Ninja Gaiden: RageBound (2025)
One of my earlier memories from childhood was the Ninja craze of the 80’s, thanks to the Karate Kid movies. I actually ended up taking karate for a couple years at a very young age. There was an all nighter event at our dojo and I remember staying up late playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES, and I always can recall the memory so distinctly whenever I think of the series. RageBound brings back that very tight and fun sidescrolling platforming to modern day gaming, which so desperately needs it.
While we are all familiar with Ryu Hayabusa from the series, this game actually brings Kenji Mozu to the forefront. He is Ryu’s protege and offers to take care of the problem at hand while Ryu heads to the United States of America to take care of avenging his father’s death that takes place in the prologue of the game. I found the 1988 time setting interesting, since this takes place during the original Ninja Gaiden NES game series and brings it all together in a very nice cohesive package.
Kenji sets off clearing the temple and the village of all the demon invaders, as the barrier between earth and the demonic realm has been shattered, allowing all sorts of hellspawn to try and take over earth. He ends up meeting up with a Black Spider Clan ninja called Kumori when both are nearly killed and they merge their souls together, this ultimately becomes the majority of the game, and they end up taking on the dark demon king together.
What became apparent very quickly is the relative easiness of the game, especially compared with the original. My own playstyle is very loose and less reserved, I rush into battle quickly often without a plan and rely on my own skill level and reactions to get me through a level, and that tactic really didn’t fail at all. The only times I ended up dying was mostly when I fell into a pit, or just didn’t have eyes on my health meter and took way too many hits in succession without parrying.
I will say the “Guillotine Boost” which is essentially a double jump/parry movie similar to Cuphead makes the game a near cakewalk. I exclusively used it for large sections of the levels at the end of the game and it became apparent to me that I could just basically bounce off the heads of all the enemies without killing them and breeze through the level. It’s a quick and dirty way through it, but it can be done. Luckily I have enough love for the game and enjoyed all the enemy encounters enough to actually take down all my foes, but that option is always there in case the play gets a bit too hectic.
The game only really gave me trouble in the Boss fights, which, if you know me, you know I absolutely abhor boss battles in games. For some reason I have a very hard time timing things and feel a bit too overwhelmed with the pounding frantic music along with the amount of things being thrown at me and on screen during these climactic encounters. I’ve been trying to get better at it, but the sheer amount of difficulty spikes takes a fun experience and turns it into a frustrating slog that kills all momentum in my eyes.
Luckily, with a bit of perseverance, I was able to get past most of the bosses within a few tries… a couple others though, that’s a different story altogether. One boss in particular took over an hour. I know people talk about how good they feel once they take down a very tough to beat boss, but for myself, I end up just feeling like I wasted a huge amount of my time, and it really sours the entire game experience because of how frustrated I get when the game comes to a stand still to introduce a fight that usually has very cheap feeling AI and mechanics.
The game itself stands out as a breath of fresh air in an industry that is chock-full of remakes and remasters. RageBound doesn’t feel like a nostalgic cash grab, but instead feels like a revival of the series, and brings an early staple of gaming back into the forefront with several Ninja games showing up out of nowhere this year. I miss Ninja Gaiden, as it always had that aura of difficulty that one had to master, just like a ninja. And we all need a more serious, but not too serious throwback style of game.
Ragebound incorporates many modern quality of life improvements to the series too, with enough checkpoints and infinite respawns that respects the player’s time. One I greatly appreciated after some of those boss fights, and enjoyed a challenging but fair play through. More games need to take the lesson here of making the game accessible to a wide audience, but keep it grounded and challenging too. It’s a fine line to draw, but if it’s able to be done, its results into a fantastic experience. I don’t really have anything negative to say about the game, other than while this game takes place in 1988, the modern writing of 2020’s does show up a bit. Too many times Kenji sounds like a spoiled brat, and the constant reassurance to the player of “we got this” shows up in an era that that phrase didn’t exist. It feels very anachronistic and out of place, and it’s one of my biggest issues with modern writing.
Ninja Gaiden RageBound is absolutely worth the purchase price and while it might be on the smaller side of what we are used to lately, that actually is a great thing. It allows us to encounter a story that is exactly what the title means. Gaiden actually means “side story” and that’s exactly what this is, and it’s awesome. I highly recommend RageBound for those who want a nice challenge, but don’t want to be stuck on a game for a month. It’ll keep you engaged the entire time and is a great experience from beginning to end.