I have weird memories of Ninja Gaiden. I’m not referring to the frustration of the NES classic. As an adult, the first video game system I ever purchased was the original Xbox. That massive black box with an encased “X” complete with its own weird morphin start-up screen that I still think might be the best of its kind. But I never purchased the system because of Halo or the still missed Fusion Frenzy. When I found Microsoft would be bringing a new Ninja Gaiden to gaming, I decided Bill Gate’s system was for me. Now Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja are bringing a remaster of a remaster in the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection
Developed By: Team Ninja
Published By: Koei Tecmo
Available For: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC Steam
The first Ninja Gaiden was the first near-perfect game I played in the modern era of gaming. It introduced fierce gore combat that anyone could master with repetition. In just a few stages I was flying through the air decapitating demons with the dragon sword and loving every second of it. 2004’s Ninja Gaiden was the first game I can remember that was hard and not because making itself difficult created a longer experience. The difficulty was the right level of frustration and reward. Every time you mastered your weapon and defeated one of the massive bosses after dying a few times, the game gave you something new to play with. With the new Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, all these memories I have could have easily turned sour. I’m happy to say after playing the first two Ninja Gaiden games in the collection, this piece of Xbox history actually stands up against some newer games in the market.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection gives you all three games in the “Sigma” series (Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 3: Razor’s Edge). The games aren’t remastered, Sigma was originally a slight visual upgrade of the original 2004 Xbox game and added the bonuses of the downloadable hurricane packs. In a roundabout way the game has gone through 3 generations with little in the way visual improvement. To be honest, it doesn’t need it.
Ryu’s little to the imagination ninja suit looks sleek as it did on Xbox and combat animations are still glass levels of smooth. As Ninja Gaiden on Xbox was one of the first game’s to push that hardware for all its worth there’s a lot of visual future-proofing here.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection aged well but it’s not without some minor annoyances from its past. Some of the more artifact and effect heavy stages like the lava level in the first one come off a bit nauseating. The savepoint system is archaic, when you don’t remaster a game, studios are left using every bit of the original so you have to take some of the things gaming outgrew.
At its $39.99 MSRP, this collection of games is a good deal for those who never played any of the games or if you’re like me missing your first Xbox, a good way to relive some classics. It’s a shame the original big Xbox that Ryu gets his boomerang shuriken from had to be replaced but overall there’s more to love about this collection than hate.
Note: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was said to have some issues that would be patched out on day one. While playing, I did not encounter any game-ending glitches but in order to make sure you get the best experience, download the day one patch.
