It might seem strange to people that worship at the altar of FromSoftware, but prior to the release of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, a different company and game franchise held the crown for punishing difficulty. This company also happened to compete with Capcom’s Devil May Cry series for supremacy in the vein of stylish Action combat. In 2004, Team Ninja was the king of the proverbial castle, making its mark with the Ninja Gaiden series on Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is a culmination of that franchise’s roots. No, this is not the classic side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden your parents played. This is a different interpretation that spans over a decade and is still looked at fondly to this day by masochists. This master collection contains the revamped version of the first three 3D Ninja Gaiden titles, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.

All three games come with multiple difficulty levels (take note FromSoftware), including a Hero mode for people (such as myself) who have a hard time with brutal Action games. The Hero mode makes Ryu auto-block once his health gets to a certain threshold, allowing you to survive longer without repeated deaths. Even so, the games are known for their difficulty, and they are brutally hard.

They detail the adventures of Ryu Hayabusa, a part of the Hayabusa Dragon Clan. Each game details a different journey for Ryu, as he goes up against evil ninjas, demons, soldiers, experiments, and mechanical creatures. Alongside Ryu is a cast of characters, both villains and allies, that includes Ayane from the Dead or Alive franchise.

I’m not going to go into a large amount of detail about each game specifically, but each one has bloody action, wall-running, wall-jumping, and all sorts of other platforming mechanics. It also has a variety of QTE’s, though the QTE’s and the difficulty are not something I’m going to harp too much on since these are ports of games that released over a decade ago.

Yes, normally I would gripe about accessibility and difficulty spikes, but truthfully they weren’t remaking the games from scratch, just remastering and porting them. For a lot of folks who love brutal difficulty, or (like myself) played the original versions, it is an interesting nostalgia trip to a time in the industry before FromSoftware games created a culture of “Get Gud scrub.”

Ryu has a full arsenal of weaponry. He has various weapons such as swords, staffs, and claws, as well as ranged weapons such as shuriken and archery at his disposal. Additionally, you can utilize magical Ninpo attacks, that when used on enemies can heal you while also doing devastating damage.

There is a reason Team Ninja is known for stylish, smooth combat. While I would argue that Platinum Games and Capcom have overtaken them in recent years, in this particular style of game, Ryu still feels fantastic to play as. I have issues with the overwhelming number of enemies the game throws at you and, of course, the unforgiving nature of the game’s difficulty though.

So essentially, if you want 3 solid Action games for $39.99, less than the price of a single modern AAA title, the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is a great option. If you’re not fond of brutal difficulties or didn’t enjoy these games the first time around, you might wanna skip it. However, if you loved them the first time, and want to enjoy the nostalgia again, I completely recommend it.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection was provided by Koei Tecmo for this review.

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Ninja Gaiden Master Collection

$39.99 USD

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Stylish Gameplay and Combat
• Multiple Difficulty Options
• Lots of Weapons and Playstyles
• Interesting Characters
• 3 games in One Package

Cons

• QTEs
• Period-Typical Difficulty Spikes