Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 89 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 89
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 89
  3. Negative: 22 out of 89
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  1. giannis2001
    Jul 7, 2021
    8
    Honestly I don't understand why the rating is 5 points. Those 3 games are definetely some from the best action hack and slash games out there and for 40 euros only, the value is insanely worth and I would say it would be even if it was more expensive. But I will talk about each one individually. What I liked and what not about each game.

    Ninja Gaiden Σ: This game is the first one and the    Honestly I don't understand why the rating is 5 points. Those 3 games are definetely some from the best action hack and slash games out there and for 40 euros only, the value is insanely worth and I would say it would be even if it was more expensive. But I will talk about each one individually. What I liked and what not about each game.

    Ninja Gaiden Σ: This game is the first one and the combat feels aged but it's the introduction in the series and it's not bad at all. You can get used to it. The best part is the interconnected world with a lot of sidetracking and backtracking so if you like exploring this game is for you. I think this game is bigger in length from the other just because the exploring you can do. What I didnt like was the controls. They were atrocious at times and incredibly annoying. Also, the cutscenes were cringe af but you don't play this game for the story (which btw is there just to be there). 8/10 for Ninja Gaiden Σ1. Ninja Gaiden Σ2: This one was my favorite of all. The combat was a huge improvement from the first game and it was amazing and satisfying af. It had way more combos and you could hit them more easily. Also, the hitbox of enemies was improved to be more smooth to kill them and the addition of the finisher when the enemy was Injured is just what I needed. This game though has minimal backtracking and you don't explore that much as the first, but side tracking is there and the stages are designed really well. The story isn't that great as well, like the first one. Also, you can play as different characters which is always great and the soundtrack is great as well in this one. 9/10 for Ninja Gaiden Σ2. Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge: This one was the one that was mediocre for me. The stages are incredibly linear with non-existant exploring and backtracking. Also, the story is somewhat better than the other 2 but still not that good. But the biggest changes that this game had was in combat. First of all, there are no items at all and you upgrade everything through Karma points where you get by killing enemies only. The combat was.. For some better, for some not. It definitely had more violence and it was satisfying like 2 but I feel like 2 has better combat nonetheless because of the better an more fitting combos. Also, the stages feel like enemy frenzy mode, because you literally fighting all the time which gets kinda boring as you go on. But still it's a good game. 7/10 for Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge.

    I played the game on PS5 and the performance, graphics and 4k resolution were astonishing, so the visuals aspect is amazing as well. Overall, the Trilogy is incredible, I loved it and for people like me, who didn't play the originals, is a great way to revive this amazing franchise.    … Expand
  2. qusai_mulla
    Feb 16, 2022
    10
    This game is my childhood everything in it is perfect the gameplay masterpiece to it
  3. Zski
    Aug 29, 2021
    7
    As a fan of the original games, I very much enjoyed this collection. I was worried it would not have aged well, but luckily that’s not much of an issue. With that being said, the games definitely show their age. They just are not as refined as modern hack and slash games. I appreciate the difficulty, as any encounter can cause a lot of damage, so you have to stay on top of everything.As a fan of the original games, I very much enjoyed this collection. I was worried it would not have aged well, but luckily that’s not much of an issue. With that being said, the games definitely show their age. They just are not as refined as modern hack and slash games. I appreciate the difficulty, as any encounter can cause a lot of damage, so you have to stay on top of everything. Specifically, the camera is a pain, and I feel that the random loading screens should not be an issue this many years later. It’s not a very refined collection. Regardless, it won’t get in the way of enjoying these games. You get a lot of content and action with these three games, so it’s a solid value. And yes, the third game is just as bad as you remember. It’s a pretty weak remaster with only slightly polished up graphics, with inconveniences that don’t necessarily take away from the game, but they’re very noticeable. Could have been better with some quality of life improvements that didn’t age well.… Expand
  4. Filthyfirefly
    Jun 11, 2021
    8
    This is a classic series for old school fans. Before there was Dark Souls, there was Ninia Gaiden. These games are some of the most frantic fun that can be had with interactive entertainment, even as old as they are now. Going from lowly ninja dog to a master ninja, finely tuning your responses to the different enemy types, being punished for nearly every mistake. It is not only frantic inThis is a classic series for old school fans. Before there was Dark Souls, there was Ninia Gaiden. These games are some of the most frantic fun that can be had with interactive entertainment, even as old as they are now. Going from lowly ninja dog to a master ninja, finely tuning your responses to the different enemy types, being punished for nearly every mistake. It is not only frantic in its approach to hack and slash combat, but it is precise. As you get better with combos the game becomes infinitely more accessible. There's a certain fluidity in the combat amongst the chaos, and when you begin to master it, you watch yourself become better. In Soulslike games you can usually grind your way out of a bad spot, whereas in Ninja Gaiden, you must simply become better. These games will not be for everyone, but if you're in need of a worthy challenge, I challenge YOU to take the title of Master Ninja.… Expand
  5. DickSweeting
    Jun 19, 2021
    10
    Gotta do this to counter balance the dumbies putting zero. These are three of the best Hack and Slash games meant to be played by all that are into genre's remotely close to it. Casual players can enjoy it all the way up to SoulsBorne players! It is quite difficult on the Hardest setting
  6. BoyEx7490et
    Jun 21, 2021
    10
    Great Ninja Gaiden Collection really fun to play. If ur looking for the best 3 ninja games look no further fast hack and slash adventure a must own if u Like the ninja Gaiden Series.
  7. Ange5205
    Jun 11, 2021
    9
    Una coleccion excelente para todos aquellos ya sean fans de la saga desde sus inicios o aquellos nuevos jugadores que busquen un reto desafiante, son juegos que a 4k 60fps se ven fascinantes sería una calificación perfecta si Team Ninja modificara el gore y la sangre en el Sigma 2 pero a pesar de eso es perfecta.
  8. Aminmax11
    Jun 13, 2021
    10
    Este juego es una muy buena recopilacion de juegos ninja gaiden que atraera a gente nueva y gente que quiera volver a vivir sus infancias con estos increibles juegos
  9. JoaoNoctis
    Jun 14, 2021
    10
    Otimos jogos, gostei muito, tava faltando nessa nova geraçao, mesmo sem terem mudado nada, bem melhor assim
  10. Gabe87
    Jun 14, 2021
    0
    its worse than ps3 versions .. + no MP
    ninja gaiden sigma 2 they remove some true dragon sword moves . they didnt add the blood back this collection is a garbage
  11. Egemen12
    Jun 21, 2021
    10
    İf You never playing Ninja Gaiden Frenchise this collection Good for you.

    The main element that makes ninja gaiden sigma special is that it can be so hard that it makes you cry without being cheap - except for the save system. Waves of enemies do not pile on you, except for three or five optional challenges; instead, at the slightest mistake, it releases groups of three that choke you    İf You never playing Ninja Gaiden Frenchise this collection Good for you.


    The main element that makes ninja gaiden sigma special is that it can be so hard that it makes you cry without being cheap - except for the save system. Waves of enemies do not pile on you, except for three or five optional challenges; instead, at the slightest mistake, it releases groups of three that choke you with great pleasure. You either learn to train your animal instincts, or you can throw the joypad and be thankful that the standard difficulty level in games has been decreasing since the days of nes.    … Expand
  12. Vindicate247
    Aug 26, 2021
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In my opinion, a pretty faithful reissue of these classic titles. As a Ninja gaiden fan, I was happy to play these games again even with the minimal graphical and UI updates.. Hopefully this will influence one of the current top tier game studios to consider making a next gen version as long as they keep the action.… Expand
  13. joshbreviews
    Dec 5, 2021
    3
    The Ninja Gaiden franchise could have been one of the biggest hack and slash games this world has seen. Instead, the devs absolutely destroyed this series with bafflingly terrible decisions with every sequel. This could've been the Doom 2016 of hack and slash. But here we are. 3/10. Unlimited protentional at the time, but now just a terrible game.

    This is a Master Ninja Mode review.    The Ninja Gaiden franchise could have been one of the biggest hack and slash games this world has seen. Instead, the devs absolutely destroyed this series with bafflingly terrible decisions with every sequel. This could've been the Doom 2016 of hack and slash. But here we are. 3/10. Unlimited protentional at the time, but now just a terrible game.

    This is a Master Ninja Mode review. Beat the games on MNM, so I "got gud", don't tell me to get gud. Every other mode is stupidly easy, and then there's this leap to dumb, cheap, and frustrating.

    It's like brilliant team was assigned to creating Ryu and his move sets and mechanics, and then another much dumber team was assigned to creating the enemies, bosses, and the difficulty. Here are the issues:

    1) One-hit kill grabs. Constant grabbing that takes you out of the action. Constant one-hit kill grabs that have 10,000 year-long animations, making your eyes glaze over after watching it for the 1 millionth time. Combo-to-grab attacks. And then there's the fact that almost all fatal grab attacks have literally maybe 60 MILLISECONDS of warning. Who was this game made for, Captain America? Spider-Man? Master Chief? Did you design this game for those who have bullet-time perception???

    2) Enemies are overloaded and over-tuned. Clawed ninjas have insane health, endless combos, AND can throw kunai bombs? Really? Why not give the kunai bombs to the weaker ninjas instead to balance it out? Spell caster has insane one-hit kill grab, one-hit kill spells, AND can teleport to grab you? Huh?? Like the bosses, these grabs have literally less than a quarter of a second "warning".

    3) Some bosses arbitrarily have constant invulnerability frames, so basically you can only damage them if the game decides that it will allow you to damage it. Elizabet and Alexei come to mind. But why design your boss like that? Even dark souls, known for its notorious difficulty, doesn't do cheap bs like this. In dark souls, you can damage the boss almost 90% of the time --- but, if you button mash, the boss' combos will kill you first. Dark Souls is hard, BUT FAIR. Ninja Gaiden is just arbitrarily cheap and frustrating.

    4) The demand for millisecond reaction times means you have to cheese and exploit the game to beat it. And if you have to do that, your devs failed to make a good game.

    5) Dodging is tied to the block button? Really? did they not realize how difficult this makes the game in an awful, cheap way??? Pressing a button on-demand is MILLISECONDS MUCH FASTER than tilting the analog stick. And guess what dumb game demands millisecond reaction times from its players???

    6) Unnecessarily punishing and uneven saving system. Why make me go through things i already beat? Why make me backtrack to save? Why lock away save points arbitrarily? Pointless. Amateurish.

    7) Insufferable, mind-numbing, never-ending grunts, groans, wails, and screams from bosses. When game devs aren't incompetent, these audio bits are used to warn players of a specific incoming attack. But guess what? the groans happen DURING or AFTER the attacks. so they're pointless. And they often use the same grunts for everything, making it an even less reliable indicator. Ultimately, they only serve to make the players' ears bleed.

    8) Atrociously terrible amateurish camera system. 50% of your deaths will be from cheap ultra-speed one-hit-kill grabs. The other 50%? Because the camera decides to focus on you in the corner instead of focusing on the enemy. Seriously, in all my experience gaming, I have never encountered so god-awful camera systems. I pray that the person who designed this is not working camera systems in games anymore. Jesus the amount of frustration this'll bring is endless.

    I beat these games on Master Ninja Mode, so clearly I played a TON, trying, TRYING to love these games. But I just can't. It's like League of Legends. You keep playing but you hate it. You want so badly for it to be good, but it just actively tries to make you hate it. There are flashes of extreme brilliance here and there, but every single time, your happiness is immediately shut down by some stupid, cheap, artificial difficulty feature.

    I've been gaming for a long time now, and I've never encountered a game so awesome yet mind-numbingly terrible at the same time.

    I'm frustrated cause the world was denied the ultimate competitor to Devil May Cry and God of War. The devs could've made insane amounts of money if they just had the strength and discipline to polish up the Ninja Gaiden mechanics instead of doubling down on these stupid things I mentioned here. To me, this is one of the biggest failures of gaming history. The ultimate potential, absolutely and utterly wasted. And now Ninja Gaiden is in limbo, cause it didn't sell well. Guess why it didn't sell well.

    This Master Collection was THE reason to revisit the games and tweak grabs, cameras, combos, speed, difficulty...but they chose not to do any of that.    … Expand
  14. MeatGrindeR
    Sep 17, 2021
    0
    Мало того, что оптимизации, как таковой и нет, так и не добавили русский язык...
    Неужели так сложно добавить русские субтитры, м?
  15. Paytoplay
    Nov 9, 2021
    8
    Difficult, speed and punishment, this is ninja gaiden. I am a fan of the series since the nes era and Ninja gaiden sigma master collection delivered what i wanted, my only complaint is that they could have included a new game plus and ninja gaiden razor's edgecould not .be compared to the first two games
  16. Deathrow95
    Dec 5, 2021
    9
    First time play, good game for the past years
    Today maybe is a old game, but the essence the game is good
  17. ILightningZ
    Aug 5, 2021
    9
    Still Gold like I remember For fan of hack/slash that's one my fav games
    Too bad it wasn't REMAKE but it's better for nothing..
    I wish if there Ninja gaiden 4 in future it will be Amazing really!!
  18. Luis_LXXVI
    Jul 11, 2021
    7
    Razor's edge is pretty underwhelming and tag missions in sigma2 are a piece of garbage
  19. Mandevora
    Apr 12, 2022
    10
    La verdad, estoy bastante satisfecho con la trilogía. Hay personas que se quejan de que las versiones originales (NGB y NG2) no aparecieron, yo creo que las sigma las superan, es decir, las sigma tienen mejoras graficas e implementación de contenido (bosses, armas, trajes, etc), y si, aunque es verdad que bajaron ligeramente la dificultad, no es como que sea un juego fácilmenteLa verdad, estoy bastante satisfecho con la trilogía. Hay personas que se quejan de que las versiones originales (NGB y NG2) no aparecieron, yo creo que las sigma las superan, es decir, las sigma tienen mejoras graficas e implementación de contenido (bosses, armas, trajes, etc), y si, aunque es verdad que bajaron ligeramente la dificultad, no es como que sea un juego fácilmente completable.

    También tiene una excelente optimización, me corre a 40-60fps en un dual core a 2Ghz (aunque también varia del titulo)    … Expand
  20. pizzastation
    May 26, 2022
    8
    i love NINJA GAIDEN BLACK and 2
    But not in this collection.its sigma

    However, if you think positively, the only thing you can do is play on PS4 or some console.
    i love this combat system
  21. EalyLiu
    Feb 17, 2023
    10
    It's great. It's the best game I've ever seen. The picture is exquisite, the movement is smooth, and the design is exquisite.
  22. OriginalGinyu
    Jul 31, 2023
    9
    Really cool games if you like difficult hack n slash games. Also the collection is in 4k, so the graphics look pretty good on PS4 Pro & PS5!

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Best PS4 Game of 2021
22
#22 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 44
  3. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. Cubed3
    Jun 14, 2022
    70
    Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a double-edged Dragon Sword. On one hand, it's hard to overlook the omission of both Black titles. On the other hand, the Sigma duology and Razor's Edge make for a compelling, if at times uneven, action trilogy. What the first Sigma loses from puzzles, platforming, and exploration, it makes up for with streamlined set pieces that highlight combat above all else. Sigma 2 lacks almost all the style that defined Ninja Gaiden II, but it's undeniably a smoother experience that challenges a different set of skills than its predecessor. Razor's Edge is the clear weak link of the bunch on a design level, but the mechanics are incredibly fun to experiment with. It may not be the ideal compilation for hardcore franchise fans, but Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a great entrypoint for new fans and a solid trilogy in its own right.
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  2. Games.cz
    Aug 16, 2021
    60
    It’s too rusty for new players, too shallow and incomplete for veterans. Ninja Gaiden will have to transform itself significantly in order to attract a new generation of fighters.
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  3. PlayStation Country
    Jul 6, 2021
    80
    Ninja Gaiden Master Collection offers three games of varying greatness in one set. It's not quite the all inclusive package one would hope for and the enhancements are limited but seeing each game back to back really shows the strength of each and highlights the fact that the controls and combat were always top notch.
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