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.
