Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 63 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 63
  2. Negative: 0 out of 63
  1. Jul 30, 2025
    With six to eight hours of gameplay at a price tag of $25, I cannot recommend Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It lacks anything of interest other than this side story to the original Ninja Gaiden game, and even then, it's just introducing different ninjas that are fighting monsters. This game was supposed to be a love letter to the original trilogy, but instead, it's more like a bad photocopy of a love letter made by someone who didn't seem to care that much.
  2. Jul 30, 2025
    Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound captures virtually everything that made 2D action games of yesteryear awesome while ironing out all the rough edges synonymous with that era of gaming. It looks spectacular, controls like a dream, and boasts levels that are worth experiencing over and over again. It does end too soon for its own good, and its short runtime may throw some people off. Aside from that, however, the developers at The Game Kitchen have proven themselves to be masters of their retro-inspired craft with this one. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a worthy successor to its NES predecessors, without a boomerang bird in sight.
  3. I should also stress that none of this difficulty tweaking eventually fixed my disappointment about the loss of early levels' sense of fluency. In games like this, where a steady flow is gained by practice, I sometimes wonder: what is the least amount of practice I must invest before I feel that sense of flow? In early sequences, Ragebound asks very little investment: you quickly earn a basic understanding of all the dashing, dodging, slashing, and boinging required to bloodstomp through an average level with a speedrunner's abandon.