Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound was provided by Dotemu for review. Thank you!
While I play a lot of modern games, I enjoy going back to the classics here and there. There are games that are so heavily inspired by them that instead of trying to make something brand new, they focus on enhancing and modernizing them. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound takes the NES classic and puts a modern spin on it with enhanced mechanics, a gorgeous coat of paint, and quality-of-life improvements. In the end, it creates a fantastic experience that makes me wish more platformers were like this, even with some minor flaws.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound follows Kenji Mozu and Kumori, a Hayabusa Ninja and Black Spider Ninja, respectively, who are forced to work together to stop the Demon Lord from making its way out of hell. While both are on opposing sides, our protagonists will be forced to work together to save all of humanity and stop demons from taking over.
The story isn't the main focus of the game, but I did enjoy the dynamic between Kenji and Kumori. Their clans are enemies of each other, which makes them foes, but being forced to team up and face the threat together saw them start to warm up. It was a bit heartwarming seeing them grow on each other, and there were some twists I didn't see coming, both with them and heading into the climax of the story. I was pleasantly surprised, and while it took me around 6 hours to beat the game, the story was quite solid for what it offered during that time.
The soundtrack also deserves special mention, since it's fantastic. It kept me pumped up as I ran through each level, and it combines nicely with the sound of enemies being sliced in half. It's hard for me to get into soundtracks of games, I tend to get used to playing without sound because of how I grew up, but as soon as I heard the beat, I found it hard not to play while listening in.
If there's one thing developer The Game Kitchen has consistently wowed me with, it's how they animate their metroidvanias. Blasphemous 1 and 2 shocked me with how detailed and fluid each character and their animations were. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound continues that trend. Seeing how Kenji and Kumori run or attack, and how the enemies fall and blood splatters out of them, just feels like straight eye-candy. Paired with the gorgeous pixel-art settings and great variety of enemy designs, there's a lot to love about the visuals that I just adore.
As for the gameplay, it really does feel like a modernized version of the original Ninja Gaiden. They are both 2D platformers where we have to kill enemies coming at us, while climbing walls and hanging on ceilings to get from one side of the level to the other. Most enemies can be sliced down in one hit, which I love, and each map is filled with enemies coming left and right and small platforming challenges, so there is never a dull moment.
The back-to-back action was so satisfying, and it made me want to go replay levels I had already completed. It was great slicing one enemy in front, then turning around to slice another, jumping and slicing a few more, and racking up a kill streak to try keeping the combo going as long as I could. The slicing, throwing kunai, and air attack complement each other, and all feel natural. It's definitely an easy to learn, difficult to master situation, and I kept on wanting more.
We also have Hypercharged Attacks, which can slice some of the more powerful enemies that would normally require multiple strikes or have shields. Getting powered up for these attacks requires killing specific glowing enemies, whether it be blue (slicing or air attack), pink (throwing kunai), or by sacrificing some of your health. Having to manage which attack to use, planning, and watching these attacks slice the powerful or shielded enemies in half is quite gratifying, and I appreciate that I have the option to sacrifice some health to power up in case I accidentally use the wrong attack or just miss my strike.
The boss battles were also equally engaging. Each one looked and felt different from each other, forcing me to utilize different strategies to take them down.
However, there were moments of frustration. I found two issues with controls while going through levels and fighting bosses. There were times that I would latch on to walls and ceilings automatically, which screwed up my platforming, and changing directions when dodging didn't always register. Sometimes, I would roll ahead instead of behind and smack into an enemy or boss. The platforming and controls are otherwise solid, but these problems crept up enough times to frustrate me a little.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound makes the most of its short run time, with the experience consistently changing. No two levels looked or felt the same, making it feel fresh and exciting all throughout. Combined with the great level design, it was impossible to not feel engaged throughout the whole game. This is a clear example of prioritizing quality over quantity. I would rather have a quality 6 hour experience then a mediocre 30 hour one, and that makes this game perfect for me.
Each level has a set of challenges and collectibles, which contribute to the rank you can get, ranging from E to S rank. We can also unlock Secret Ops levels and head to the shop to purchase trinkets and new attacks to augment our abilities. The upgrades and ability changes are a nice touch, but I never felt compelled to augment or change the abilities I had.
These, along with a Hard Mode that unlocks once you beat the game, add a nice bit of replayability. There are neat changes to Hard Mode that made some levels and bosses more difficult, instead of just giving everyone more health or higher attack. Some enemies are faster, others throw more shuriken, and boss battles have different stage effects. It feels more personalized, and I appreciate that.
It's a really solid game, and one I very much enjoyed playing through, especially on the Steam Deck.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is the perfect fit for the Steam Deck. It looks amazing on the smaller screen and should be a great fit for this kind of gameplay. However, for those playing on an OLED Steam Deck, getting to a solid 90 FPS throughout will be tough. There are areas in levels, with some in act 1 and act 2 that stand out, which can either drop framerate a bit or cause battery drain to spike. This led to drops to the 70 FPS range and around 16W battery drain. It's not the most extreme, but it's way higher than it should be (normal range at 90 FPS was around 9W).
Setting to 60 FPS fixes this problem, bringing battery drain down to around 9.5W and keeping a solid 60 FPS.
This also brings the general gameplay battery drain down to around 7W - 8W, which will ultimately increase battery life by an extra hour or so overall. Other than that, the game feels and plays perfectly on the Steam Deck, and there isn't much else to say about it:
The game has a specific accessibility tab where we can change hit flashes, controller vibration, and an assist mode that allows us to change game speed, damage, and Hypercharged time. We can also change language, font type (including a dyslexic-friendly font), and toggle gore and blood.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound brings back the classic Ninja Gaiden gameplay in a modern way that I fell in love with. The gorgeous world and animations mix with the precise platforming and one-hit combat that I couldn't get enough of. Even with a short runtime, each level and boss fight felt distinct and enjoyable. Some of the dodging and climbing got in the way of my fights, and I didn't utilize upgrades much, but it was a ton of fun where quality over quantity goes a long way.
On top of that, it's a gem to play on the Steam Deck. Just switching to 60 FPS fixes the minor issues I found at 90, and lowers the battery drain considerably. This is a perfect game to take on the go.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a fantastic action-platformer that modernizes and enhances the classic NES gameplay, and it's near flawless on the Steam Deck.
