The world's most violent antique shop owner is back in business in a major way, and it would probably be simplest to just lay out what has been announced as of late on the Dragon Ninja front.
Announced last month, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound angles to be a successor to the NES trilogy's stylings by the makers of Blasphemous. It's been over thirty years since the last sidescrolling platformer game in the series, so who knows how that legacy will interact with a studio whose leanings have been to adapt and explore action game design trends of a different sort than any existing branch of Ninja Gaiden represents. Like the ill-advised and justly maligned Yaiba, it's another turn to have Ryu step aside from protagonisthood in favour of novice apprentice Kenji; I'd rather have had one of the perennially co-starring ninja women take the lead instead.
Announced the other day, Ninja Gaiden 4 posits a return for the Tomonobu Itagaki reboot series after more than a decade of slumber. Development is shared between Team Ninja and Platinum Games, which is a mix that's sure to be interesting to see unravel, as the traditional sensibilities in action game design between Ninja Gaiden and the Devil May Cry-derived Platinum house style have existed at contrasting ends of the spectrum in what to emphasize and how to design combat, enemies and encounters in the shared baseline milieu. Aesthetically the glimpsed future-modern cityscape setting doesn't track far off from the reboot series's persistent military otaku bent, and even connects to the cybernetic trappings of the third NES game. There's yet another attempt to broaden the series's cast of playable ninjas, as Ryu shares the playable spotlight (and is positioned as secondary, arguably) with neophyte Yakumo.
Announced and released (!) in the same veritable breath as NG4, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is the surprise remaster and revision of the 2008 original... or so the PR copy presents it as. The subtitle "Black" is a loaded one, as it was the one used for the revised and largely considered definitive iteration of 2004's Ninja Gaiden, a true classic of the action game genre if there ever was one. Ninja Gaiden II in its original form was the last game worked on by reboot shepherd Itagaki, who at that point was in the midst of leaving/being fired from Tecmo, for a whole mess of issues ranging from unpaid bonuses to workplace harassment (with him as the accused). Thus the game's reputation on release and in the years since took on the manner of an unfiltered, audacious and halfway breaking apart treatise on the genre, facilitated by there simply being no time to make it come off as anything except a game for sickos, by sickos, earning it admiration and ire for its reckless excesses. The PS3 ports termed "Sigma" of the two games changed a great many things about them aesthetically and mechanically, and in NGII's case drastically altered its rhythms and game balance in reducing its vast enemy counts while also increasing their durability and lessening their aggression--a more accommodating game at an entry level, but also less daring, fascinating and often literally emptier than what had been before.
That's the most basic of basic context necessary for understanding 2 Black, as the developer claim goes that they've tried to wind back the clock to the original's play balance, as a gesture toward the hardcore who value the game for its uniqueness in the genre. It's a bit of promotional chest-thumping and sleight of hand that feels distinctly unearned, as what this new version is is a rendition of the game based heavily on Sigma 2, down to running its game logic and code as is in the background and presenting it through the all-new Unreal Engine 5 exterior the game now enjoys. There are changes informed by the "the original is better" sentiment, sure: severing enemy limbs occurs more frequently (a core component of the combat dynamics as conceived by the original) if not as often as in the 360 game; enemy healthpools are reduced if not, again, as light as in the original; enemy spawns, numbers and aggression are (at least anecdotally) also bumped up some; the upgrade system behaves the same as in the original and is not as limiting; and the lurid visual gore of the original has been restored, if you missed that flavouring. At the same time, the Sigma 2 baseline is adhered to in the additional content (three additional playable characters with their own story chapters each, most prominently) and more granular details of attack and animation properties present, clearly positioning 2 Black as--more truthfully--a tweaked and overall more satisfyingly flowing version of the large overhaul the game previously received.
Whatever prevents them from committing to authentically reflecting the original--lack of developer interest, the source code being long lost, or anything else--the misnomer the game now carries, while potentially promotionally useful to the diehards, can just as easily be read as a sign of inauthenticity in evoking a standard that was not ever in the cards of being pursued or reached, should the hardcore condemn it so. And that would be a shame, because even should you read Ninja Gaiden II a compromised masterstroke in one of its subsequent iterations (or in its original form), 2 Black is experientially no lesser of a take on it, and its new lease on life many years after release in a greatly shifted industry allows one to perceive its qualities ever clearer, and how strongly it still rates for anyone with an interest in spatially intensive, hyper-fast 3D action. The mark that I am, I also cannot help but read into the handful of Dead or Alive regulars that exist in this game who have now received brand new character models, and whether that series might also receive better treatment than it has in great many years.
That's the most basic of basic context necessary for understanding 2 Black, as the developer claim goes that they've tried to wind back the clock to the original's play balance, as a gesture toward the hardcore who value the game for its uniqueness in the genre. It's a bit of promotional chest-thumping and sleight of hand that feels distinctly unearned, as what this new version is is a rendition of the game based heavily on Sigma 2, down to running its game logic and code as is in the background and presenting it through the all-new Unreal Engine 5 exterior the game now enjoys. There are changes informed by the "the original is better" sentiment, sure: severing enemy limbs occurs more frequently (a core component of the combat dynamics as conceived by the original) if not as often as in the 360 game; enemy healthpools are reduced if not, again, as light as in the original; enemy spawns, numbers and aggression are (at least anecdotally) also bumped up some; the upgrade system behaves the same as in the original and is not as limiting; and the lurid visual gore of the original has been restored, if you missed that flavouring. At the same time, the Sigma 2 baseline is adhered to in the additional content (three additional playable characters with their own story chapters each, most prominently) and more granular details of attack and animation properties present, clearly positioning 2 Black as--more truthfully--a tweaked and overall more satisfyingly flowing version of the large overhaul the game previously received.
Whatever prevents them from committing to authentically reflecting the original--lack of developer interest, the source code being long lost, or anything else--the misnomer the game now carries, while potentially promotionally useful to the diehards, can just as easily be read as a sign of inauthenticity in evoking a standard that was not ever in the cards of being pursued or reached, should the hardcore condemn it so. And that would be a shame, because even should you read Ninja Gaiden II a compromised masterstroke in one of its subsequent iterations (or in its original form), 2 Black is experientially no lesser of a take on it, and its new lease on life many years after release in a greatly shifted industry allows one to perceive its qualities ever clearer, and how strongly it still rates for anyone with an interest in spatially intensive, hyper-fast 3D action. The mark that I am, I also cannot help but read into the handful of Dead or Alive regulars that exist in this game who have now received brand new character models, and whether that series might also receive better treatment than it has in great many years.
~~~
That's Ninja Gaiden as it stands now, having jumped from nothing at all to three projects in the same year within a month and a change's time. Wild how that goes. Chatter about any aspect of the series that intrigues, of course--past, present or future. 2 Black has been highly enjoyable as a firsthand newcomer, longtime distant observer to it, and these games always reveal more of themselves on higher difficulties... so that's probably something to keep oneself occupied with for a while.