets in exchange for higher rankings. Other talismans provide helpful buffs, like making checkpoints completely refill your health, or making your “hypercharge” state (more on that shortly) easier to achieve. You can also purchase additional ranged weapons or screen-clearing “Ragebound” arts at the shop.
These clever design decisions ultimately create an experience that is accessible for series newcomers while preserving the punishing difficulty that veterans expect from a Ninja Gaiden experience.
Two Styles, One Soul
Kenji and Kumori each bring unique tools to the table. Kenji’s swordplay is lightning fast and built around a hypercharge mechanic that trades health for devastating power. He’s all forward momentum, bouncing off enemies, carving paths through crowds, and slicing up obstacles.
Kumori, meanwhile, uses ranged tools and ninja arts. Her main tool is her kunai, which she can toss in one of four directions. She also has various Spider Clan weapons she can equip, from chakrams that loop back in boomerang arcs to a kama that mimics Castlevania’s classic axe.
Managing Kumori’s “spirit” meter adds another layer of strategy, especially when it comes to handling bosses or puzzles. Over time, you build up your Ragebound art, a devastating attack that can clear a screen full of enemies or even stop time, depending on which art you equip or discover in certain levels. You manage these special abilities through the shop before missions.
A majority of the time, you’ll be playing as Kenji, but you’ll occasionally switch to Kumori, who exists in a separate dimension, to progress through levels and solve certain puzzles. Regularly swapping between the two’s abilities in real-time makes combat not just reactive, but rhythmic. And when it clicks? It’s sublime.
Final Thoughts: A Near-Perfect Revival
With a brisk seven- to eight-hour runtime, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound doesn’t overstay its welcome. If anything, I wish it were longer. Some longtime fans may find the more balanced difficulty a bit tame, but for most, this will feel like the Goldilocks zone between old-school punishment and modern approachability.
Whether you’re here for the tight mechanics, the sharp pixel art, or the emotional pull of a cursed ninja buddy-cop duo, Ragebound delivers. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a Ninja Gaiden game in years, and serves as a reminder of why this series still matters.
Score: 9.5/10
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, developed by The Game Kitchen and published by Dotemu, releases on July 31, 2025, for PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch 1 & 2. MSRP: $24.99 (with a 10% launch discount). Version reviewed: PC.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided by the publisher.
Donovan is a lifelong gamer with a love for fast-paced, single-player action games—especially Devil May Cry, Metroidvanias, indies, and action RPGs. He’s also an “advanced scrub” at fighting games and will play just about anything fun. Donovan is passionate about seeing more diverse characters and creators in the industry—or at least better hair options for Black people. With over a decade in journalism, he joined The Punished Backlog in 2023 to write more about what he loves. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @dono_harrell.
