What were the odds that two old school ninja-centric franchises would get gorgeous contemporary 2D reboots within the span of a few weeks of each other?

I recently spent a few days blitzing through both “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound” by Koei Tecmo and “Shinobi: Art of Vengence” by Sega. First up? “Ninja Gaiden.” It’s developed by The Game Kitchen, the makers of “Blasphemous,” and that raises the bar on my expectations.

Both “Blasphemous” games are excellent Metroidvania Soulslikes with heavy metal vibes, kick-ass art, gothpunk enemies, and epic boss battles. It’s also a quite brutal game that’s not unfair, but challenging. With “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound” they might have gone a little too far bringing back the punishing difficulty of the NES games, however.

Halfway through, “Ragebound” suddenly goes berserk, and the difficulty spikes for the rest of the game. For me, this was a signal that I’m too old for this shit, and I just lowered the amount of damage you would receive in the accessibility menu. This was a godsend because only the real sickos would bash their heads against 1,000 enemies in a row without a checkpoint.

The incentive for killing everything, not getting hit, beating levels without dying, and other preposterous challenges is a better score and letter grade at the end. Which, in 2025, is not enough anymore. At a certain point, you’ve seen every enemy in “Ragebound,” and can just dodge roll past them because there isn’t any reason to bother anymore.

There’s only four directions to aim your kunai and sword, there’s no currency dropped from regular enemies, and half of the charms you can buy from the store in between missions are the classic From Software troll ones where damage is tripled, but you get a bonus. It’s not worth purchasing them let alone combing each level to farm for them.

The first half of “Ragebound” leaves a terrific impression though. It’s obviously a beautiful pixel art style, there’s a killer soundtrack, and mixing classic Japanese ninjitsu with giant mechs is a great combo. I also really like the two characters that combine into one, as their strengths compliment each other by the time you get access to both.

The story is mediocre at best, but there’s an interesting narrative choice at the very end that made my ears perk up a little bit. The final boss fight is great too — props for that one.

But you can clear this entire game in three or four hours, so don’t expect that budget price to extend past the weekend if you do end up checking it out. It’s a fun, short time that becomes a little bit grating by the third act.

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“Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound” is available for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and PC.

Image Credit: “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound,” The Game Kitchen