Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a love letter to the series' NES roots

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a labor of love. You can see it in every pixel, animation and cutscene of the new 2D action game. It might be a surprise then that it's not the work of Team Ninja, the studio most closely associated with the series, but rather franchise newcomer The Game Kitchen. The Spanish studio is best known for its work on Blasphemous, a series of Souls-like Metroidvanias influenced by Spain’s own Andalusian culture and history with Roman Catholicism.

"I'm an '80s kid," says David Jaumandreu, game director and producer on Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. "I still have my copy of the first Ninja Gaiden in the basement." The way Jaumandreu tells it, Ragebound is a dream project for him and his coworkers. The Game Kitchen began working on the game about halfway through the production of Blasphemous 2. French publisher Dotemu, best known for releasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, approached the studio after seeing its work on Blasphemous.

There's some superficial visual overlap between Ragebound and Blasphemous 2, but when it comes to tone and gameplay, they could not be more dissimilar. Where Blasphemous 2 is dark and solemn, Ragebound leans into the franchise's origin as a product of the '80s. It's loud and frequently cheesy, but in an endearing way. It's also a lot faster paced, with levels that grade on how quickly you can complete them, often while taking as little damage as possible.

Early on in the project, one of the things the team knew they wanted was to include two protagonists, with one of them hailing from the Black Spider Clan. For the uninitiated, the Black Spider Clan has usually served as the antagonists of the Ninja Gaiden series. Ragebound is set during the events of the 1988 NES game. After series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa leaves for the US to avenge his father's death, demons descend on peaceful Hayabusa Village and it's up to newcomer Kenji Mozu to save his clan.

The Game Kitchen / Dotemu

"We thought if we're taking the series back to its roots, wouldn't it be cool to control one of the Black Spider Clan?" says Jaumandreu. "It's like when you get to make a Star Wars game, and you fantasize about controlling an Empire character." 

To the surprise of everyone at The Game Kitchen, both Dotemu and Koei Tecmo — Ninja Gaiden's original license holder — liked the idea. In the demo I played, I didn't see the exact circumstances of how Kenji and the Black Spider Clan's Kumori end up working together, but the gist of it is that they're forced to merge souls to survive a deadly encounter.

From what I can tell, outside of one mission that serves as an introduction to Kumori's skillset, you'll spend most of your time playing as Kenji in Ragebound. However, once the two of them join forces, Kenji's ability to engage enemies at range is greatly increased since he has access to Kumori's kunai.

The Game Kitchen / Dotemu

Moreover, some of the platforming sections I ran into during the demo required that I play as Kumori to progress through the level. The tricky thing about these segments is that Kumori can only manifest for a short time, a gauge above her head indicating how much time I had left with her before I was back to Kenji and had to try the section again. It's possible to extend her gauge by taking out enemies along the way. At least in the demo, Kumori's segments weren't too difficult, but I could also see how the structure could really test players — maybe not to the level of Hollow Knight's ">Path of Pain, say, but something close.

One of the things that stood out about both characters was how nimble they felt. Kenji can pogo off enemies and projectiles to gain additional height over his foes. During her platforming segments, Kumori can use her kunai to teleport across gaps and complete jumps Kenji can't. Most levels also include ceilings the two can climb along, and I frequently had to fight my way through multiple enemies to get to the other end. Speaking of combat, it's frenetic in a way that has mostly gone out of style in modern gaming. Outside of bosses, most enemies will fall after one or two slashes from Kenji's katana.

The Game Kitchen / Dotemu

Even in early combat scenarios, I often had to fight two or three enemies simultaneously, while dodging and deflecting ranged attacks along the way to my next target. Once the combat system started to click for me, it felt incredibly satisfying to bounce between enemies and use Kenji and Kumori's abilities in unison.

I left my hands-on with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound excited to play the final product. Of course, the ultimate test of the game will be how fans receive it. "We really put a lot of effort into creating a Ninja Gaiden game," says Jaumandreu. "We didn't want it to be a Blasphemous game with ninjas. We really hope when players get the controller, they feel at home with the series."

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound arrives this summer on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox.

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