Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

Ragebound is built on the classic Ninja Gaiden rhythm: short, dense stages packed with enemies, where speed and aggression are rewarded and hesitation gets punished. Kenji moves the way series veterans expect, with fast sword strings and acrobatic movement that let you take out enemies before they get a shot off.

The twist is that you control Kenji and Kumori at the same time. Their souls are bound together, so Kumori's assassin skills sit alongside Kenji's swordwork in a single moveset, and the Ninja Fusion system lets you combine them into devastating special attacks. Learning when to cash in those abilities, and which enemies to save them for, is the heart of high-level play.

The Game Kitchen describes the controls as easy to learn and hard to master, and the series' famous difficulty is intact: enemies hit hard, bosses demand pattern knowledge and perfectionists will want to replay fights until they are clean. Every enemy has been redrawn in detailed modern pixel art, with a brutal, nostalgic look that pushes modern pixel art hard.

It is single-player only, with full controller support and a strong gamepad recommendation, plus 36 achievements and Steam Cloud saves.

The tale begins with Ryu Hayabusa leaving for America to honour his father's will. While he is gone, the barrier between the human world and the demon world shatters, and an army of demons descends on the Hayabusa Village with its greatest protector absent.

Kenji Mozu, a young ninja trained by Ryu, steps up to defend it, but he is quickly out of his depth. Desperate, he reaches for forbidden power and makes an unthinkable pact with the Black Spider Clan, the Hayabusa clan's sworn enemies for centuries. His partner in that alliance is Kumori, a skilled Black Spider assassin, and their fates become literally intertwined.

The two must put old hatred aside and keep the world out of the Demon Lord's hands, with the story unfolding through both of their interconnected perspectives. It is a reimagining of the classic Ninja Gaiden universe rather than a retelling of any one game.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is out now on Windows PC through Steam at US$24.99. Steam prices it at RM61 in Malaysia, S$22 in Singapore, ₱765 in the Philippines, ฿495 in Thailand, Rp 206,999 in Indonesia and 321,000₫ in Vietnam. There are 13 supported languages, including Japanese, Korean, Russian and both Chinese scripts, though none from Southeast Asia. The minimum spec is modest: Windows 10, 6 GB of RAM and a GeForce GT 220 or Radeon HD 4550 for 720p at 30 fps. Full controller support is included and a gamepad is recommended.