Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

While the Ninja Gaiden franchise is perhaps better-known these days for its challenging Spectacle Fighter games, in years prior it was an acclaimed series of nails-hard Action-Platformers. With the 2025 release of Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, the franchise finally returns to those roots, helmed by Blasphemous series developer The Game Kitchen.

Apparently taking place during the events of the first Ninja Gaiden game on Nintendo Entertainment System, Ragebound follows the story of Kenji Mozu, a ninja trainee under series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa, who investigates a demon attack on his village suspecting that it was orchestrated by the rival Black Spider ninja clan, but discovers too late that this was the first step of a plot by the demons to free the Demon Lord and unleash his armies on Earth. Left with no other options, Kenji joins forces with Black Spider assassin Kumori, who becomes somehow spiritually linked to Kenji as the pair work together to prevent the demons’ incursion into their world.

If there’s one place where you can really see The Game Kitchen’s fingerprints on this game, it is the visuals, with absolutely gorgeous 2D pixel art with fluid animation for both characters and backgrounds, and some truly creative character designs, especially for the game’s grotesque demonic enemies, with these visuals being backed by an appropriately fast-paced synthesized soundtrack that’s decent though not especially memorable.

Unfortunately, this excellent presentation comes with one major caveat on Nintendo Switch. Unlike all other versions of the game which run at a fluid 60FPS, the Nintendo Switch version only runs at 30FPS. And given the fast-paced intense action this game contains, this can absolutely be a liability.

When it comes to the gameplay, Ragebound makes some really clever choices that at times call back to the classic games while adapting to more modern sensibilities. The result is a game that doesn’t really play like the original Ninja Gaiden games so much as it sometimes pays homage to them.

Like his teacher, Kenji can jump, slash with a sword, and freely cling to and climb walls and now ceilings and the underside of platforms. He also has a new dodge move, as well as a “guillotine boost” that allows him to bounce off projectiles and enemies while doing a bit of damage. What’s more, defeating glowing enemies or spending a portion of his life bar can enable Kenji to get a one-time powered-up attack to take out stronger enemies or shielded enemies in one hit. These changes bring the gameplay of Ragebound a bit closer to what we saw in The Messenger, though the two games still feel quite different.

When Kenji joins forces with Kumori, he gains the ability to use projectile sub-weapons at the expense of a bit of a magic meter, with this echoing the sub-weapons of the Nintendo Entertainment System games. However, the game does a twist on this in that glowing enemies can be colored blue or purple, requiring you to hit them with that character’s weapon type to receive the powered-up attack it can unleash. This means even in the midst of a frenetic battle, you need to be mindful of which attacks you use to make the most out of your situation.

What’s more, at specific spots Kumori can enter a demon realm for a limited amount of time to see paths unavailable to Kenji, taking them to unlock doors or blast away obstructions so the pair can proceed. In addition, as you play through the levels, the pair have a back-and forth banter as they bicker with each other over their mutual dislike for one another, which can be amusing.

When everything is working well, this can make for some really compelling gameplay where players have a wide variety of moves that can potentially get them out of trouble, but can also be facing hordes of enemies that will require them to make good use of that varied skill set. The guillotine boost in particular really comes in clutch when you’re surrounded by swarms of enemies and want to get through without taking a hit. In particular, this takes the frustration of earlier games where a flying enemy would knock you off of a tiny platform into a pit and turns that enemy into an opportunity to ensure you make the jump to the next platform.

And thankfully the limited lives of the original game are gone, with a more modern checkpoint system as well. And there are now also achievements for those looking for more of a challenge, as well as equippable upgrades that can give a small enhancements to your move set, or add additional challenges.

Unfortunately, there are some flaws here too. Sometimes the hit detection seems to miss a step and your attack doesn’t connect for some reason. Sometimes the attack button doesn’t seem to register at all. And the game frustratingly makes a mid-air press of the jump button into an alternate way to do a guillotine boost, which can mess you up if you were trying to do a normal jump after landing but pressed the button just a smidge too early.

Also, I have to say a stage that has you riding a motorcycle can be particularly infuriating because bumps in the road can send you briefly into the air, stealing an opportunity to jump that may be absolutely vital to cross an upcoming gap, and the stage already seems to limit your horizontal movement. As cool as this stage may have been conceptually, I was delighted to finally be done with it.

Overall, I think Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a solid Action-Platformer, and a worthy successor to the classic Ninja Gaiden games, even if it doesn’t play quite exactly how those games did. It retains the challenging gameplay of those titles without seeming unfair… except where occasional gameplay issues I outlined above pop up. This plus the lower framerates on Nintendo Switch hold back this game from being quite as good as it could have been, but even so this is still absolutely worth a look for anyone who enjoys Action-Platformers.

tl;dr – Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is an Action-Platformer inspired by the classic Nintendo Entertainment System entries in the series, but taking the gameplay in new directions. For the most part, this makes for a game with plenty of variety and an absolutely gorgeous presentation, but occasional gameplay issues and lower framerates on Nintendo Switch hold this game back a bit. It’s still absolutely worth playing for Action-Platformer fans though, especially players who crave a challenge.

Grade: B+

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Prior to release, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s creators warned Nintendo fans that this game would perform at a reduced 30FPS on Nintendo Switch, but were also quick to say that the game would take advantage of the increased power of the Nintendo Switch 2. But… what does that mean, exactly?

I’ll answer that right now: It doesn’t mean much. No improvements to the framerate or any gameplay changes. The only change I notice is a minor improvement to the loading times – it took 22 seconds to load up the game on Nintendo Switch, and another 10 to load into a level, and on the Nintendo Switch 2, those times have been reduced to 11 and 9.

So for the most part, the biggest change you’ll see when playing this game on Nintendo Switch 2 is loading up the game faster. But… since the game isn’t particularly slow to load in the first place, that’s not saying much. Maybe this game will get a Nintendo Switch 2 patch at some later time, but until then, don’t expect this game to differ much at all when played on Nintendo Switch 2.

tl;dr – Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is an Action-Platformer inspired by the classic Nintendo Entertainment System entries in the series, but taking the gameplay in new directions. For the most part, this makes for a game with plenty of variety and an absolutely gorgeous presentation, but occasional gameplay issues and lower framerates on Nintendo Switch hold this game back a bit. It’s still absolutely worth playing for Action-Platformer fans though, especially players who crave a challenge.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Platformer, Best Action Game

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