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In anticipation and celebration of this year’s release of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Shinobi:Art of Vengeance, and Ninja Gaiden 4, Nintendojo takes a look back at the history of this iconic genre, the games that defined it, and the new titles joining the pantheon in our special Year of the Ninja series.
The original plan for Nintendojo’s series of “Year of the Ninja” articles included one dedicated to the history of 2D Ninja Gaiden games, just like those for Shinobi and Strider, but Team Ninja’s 3D games loom so large in series history that writing around them was an awkward prospect. Following the recent passing of former Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki, the firebrand director responsible for that 3D reboot, addressing the history of Ninja Gaiden without reference to the third dimension has become impossible.
Itagaki is far from the only video game luminary we’ve lost before his time – Nintendo’s own Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Iwata also both passed in their 50s after leaving their mark. But Itagaki was a singular personality who excelled at game design, shit talking, cynical pandering, sincere passion, and wearing sunglasses indoors. He made two of the greatest action games of all time in Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden II, then walked away from Tecmo. While he never again reached the heights of his Ryu Hayabusa duology, he was, like his games, inimitable and destined to be remembered even if never properly reproduced.
Team Ninja soldiered on with Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, but neither series ever again reached the heights it did with Itagaki at the helm, and eventually Team Ninja focused its efforts on its own excellent but less brash parade of Souls-influenced action games like Nioh and Stranger of Paradise. With this year’s Ninja Gaiden 4 taking so much influence from the Platinum Games catalogue, and with the original fan-favorite version of Ninja Gaiden II still stuck in the Xbox ecosystem, it seems almost certain that Team Ninja will never manage to truly recapture what made Ninja Gaiden so special in the Itagaki era.
Aside from some basic concepts (ninjas vs demons), characters (Ryu Hayabusa), and artifacts (the Dragon Sword), the one throughline in the Ninja Gaiden series — the thing that united the 2D and 3D titles — is its unrepentant adversarial difficulty. It’s not just that the games are stuffed with blind jumps or a low margin for error or complex button inputs. It’s that the enemies in Ninja Gaiden are not shy about gunning for you at inopportune moments, pressuring you, knocking you into pits, or shredding your health bar. The pressure plays out differently in two dimensions versus three, but Ninja Gaiden has always, at its best, forced the player to meet it on its own terms.
The games we’ve been looking at in our Year of the Ninja coverage are neither designed by Itagaki nor particularly inspired by Itagaki’s game in particular. But he relished being an advocate for difficulty as a desirable characteristic of video games. He was abrasive, antagonistic, and toxic, but Itagaki was an uncommonly quotable and forthright advocate for the experiences that only difficult, arcade-influenced game design can provide. All of the years of tedious post-Dark Souls arguments about difficulty, easy modes, gatekeeping, and accessibility can make us lose sight of truths that always remained clear to Itagaki: it’s worth making and playing uncompromisingly difficult games, because uncompromising difficulty is rad as hell. In his own words:
At first it was easier, but when the testers said, “This is too difficult.” I made it even more difficult.
There are some people who want to beat the game, even if it means being reduced to the level of a dog; people who are not afraid to shame themselves to accomplish their goals. Sometimes in life, that type of style is necessary. Anyone who can think like that can still be a real man. The Ninja Dog difficulty setting is for men like that. So don’t give up too easily!
But gamers who think Ninja Gaiden is too hard are losers — there are always winners and losers — just fight your best fight.
May he rest in peace, and may his works live forever.
The Eternal Ninja
The ninja is one of those video game archetypes that has never gone out of fashion, like the soldier, the knight, and the wizard. The ninja is such an aesthetically appealing idea that it crops up in places it has no business appearing. High fantasy dungeon-delving games like Wizardry have ninjas. Side scrolling brawlers like Final Fight have ninjas, as do fighting games like World Heroes. Metal Gear Solid has ninjas. Super Mario World has ninjas. Dark Souls has ninjas. There are ninja kids, ninja turtles, and fruit ninjas.
But in addition to an archetype and an aesthetic, the ninja craze of the 1980s produced a particular arcade-influenced genre of side-scrolling ninja action platformers. As mentioned in other articles in Nintendojo’s Year of the Ninja series, three series of games dominated the classic era of ninja action platformers: Sega’s Shinobi (1987-1995), Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden (1988-1991), and Capcom’s Strider (1989-1999). That era, bookended on either side by Shinobi and Strider 2, also included Irem’s Ninja Spirit (1988), Natsume’s Shadow of the Ninja (1990), RED’s Hagane: The Final Conflict (1994), and Visco’s Ganryu (1999). Ninjas of course continued to feature in games, like Fromsoft’s Tenchu series and the 3D reboots of both Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi, but the particular genre of 2D action platformers started to die out in the late 90s.
While some ninja action platformers were released in the 10-15 years after Strider 2, like Shinobi 3D (2011) and Oniken (2012), it wasn’t until 2014’s Strider that a ninja action platformer again managed to truly break through, thanks to a combination of its IP and a more fashionable and reviewer-friendly Metroidvania structure. In its wake, 2018’s The Messenger made a name for itself as an indie throwback to the genre, again leaning on the Metroidvania formula but also deliberately retro in its stylings. And after that, the dam broke and we’ve found ourselves with a deluge of ninja action platformers: Shadow Gangs (2020), Cyber Shadow (2021), Ganryu 2 (2022), Shinobi Non Grata (2022), Vengeful Guardian Moonrider (2023), Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn (2024), Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (2025), and finally Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (2025).
In this final part of our Year of the Ninja series, we take a look at this new class, its influences, and its connections to that classic era, and make some recommendations. Every one of these modern titles with the exception of Strider is available on Switch, though many of the classics are less accessible on modern platforms.
Strider (2014)
Major influences: the Strider series (1989-1999)
Let’s start with the title that kicked off the modern era, Double Helix’s Strider. Its relationship to the previous Strider titles is very well-documented (including in our article). As it relates to the broader genre, however, Strider feels both kinetically and aesthetically fairly disconnected from anything else in the classic era. The one other influence I can identify is a sort of generic HD era fondness for Metroidvanias, and this is also the one aspect that most clearly influences later games of the modern era, especially The Messenger and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.
The Messenger (2018), Cyber Shadow (2021), and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (2025)
Major influences: the Ninja Gaiden series (1988-1991)
All three of these titles very clearly owe a lot to Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden trilogy, but there’s a bit more going on here with each.
If you exclude existing IP (Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Strider), then the biggest commercial success on this whole list was the Canadian-made The Messenger, developed by Sabotage Studio. It initially seems like a straight Ninja Gaiden pastiche, albeit one with its own novel bit of movement tech: the “cloudstep” ability which allows the protagonist to make an additional jump after attacking an enemy or certain other targets. That allows for more vertical flexibility in the level design and a more exploration- and platforming-heavy skew.
In the game’s back half that skew comes to dominate the game completely as it gives up a linear action platformer vibe in favor of becoming a backtracking-heavy Metroidvania. It’s a weird game to revisit, split between two halves that the player may enjoy equally but don’t necessarily feel like they gel well as a single cohesive experience. Even in its first half it somewhat lacks the arcade sensibilities of its inspirations, feeling like a modern game with a retro skin. Of course, the Metroidvania back half would clash strongly with a more faithful arcade-style first half so it may be for the best.
Cyber Shadow, which was published by Yacht Club but largely developed by the Finnish Mechanical Head Games, takes the Ninja Gaiden formula and stays broadly faithful throughout, including to Ninja Gaiden’s interstitial cinematic storytelling. Among its 8-bit peers, Ninja Gaiden stood out not just for its difficulty but its storytelling, and while most ninja action throwbacks understandably care more about the action, Cyber Shadow may have the best story among the entire set of modern era ninja games.
That may be a low bar, and the action is still the main draw. While Cyber Shadow is linear, it does deviate from its forebears with more modern moveset progression, doling out new traversal and attack abilities as you go. That can keep a first playthrough fresh without being overwhelming, but unfortunately it means that replaying the game can feel jarring as you’re stripped back down to basics. Still, the back half of the game, once the player has unlocked a slashing dash that lets you convert obstacles into forward momentum, is exhilarating and the most successful of several such abilities in these games, with The Messenger’s cloudstep and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s guillotine boost both having a floatier feel and less interesting integration with the platforming challenges.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, from Spain’s The Game Kitchen, has been discussed extensively in a dedicated review. It’s a great game but a weird product that doesn’t really start to feel fully like Ninja Gaiden until you turn on some difficulty modifiers and play for rank, at which point the level layouts feel both fluid and demanding as in a classic Ninja Gaiden game. Before that point it can feel a bit like playing Strider 2 for survival, not really asking much of the player. But once you get down to business it’s a worthy successor that stands up well alongside the classic trilogy, and is easy to recommend.
Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn (2024)
Major influences: Shadow of the Ninja (1990)
Nominally this is a remake of the NES game Shadow of the Ninja, which in turn was obviously very strongly influenced by Ninja Gaiden. As with Tengo Project’s other games, Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn is halfway between remake and sequel. Reborn has the same stage concepts, boss concepts, plot, and characters, but many of the mechanical specifics have been wholly reconsidered. It’s a more radical reworking than most of Tengo Project’s efforts.
The NES original was already slower paced than Ninja Gaiden, and Reborn builds on that with a slower, higher commitment, almost clockwork feel to the action. It’s as far as this Decade of the Ninja game selection gets from the freewheeling kineticism of Strider 2, deliberately almost clunky. Tengo Project uses that feeling to good effect, though, as it allows the game to proceed at a pace where the player can constantly make careful moment to moment decisions. It’s not going to be to everybody’s tastes but the craftsmanship is pristine.
Shinobi Non Grata (2022)
Major influences: Ninja Spirit (1988)
Irem’s Ninja Spirit is visually a very obvious touchstone for Studio Pico’s Shinobi Non Grata. There are significant gameplay similarities too, from the giant wuxia leaps of the protagonist to the omnidirectional aiming to the bamboo groves to the constant and random enemy spawns that harry the player as they make progress. But Shinobi Non Grata also has other ideas. Like Treasure’s Gunstar Heroes or Alien Soldier, Shinobi Non Grata puts a premium on frequent and creative boss fights, and that gives Shinobi Non Grata a lot more minute to minute novelty than Ninja Spirit had. It’s a frantic and replayable game that makes the most of its mechanics and never wears out its welcome.
Aside from Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn, this is actually the only one of these modern ninja action games developed primarily in Japan, and gun to my head I would say this is the best of the entire modern crop and the single title I would most enthusiastically recommend readers of this article to check out. It understands what worked about Ninja Spirit and finds ways to build on those strengths in its own ways, managing to feel both faithful and unique.
Shadow Gangs (2020)
Major influences: the Shinobi series prior to Shinobi III (1987-1990)
JKM Corp’s Shadow Gangs is the most enthusiastically retro of all these games. While it’s available on modern platforms like Nintendo Switch, it was also released on Sega Dreamcast. Like the Sega Genesis, the Dreamcast has been discontinued for decades but just refuses to be forgotten, getting new hobbyist/indie releases every year or two.
As the existence of a Dreamcast port may suggest, Shadow Gangs is a product unabashedly focused on the retro market, the older players who still proudly wear the medals they earned in the great Nintendo vs Sega console wars of the 80s and 90s, and never lost their taste for the arcade games or arcade-inflected console games of that era. Shadow Gangs is very clearly inspired by the older Shinobi games, specifically the original Shinobi and the two Shadow Dancer titles. There’s also a distinct amount of The Revenge of Shinobi creeping into the level design here. As with Ninja Spirit and Shinobi Non Grata, relatively few games aped the original Shinobi, so Shadow Gangs is filling a very distinct gap in the market. Its level design failed to click with me the way that Shinobi and Shadow Dancer did and this ended up being my least favorite game of the entire modern crop despite digging those Sega classics, but that may just be me, and checking it out is still a no brainer for fans of Shinobi.
Ganryu 2 (2022) & Vengeful Guardian Moonrider (2023)
Major influences: later Shinobi games (1989-1995), Hagane: The Final Conflict (1994)
The original Ganryu was a Neo Geo arcade game by Visco, a relatively obscure Japanese developer probably best known for Andro Dunos. Ganryu 2 is a strange sequel in that it was developed by a different company (France’s Storybird Studio) after the rights to Visco’s back catalog were sold off. Aside from the premise (Miyamoto Musashi fights demons on an island) and the most basic description of the gameplay (sidescrolling action platformer with a katana), the title is essentially unrelated to the original.
Ganryu 2’s creators had the good sense to look to Shinobi III rather than the original Ganryu for inspiration, and as a result Ganryu 2 is perhaps the closest thing to a proper Shinobi III clone we’re likely to get this century. While it was never going to set the world on fire, it’s a solid arcade style platformer with both enough bite for a first playthrough and enough secrets to encourage further exploration and optimization. Is it as good as Shinobi III? No, but for what it’s worth it’s miles better than the original Ganryu and is worth the time.
Brazilian studio JoyMasher has long specialized in retro throwbacks, with their most recent release before Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, Blazing Chrome, clearly owing a lot to the Contra series and to Contra Hard Corps in particular. Moonrider attempts a similar trick with Shinobi III and Hagane, but also mixes in a surprising amount of Mega Man X, starting with its concept.
You’re a good guy robot, Moonrider, using a katana to carve a path through several stages that you can complete in any order, each guarded by an evil robot that yields a new weapon upon defeat. “Shinobi III plus Mega Man X” is a hell of a retro pitch that suggests a bar of quality that would be basically impossible to reach, and indeed Moonrider does not manage it. To be fair, neither do Shinobi Legions or Mega Man X2, and I can’t fault JoyMasher’s tastes. The game’s look and sound are remarkable, and the story concept is strong (top three among this set of games alongside Cyber Shadow and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound), but Moonrider’s moveset doesn’t quite seem to match the level design, and the game lacks a consistent sense of momentum.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (2025)
Major influences: ?
The most recent release is the most surprising, because once you set aside branding and aesthetics it doesn’t seem particularly inspired by any of the classics. Sure, the kids you rescue in the city stage come from Shinobi, and the dive kick comes from Shinobi III. The parts where you ride the dog call back to both the canine companion from Shadow Dancer and the horse stages from Shinobi III. The “karyu” fire dragon special attack comes from The Revenge of Shinobi. And there’s more. But in terms of moveset, platforming, encounter design, pace, flow? This feels worlds apart from any of the classic era games.
Let me put it this way: if you played Cyber Shadow or Ragebound and liked it, I could confidently recommend Ninja Gaiden, and vice versa. Same with Ninja Spirit and Shinobi Non Grata, or Ganryu 2 and Shinobi III. But if you told me you played Art of Vengeance and loved it, I don’t know that I’d feel confident that you’d enjoy Shinobi III, never mind Ganryu 2. Honestly, something like Guacamelee seems like a safer bet with its roomy arenas, Metroidvania progression, and combo-focused combat.
Unlike with Strider (2014) or Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, where I can see some of the spirit of the older titles preserved, with Art of Vengeance I can certainly see the IP being preserved but not much of the spirit. Art of Vengeance is truly a good game in its own right, but as a successor to the classic ninja action games of old, it seems more like a vote of no confidence in arcade-influenced design than a celebration of it.
The Next Decade
But Shinobi: Art of Vengeance isn’t the final word on ninja action platformers, and there’s nothing wrong with a spinoff or reimagining if it creates a new experience that’s good in its own right. While there’s no telling what the coming years will bring, we do know about at least two upcoming games with more interest in old school game design: Bushiden, the debut game from Pixel Arc Studios, and Shadow Gangs Zero, a prequel to Shadow Gangs. JKM Corp seems to have decided that releasing Shadow Gangs on Dreamcast wasn’t hardcore enough, so Shadow Gangs Zero will (of course) also be released physically on Sega Genesis and Neo Geo.
The past will never die, because those who care will never let it.
