The original trilogy ofNinja Gaidengames on the NES are perhaps some of the most notoriously difficult action platformers, both of the era and of all time. Unsurprisingly, one of the larger questions surrounding the upcomingNinja Gaiden: Rageboundwas how the title would handle its difficulty.Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s developer, The Game Kitchen, has already proven itself capable of delivering demanding action platformers thanks to bothBlasphemousandBlasphemous 2, but there’s a certain expectation for a new 2DNinja Gaidento deliver a tough-as-nails experience that harkens back to the original games. Thankfully,Ninja Gaiden: Rageboundis poised to deliver an adequate but fair challenge.
After going hands-on with an early preview build ofNinja Gaiden: Ragebound, we were left with a sense of the game having smoothed out some of the originalNESNinja Gaiden’s rough edges in favor of emphasizing flow in both its combat and platforming. As it turns out, this sensation was completely by design, with The Game Kitchen aiming to arm players with the tools they would need for anythingNinja Gaiden: Rageboundcould throw at them, but also wanting to verify that it honored the spirit of the original games in the franchise. During our conversation with The Game Kitchen following that hands-on session,Ragebounddirector David Jaumandreu spoke at length about how the studio attempts to strike a balance between accessibility and challenge.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Poses an Adequate Challenge With Clever Ways to Subvert Difficulty
The Game Kitchen is no stranger to challenging games, as evidenced by the studio’s work on theMetroidvania/Soulslike hybridBlasphemousand its sequel. But those games' slower, more methodical pacing is a far cry from the speed and fluidity ofNinja Gaiden: Ragebound, which allowed the team to strike a balance between the challenge that old-schoolNinja Gaidenfans expect and a more forgiving experience that’s friendly to newcomers. Ultimately, the solution was to provide players with a low skill floor for entry, but a high skill ceiling for mastery. Jaumandreu notes:
“Our goal was to make the game accessible to everyone while still delivering the legendary challenge that fans expect from the series. We aimed for a low entry barrier with classic, immediate hands-on gameplay, but with a high skill ceiling for those who seek mastery…We focused on designing challenges that feel tough but fair, pushing players to improve while ensuring that every failure feels like a learning opportunity rather than a punishment.”
To achieve this balance, Jaumandreu remarks that it required “…A lot of iteration and playtesting” and that the solution was to provide players with “a wide range of ninja moves” that allowed them “to tackle challenging platforming sequences while seamlessly slicing through enemies along the way.” This included the addition of a secondary, platforming-focused protagonist in series newcomer Kumori, as well as a brand-new one-hit kill attack against stronger enemies with the Hypercharge ability. So whileNinja Gaiden: Rageboundis still undoubtedly a2DNinja Gaidengame, the expanded toolkit at the player’s disposal for both platforming and combat makes the game less about the trial-and-error that defined the NES trilogy and more about learning when to apply the right ability to the situation.
