Ninja Gaiden Ragebound: The 7 Coolest Things

I often get excited when I get to preview an upcoming game. Who wouldn’t? Getting to check out a game pre-release, and then getting to share that experience is one of the joys of this job. But when a code for a new build of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound materialized in my inbox, I’m pretty sure I started drooling. It’s a Pavlovian response, really; see, us Ninja Gaiden sickos have been pining for the good old days for a while now, but this year has been like stumbling into an oasis in the desert, only the oasis has air conditioning, a made-to-order menu from your favorite local joint, and an open bar. Ninja Gaiden fans have been wandering these sands for a long time. But this year, it feels like we’re coming home.

I hadn’t played the demo we previewed last time, so Ragebound was a new experience for me. But it felt like slipping into a pair of old shoes. It took a second to get back into the swing of things — I haven’t played a 2D Ninja Gaiden in a hot second — but once I did, it felt like I’d never left. There’s so much to talk about here, but we’ve already done a more traditional preview that looks at the meat and potatoes experience of playing Ragebound, so this time, let’s dig into the nitty gritty. These are the 7 coolest things about Ninja Gaiden Ragebound.

#1: The Guillotine Boost Lets You Bounce on It (and “It” is Everything)

There are a ton of cool mechanics in Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, but I’m starting with the guillotine boost because everything else flows from it. Once you’re in the air, you can jump again when you’re about to make contact with an enemy to both attack them and bounce off of them for another jump. Cool, right?

But it’s not just enemies. You can do this to projectiles, too, and even some enemy attacks. Obviously, you can use the guillotine boost to get to places you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, but you can also use it to bounce between enemies and stay on the attack. I managed to bounce on Gurthka, the boss of the demo’s second level, for a solid few seconds while he was trying to attack me. And those weird samurai spirits with the spears? Just bounce off their attacks and keep going. Is the guillotine boost as cool as the Izuna Drop? No. Nothing is. But it’s pretty close.

#2: Hypercharges Are One-Hit Kills with Style

Okay, so the guillotine boost lets you get to hard-to-reach places, stay on the attack, and style on bosses. But what happens when you need to kill something in a single stroke? Well, that’s where the Hypercharge comes in. You can get Hypercharge by killing enemies with auras. Do so, and you’ll gain a Hypercharge for a few seconds. When you have it , your next attack will kill enemies instantly. To be fair, most enemies in Ragebound die in a single hit. But the ones that don’t? You don’t wanna go toe-to-toe with those cats. In a pinch, you can sacrifice some health to manually Hypercharge, but you’ll want to avoid that if you can. When you’re really cooking, you can chain these together to cut down enemies in rapid succession, or unleash them on a boss to stun them and lay on the hurt, and it feels great. Speaking of which, that brings me to my next point.

#3: Simon Says Is Cool Now

A lot of video games really like Simon Says combat design. You know what I mean; the enemy is a certain color, so you use a specific kind of attack (I’m looking at you, DmC: Devil May Cry), or they’re wielding a specific weapon, so you drop in a stance built to counter that (don’t think I didn’t notice, Ghost of Tsushima). Kinda boring, right?

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound flirts with Simon Says combat design, but it gets away with it because it does it in a cool way. You can still kill anything in the Ragebound demo I played any way you want. But some of those auras that give you Hypercharges? You gotta kill those enemies a certain way if you want that Hypercharge. A blue aura means you gotta slice ‘em up with Kenji’s katana, while a purple aura means you need to use a kunai. Once you get that Hypercharge, you can spend it however you want; but forcing you to match the aura to the right weapon on the fly adds a welcome element of challenge, especially when enemies are only on-screen for a few seconds and you have to react quickly.

#4: Rollin’ with Kumori Rocks

At some unspecified point in Ragebound’s story, our boy Kenji fuses with Kumori. Like any good member of the Hayabusa Clan, he’s pretty upset about cavorting around with a ninja of the Spider Clan, but he shouldn’t be. Palling around with Kumori has a lot of benefits. First, she gives Kenji access to a kunai to deal with enemies at range (and teleport to certain objects in the environment), but also a Spider Weapon. In my demo, that took the shape of a throwable sickle with an arc that reminds me an awful lot of the throwing axes from Castlevania. And she gives you access to the screen-clearing Ragebound Arts. When everything around you absolutely, positively has to die, accept no substitutes. So hey, more toys, right? But that’s not all Kumori brings to the table.

She can also commune with Demon Altars to navigate the otherworld. With her spirit separate from Kenji’s body and traipsing around the otherworld, she can go places he can’t, opening new paths. She also has access to her kunai, even without ki, something Kenji doesn’t have. The downside? She needs to constantly replenish a meter to stay in the otherworld. Otherwise, it’s back to Kenji, and you have to do it again. Sometimes, that means you’ll repeat a section a few times. It also breaks up the action and gives you a new way to play. Pretty cool. Also, Kumori says “Good grief” a lot. I love her.

#5: Exploring is Worth Your Time

One of the things I really appreciate about Ragebound is its purity. It’s not another roguelite in the endless sea of roguelites (thank God); it’s a side-scrolling action game, in the vein of the series’ original trilogy. But that doesn’t mean there’s not stuff worth going off the beaten path for. There are scarabs and crystal skulls to find, and while it was unclear what either of these do (the scarabs serve as currency for Muramasa’s shop, which was not available in my demo, so I can only guess at the goodies he’ll have on offer), it definitely gives you an excuse to explore. My favorite one of these “do an optional bit, get a cool thing” sections was one where I had to navigate a tricky, teleport-y platforming section as Kumori. It took me several tries to get it right (I kept messing up right at the end), but by the time I nailed it, I knew that thing like the back of my hand. And that feels good.

#6: It Rewards Mastery

Oh, and speaking of mastering something, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound wants you to play these levels over and over again as much as you want. Once you’ve beaten one, you can immediately access it again from the map. And each time you play, you’re scored on time, collectibles, number of enemies killed, and your best combo. And if that’s not enough, there are also optional challenges that range from completing levels without being hit to level-specific tasks like killing so many enemies with a lunge attack or beating Ryu Hayabusa himself in the tutorial. I… did not do that one. He Izuna Dropped my ass. It was rad as hell. I’ll get you one day, Ryu.

#7: It Hurts So Good

I wouldn’t call Ninja Gaiden Ragebound easy, per se, but it’s also not impossible on the regular difficulty, either. This series has something of a legacy to maintain when it comes to being hard, and you’ve gotta be kind of a masochist to see the deepest levels of depravity it has to show you. What can I say? I like pain.

Good news for me, then, because beating the demo unlocked a hard version of one of the levels I’d just played. And, uh… it’s a lot harder. There are new enemies! Everything’s on fire! Developer The Game Kitchen has put in something for the sickos, and I appreciate it.

I came out of my time with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound like a man who has just had a fine meal with portions that were far too small. Appreciative, but wanting more. What can I say? I love action games, and this series in particular holds a special place in my heart. I get the shakes when you’re not around, Ninja Gaiden. But it’s so damn good to have you back.