After more than a decade in the shadows, the Ninja Gaiden series returns with not one, but three editions this year: the remaster of the unexpected Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, which has already seemed, Ninja Gaiden 4, and between the 2D Action Platform, which returns the series to its roots, Ninja Gaiden. While the very existence of this trio is a pleasant surprise, Ragebound is probably the biggest shock, because the series was not two -dimensional from the early 1990s. It is also provided by the programmer (The Game Kitchen) and the publisher (Dotem) who are fresh in Ninja Gaiden. However, they are not fresh at Pixel Art or Retro Return, and Ragebound seems to be in good hands that have real love for the series.
If you know a blasphemous series of games, you know that they produce one of the best -looking pixel plays today. Although the Ragebound Reveal trailer contained a lot of hand -drawn animation, everything I saw during the game is Pixel Art, from the title screen to the stage. I love a sense of depth that they form in the forest with layers of scrolling parallaxes, while the skills drift in the foreground, not taken over by the fact that all bloodshed happens just before them.
Speaking of bloodshed, defeated enemies are a satisfying splash of pixel red spray. Some even have many death animations. I also appreciate how, while some enemy corpses will fly outside the screen or simply explode the goo, others remain littered in your trace. Your own blood will spill from time to time.
Meanwhile, TMNE has published Dote: Revenge Shredder, Rage 4 streets, Metal Slug Tactics and the upcoming Marvel Cosmic invasion. It is a team with the history of reviving sleeping franchises and reviving them with fresh ideas and often dazzling art. It seems that this is the case with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound again. It looks like the 16-bit version of the NES trilogy and adds some fresh Ninja tricks.
One of them is to strengthen the guillotine, which allows you to bounce away from enemies and missiles with a spin attack. Not only does it get injured, but will prolong your time in the air, and therefore facilitate you cross wide areas without soil under your feet. Game Kitchen has prepared many platform challenges for you around this technique.
You will notice that some enemies have a glowing aura around them. They can be cut to load a hyperrage attack, which is a bit of immense enemies and obstacles with one hit. Hyperchars can be combined together if there are many glowing enemies nearby. So in many cases there is a better order in which the villains should be defeated by adding another layer that you can think about.
To make it clear, RageBound is a level based on level, not Metroidvania. You go through each area, cutting enemies, platform and fighting with the boss at the end – like a great thing for a bat demon, with whom I met in one of the first areas.
Fortunately, the checkpoints will prevent you from sending back to the beginning if you are defeated. At the end of the scene you will get a rating of results from D to S and you will receive a summary of the completion time, the number of killings, the Max combination, the collector’s found and all challenges you completed. Challenges can be such as not using injuries or killing a certain number of enemies with hyperdid attacks.
I want to mention the prologue, which sets the stage to Ragebound because it is amazing, but if you want to avoid any spoilers of the story, you can skip forward. * Stops* OK, reject the mind back to the first cutsceover, which opened the original Ninja Gaiden in 1989. Two ninja face to each other under the full moon. They fall forward, jump into the air and collide the swords. After a moment, return to Earth Red Ninja Falls and we find out that it was the father of Ryu Hayabusa. Most of us have never seen anything so movie in a video game before. This event began the search for revenge of Ryu.
In Prologue of Ragebound we play as the father of Ryu at moments leading to his duel. It’s so chilly! Since the jump, fans recognize updated versions of classic melodies, such as the one that emphasized the moment when Hayabusa San falls to the ground.
When the message returns to Ryu about what happened to his father, he goes out to America and all the events we witnessed in Ninja Gaiden I-III. After returning to its village, a portal opens, which sends demons spilling to our world. With the occupation of Ryu, it is to one of his students, Kenji to save the village and send this demonic threat. So it seems that Ragebound’s events play next to the original game. Literal Gaiden or side story. Clever.
Ryu is here in one of his 3D Ninja Gaiden costumes. Of course, it will turn into its original blue outfit for your journey to America, but it’s nice to see 3D costume rendered in pixel art.
Many players who appeared in the 1980s and the early 90s still have PTSD from those damn birds that first appeared at the level of 3-1 of the original Ninja Gaiden. They were an annoying combination of heads and Fleamen from Castlevania. My friends, I regret that I will inform: Buzzards have returned. Fortunately, they still take only one hit and seem easier to master here, at least at the early stages.
One of the most captivating fresh add -ons for the classic Ninja Gaiden formula is Kumori, Demonska, which will become your companion and will have several of her own tricks. If it happens on the demonic altar, Kumori can connect with it and switch to the obscure world, where hidden demonic individuals reveal and can be used to navigate environment and open what blocked the Kenji path. However, this is not a cooperation game, so Kenji will remain trapped in the altar, while Kumori plates about the demonic city. It also has special attacks that can facilitate Kenji in fighting.
In my low game I have already met really chilly enemies, such as cyclops, which spit up giant eyeballs from the intestines. I like how it dissolves in the skeleton. In a nice accent, clever moments break the action, for example, when the demon pops up at you, but is eaten by a snake dragon, which will disappear. These are moments of candies that can be simply comical, or can introduce a monster, which he will fall into later.
I think that Old School fans Ninja Gaiden will certainly enjoy this recovery. Ragebound has great pixel art, speedy platform operation and fresh ideas that raise the source material. I can’t wait to learn more about Kumori and see how her relationship with Kenji develops. From what I have played so far, this seems to be another winning combination of my beloved, but neglected IP with passionate independent creators. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is this summer.
