NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound

I went into Ragebound with the kind of cautious optimism that gets you burned. The Game Kitchen is one of the most craft-obsessed studios working in pixel art right now, but translating someone else's legacy IP is a different beast than building your own dark mythology from scratch. Within the first stage, that caution dissolved. This is a studio that understood, deeply, what the original NES trilogy was actually about: not punishment, but momentum. The feeling of moving so fast and cleanly that your hands outpace your thinking. The setup is a side story running parallel to the 1988 original. Ryu Hayabusa has left for America, and his protege Kenji Mozu is left holding the village against a demon incursion. Combat opens simply enough, katana slashes and the Guillotine Boost, a well-timed jump that lets you bounce off enemies and projectiles, chaining movement into violence in a way that quickly becomes second nature. Most enemies fall in one hit, which keeps the pace electric. Colored enemy variants demand specific techniques before they drop, and beating them triggers a hypercharged state where Kenji tears through everything in sight. It's a loop that rewards aggression and reading the screen rather than cautious circling. What separates Ragebound from a straight retro callback is Kumori, the Black Spider Clan kunoichi whose soul fuses with Kenji's after an ambush gone wrong. Melee is Kenji's domain; ranged kunai attacks and demon-realm platforming sections belong to Kumori. Her exclusive challenge segments, the demon altars that appear within levels, are timed, demanding, and genuinely exhilarating. They feel like 30-second distillations of everything the game does best. Collectibles fund trinkets purchased from Muramasa that modify secondary abilities, and each stage carries its own challenge objectives, a per-level ranking system that will have completionists running stages twice without feeling like grinding. Secret levels, unlocked through hidden collectibles, are where the game stops being gracious entirely. The critique worth hearing is that the upgrade system feels undercooked next to the polish everywhere else. Wall and ceiling grabbing, faithful to the NES originals, can fight you under pressure in ways that feel like an inherited flaw rather than an intentional design choice. The story, while enthusiastically staged with cinematic cutscenes that echo Blasphemous's signature art, loses its nerve in the second half, leaning on familiar beats when the dual-protagonist setup had room for something stranger. Kotaku noted the storytelling doesn't quite match the mechanical bravery, and that rings true. For players coming primarily for lore, it's serviceable. For players coming for feel, it's close to flawless. Composer Sergio de Prado built the soundtrack alongside contributors from the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy, and you can hear that lineage. The score keeps pace with the action without ever overwhelming it, sitting in that precise register where music and movement sync up without you noticing until something goes quiet. The pixel artistry, building directly on what The Game Kitchen achieved in both Blasphemous entries, sets a bar for the genre. Fluid character animation, specific and readable enemy designs, blood that splatters with genuine conviction. A Metacritic score of 84 and 93% positive Steam user reviews reflect a game that landed cleanly.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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