I came to this series from the carefully considered gameplay-loops of Devil May Cry 1 and God Hand. It made the combat impossible to consider in a vacuum because Ninja Gaiden doesn't really have the singleplayer-AI equivalent of a neutral game. That opinion did evolve over time. I do like games where enemy-interaction is simple, but the goal is just to survive and get from point A to B. This is how the NES games worked, and those are great. However, these Ninja Gaidens, from what I'd observed, don't mix the combat and platforming in a meaningful way and the way to deal with enemies is cut and dry. Izuna-drop spam and Ultimate Technique spam are the way to go. Not to say it's easy, but I like more variety and strategy than this. The games are somewhere between good and bland for me currently, but I'd like see what I can find on my own and not just go solely off of what I've discussed and what I've seen. It's always possible that players are simply doing what they can and that it's not ideal. My biggest fear is that the games are liked because the sandbox-elements of its combat aren't safe to attempt, when I don't care about creativity in a vacuum in the first place. I want to mix it up because I have no choice, not to pad out the fun. 2.5/5 for now.

I have never had a game absolutely beat me repeatedly as much as the Ninja Gaiden games. Many are most likely going to be put off by the difficulty but I think if you have the will to put your foot down and dedicate yourself to conquering the game then you’ll be in for an unforgettable experience. Although this is a simpler hack n’ slash to understand, the rest of the game makes sure that you learn these mechanics and utilize them to its absolute best if you want to beat the game. This was a decent collection to bring the series to modern consoles and I think is worth looking into.

As soon as you take control of Ryu you’ll realize that controlling him feels fluid. These controls feel smooth and responsive enough that when it comes down to moments where your inputs matter, it will always feel like it’s because of you instead of a bullshit delay or janky response. It doesn’t take much to get accustomed to them even without reading Ayane’s notes in the first game. Hell if you want to review the controls or combo inputs, it lays it all out for you in the weapons screen too on all three games. Something I do think should’ve had more emphasis though is the fact that blocking works right after making attacks instead of when you carry out the whole animation. This made me feel weird at first thinking I wouldn’t be able to block attacks until Ryu’s in position. I don’t feel like that takes too long to realize either though on your first time playing.

Every game I think also has a decently good presentation. The lighting I thought looked kind of weird in NG3:RE but can be adjusted a bit to make it less awkward. The level design in the first two games are really interesting and feel memorable enough that you’ll be able to enjoy traversing through them. In NG3:RE I felt like they were a bit too linear and slightly blander to the point some of them kind of blended in with each other. NG2 is linear as well but the environments were more distinct in my opinion.

As for the combat, it’s easy to learn but difficult to master. It gives you a lot of variety with the weapons, ninpo, and enemies that you’ll be satisfied enough experimenting and learning how each of these function. Most weapons feel unique enough that you can start finding out which one is more effective and comfortable for certain encounters. I wish I could say the same about the ninpo since I feel like in every game there’s always a worst and best ninpo, and they don’t have as much versatility as the weapons. I felt like in NG3:RE it was emphasized a bit more due to the recharge meters varying in length so I ended up neglecting every other ninpo except one just because I could use it faster than the rest; which I think fucking sucks because I would’ve liked the ninpo meter more in 3 than the other games if you could store multiple ninpo attacks and if the recharge didn’t make it obvious to stick to the ones with the shortest recharge time. In the end though I really liked being able to strategically position enemies and then destroy all of them with a good ninpo attack. As for the enemies, most of them are fair and fun to fight but some of them are sort of bullshit or annoying. The ghost fish and the larger enemies in 3 are the ones that come to mind but other than that, the rest I have no issue with. It’s satisfying to learn when to dodge and attack every enemy and then take what you learned and use it to get through the combat encounters with multiple different enemies. In 3 I really liked the Steel on Bone mechanic where I can chain together kills. The power I felt slicing through groups of enemies felt exhilarating. I think maybe there should have been a wider camera view, or an indicator of enemies that are going to attack off screen but this wasn’t as much of an issue as I thought it would be. It’s mostly fun from beginning to end.

Moving on to the bosses, my god this trilogy of games has both some of the best and worst bosses I’ve ever fought against. Getting the bad ones out of the way first, second form Alma is so annoying to fight just because you can’t reliably damage her and her grab attack isn’t telegraphed at all before she takes out of a chunk of your health bar. The final boss of NG3:RE is definitely the worst boss in any game I’ve ever played though just because you’re overloaded with too many attacks to reliably build up your ninpo meter that’s required to even get past her first phase. Not to mention I had to mute the game too because of the constant shrieking. As I said earlier though, some of these bosses are extremely fun. Doku and the final boss of NG1 made me feel like a badass when I beat them. Especially Doku, at that point he felt like the only one on Ryu Hayabusa’s level so it felt amazing fighting an enemy that is supposed to be the immovable object while you’re the unstoppable force. The Ryu clones were also a great fight too. In NG2 Vulf and Genshin were the two that stood out to me the most. They both followed that cycle that makes the combat fun of understanding your opponent, capitalizing on their weaknesses, and staying vigilant so you don’t end up getting killed either. I didn’t really care too much about the bosses in NG3:RE though. Most of them weren’t too bad but I just didn’t feel strongly about any of them except the goddess for a bad reason. There’s a lot of enjoyment to get out of a good amount of these bosses though.

Now for the story, to be honest I don’t have a lot to say about the actual story.l itself. They’re pretty straightforward in all of the games and I never really got too invested in any of the stories. Most of my amusement from the story just came from how ridiculous it can get. Ryu storms a military base to fight tanks and helicopters, beats the shit out of the devil in hell, and also destroys a goddess. I cannot recall most of the things that led up to those moments but the ideas alone entertain me. As for the characters themselves, they’re hit or miss. Some might think Ryu’s a boring protagonist since he’s so serious and focused but I’ve always felt like that seemed appropriate for him. He’s not completely devoid of character either since he has some brief interactions with other characters throughout the series that show a bit of what he’s like. In the third game he gets a lot more interaction with other people and the only issue to me was just that they tried to make him sort of regretful of killing people as if he already hasn’t killed thousands before. Nonetheless, I liked Ryu. I liked Ayane too since she’s almost the same case as Ryu but with a bit more sass. Rachel and Sonia/Irene are set up to seem very connected to Ryu even though they really don’t have any moments that would warrant them being close so it ended up feeling hollow. It made sense with Mizuki since she had the most interaction with Ryu but in the end he ends up with Sonia/Irene anyways. The villains all were intriguing too although in NG2 I didn’t really like most of them except Alexei, Vulf, and Genshin. I’m sure that others can say more about the actual story but for me it just came down to the characters and absurdity.

I’ve had a lot of things to say about the Ninja Gaiden trilogy and it has some very serious flaws but I still think that everything about it was memorable and fun enough to warrant a generous score. All 3 of the games were worth playing, even NG3:RE as much as I singled it out for being the weakest part of the trilogy. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun to play through it though. If you are going to play the games though I’d recommend checking Ninja Gaiden Black to see if it’s more in tune with what you prefer, but I’d argue NGB and Sigma are interchangeable. It all comes down to personal preference. I do think that for the other 2 games you should stick with the original NG2 and Razor’s Edge. The Ninja Gaiden trilogy is very flawed and difficult but you will not get many other experiences like this. You can get so much enjoyment and gratification from these games when you actually decide to give it a go. The Ninja Gaiden trilogy is something I can gladly recommend to people who love hack n slash games.

man they just do not care about these games. i have to do 4 stars because Ninja Gaiden is a must-play even if it's the Sigma version, but Sigma 2? if you have NO OTHER OPTION to play 2, yeah it's fine. The changes the Sigma games make can be very weird and misguided, such as the dumbass motorcycle guys or cutting the shortcut to Muramasa's from the drawbridge. Of course the gore and enemy count in Sigma 2 is a huge detriment but it's still playable. Razor's Edge is also here, and it's honestly not bad, just a hard course correction that sometimes doesn't work.

I genuinely wish NG would get more love, as it's simply the best action game series ever, and we will never get anything as methodical and complex as NG1 or as bananas insane as NG2 ever again.

If you are new to the series you absolutely SHOULD buy these, because you will still get into NG and they are great to play. If you become a die-hard you will end up buying Black and a CRT television to play it on whether I advise you to or not.