The last time a proper 2D Ninja Gaiden game was released, it was back in 1991 with Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. Thirty four years later, we finally have word from publisher Dotemu that a new 2D Ninja Gaiden game is being developed by The Game Kitchen, known for making Blasphemous. As such, there were two obvious questions to ask regarding Ninja Gaiden Ragebound being in development. First, will it feel like those games of old did, with all of the charm, tight controls, and engaging level design that they exhibited? And…will it be as challenging?
With great thanks to Dotemu for granting preview access, we at Seasoned Gaming were able to dive in and discover the answers to these questions for ourselves. Granted, the playable portion was but a taste of the full game, which is due to release on July 31st. But the two answers we found are: first, no, it does not feel like the old Ninja Gaiden games…and we’ll get into my impressions on what that means in a moment. Second, yes, the brutal difficulty remains. Now, let’s sneak in to the dojo and break this all down.
The preview build allowed for a few select stages to be played, giving a taste of some of the aforementioned difficulty along with the gameplay changes. And, as for those changes, I don’t think anyone really expected things to not evolve. Even though it’s a game based on an older 2D experience, it still needed to be modernized. But what does that mean? Well, the tight controls remain, but the feel is different due to the many changes in the gameplay systems. The best way I can describe the feel is a blend of Strider and Shinobi, and that’s obviously not a bad thing by any metric, if done well.
After playing through the handful of stages, including the “Hard Level” stage that unlocks after going through the rest of the stages, my impressions are that The Game Kitchen potentially have a fantastically well-designed game on their hands. There will be some that are put off by the incredible challenge, which is completely keeping in tradition with Ninja Gaiden games. There will be others, however, that are troubled with the new feel of the game play.
In the original Ninja Gaiden games, normal enemies were defeated with one hit, and it was their placement that you had to overcome. In Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, many enemies take several hits to defeat, but your attacks are unleashed very quickly (again, think Strider), so you can defeat most enemies in a second or two. There are other enemies that take quite a few hits, but with the caveat that you may defeat them in one hit if you use a move called a Hypercharge attack. The way you earn said Hypercharge attack comes from using specific moves on certain enemies, creating a puzzle-like aspect that feels incredible when you get the hang of it, but it is something that you first need to accept before its brilliance shines.
Also, you don’t play as Ryu, who is a staple in the series. Instead, going with the “gaiden” part of Ninja Gaiden, you play as an apprentice of Ryu, named Kenji, as he embarks on a quest which takes place during the events of the first NES game. As Ryu sets off to America, Kenji stays behind to take care of some business around the dojo and beyond. At some point, he encounters another character, named Kumori, and she becomes playable from time to time to assist Kenji.
Even from the tutorial at the very beginning, one thing is quite apparent: this game is tough! However, it’s challenging in the good way, meaning that once you figure out how to overcome an obstacle, you’ll rarely have an issue with it again. There is a lot of skill involved, and one of the things that you’ll have to do is be aware of the enemy types all around you, more so than in many other games. The reason for this is because you’ll need to figure out which move to use against certain glowing enemies in order to earn your Hypercharge move.
The game loves to fill the screen with a couple of enemies that limit space and take a large number of hits to take down, while also presenting glowing enemies that can grant a Hypercharge if taken down with a certain move, giving a “rock-paper-scissors” type of feel to encounters. Depending on the color of the glowing enemy, you must use a specific move to grant a Hypercharge, or else you’ll be without it. You may opt to charge up a Hypercharge at any time at the expense of some of your health, but that’s obviously not ideal, even with the many health-giving items liberally spread throughout.
The difficulty likely will not eclipse the original NES trilogy for a few reasons. First, those aforementioned health items are everywhere. Next, you can take a surprising amount of damage before you perish compared to what you may think. When you couple those two factors together, you won’t mind the occasional mistake in your flow through each stage. And, on top of that, you are granted a move, called a “Guillotine Boost,” which will become your crutch throughout. It is essentially an aerial attack, but it lets you bounce off of any obstacle, allowing you to become a Ninja Mario of sorts to escape a number of hellish issues going on beneath you.
With that said, the game is still quite challenging, and its varied engagements will absolutely keep you on your toes. The preview only had a precious few stages, so it’s tough to say how varied the backgrounds and enemy variety will be in the full release, but there is enough in the preview build to be quite excited with what is already present.
The Game Kitchen has a potential hit on their hands with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. If the full game can keep things varied and keep the action tight within its challenging engagements, then this is a game many of us will be coming back to time and again. With Dotemu also releasing Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Absolum later this year, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound will likely be a part of a triple threat of blockbuster must-play experiences from Dotemu. On July 31st, it’s go ninja, go!
