Review: Ninja Gaiden Master Collection

The Ninja Gaiden series is painfully unforgiving. Enemies are fast, intelligent and absolutely relentless. Combat is brutal, with flying limbs and blood spatters a regular attraction.

As a newcomer to the series who hasn’t had the chance to compare the ‘re-worked’ titles found in the master collection, with the original – and seemingly preferred games – I can only speak of my singular experience with this collection. 

The Ninja Gaiden Master collection is a robust, punishing anthology of gaming greats that all have their own strengths and weaknesses. The collection consists of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.

In an effort to get this review out in a timely manner, I have spent the last couple weeks being humbled by this series of difficult games. And, I loved it.

The pinnacle of combat:

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One element that never wanes throughout the collection is the absolutely brilliant combat. Thankfully, each of the games are built around the excellent combo based combat system.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma, the first game in the collection, feels a tad more precise – dare I say slower – in comparison to the latter two titles. Personally, I preferred the more tempered – but still objectively fast – pace of the first game.

As the player, you have a great deal of control over what you do in combat. Each combo has a deliberate purpose and unique series of functions that encourage a sense of mastery seldom found in other games. 

The games smart and relentless enemies mean that mastering the combat isn’t an optional choice; reserved for the most elite players. It is a prerequisite just to get through the game. 

The most impressive part about the combat is the way in which it retains a certain simplicity when it comes to core mechanics. Nothing about the system is particularly obtuse or overtly complex. 

Having said that, there is still considerable thoughtfulness when it comes to combat. For example, player positioning is incredibly important. With this factor in mind, a simple mechanic such as wall running becomes not only a flashy maneuver, but also a strategic addition to your arsenal. 

This level of thought and strategy is prevalent across the games combat, which helped me – as a complete newcomer – find a satisfying balance between learning to understand the subtle nuances in the combat, whilst not being overwhelmed with layer upon layer of tutorials and hidden mechanics.

Across the collection, players will mainly control series lead, Ryu Hayabusa, however, there are some instances where you will also control members of the large female ensemble. Sadly, the other characters fail to live up to the high standard of gameplay that Ryu has to offer. 

I welcome variety wherever possible, but playing as someone like Rachel massively slowed the games otherwise excellent pacing for me. With a bit more time and perhaps consideration for how these characters would interact with enemies -who feel specifically designed with solely Ryu in mind – there is potential here for even greater gameplay variety.

Overall, the combat has aged extremely well. This isn’t a case of having to contextualise the game’s combat in relation to the time; even today, this is some top tier action combat. 

Other aspects of gameplay, such as puzzles and platforming, fail to reach the same standards as the combat. Not bad by any means and at times a fun reprieve from combat (who am I kidding, I couldn’t get enough of it), but the poor camera (which also is an issue in combat), is particularly frustrating during platforming sections.

Certainly a story:

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Having even a casual knowledge of Team Ninja as game developers, you would know that their games are not particularly story-driven experiences. This isn’t to say that the narratives found in their titles are bad, but the gameplay is the prime focus. Given the popularity of their recent titles (looking at the Nioh series particularly), this formula works for them.

The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection certainly doesn’t lack in spectacle and Ryu is an absolutely badass character. The voice acting and cutscenes are also surprisingly good for such a gameplay focused title. 

Complemented with some great music – and of course the absolutely brilliant combat – the story can hardly have a negative effect on the experience.

In some ways, the silly script (the writing is pretty awful) and mindless nature of the stories compliment the bombastic, brutal and chaotic gameplay. With gameplay this good, why bog it down by attempting to develop a more thoughtful narrative? 

I think this is certainly a fair argument. And, whilst it would make the collection even more impressive if there was a half-way decent story; attempts in Ninja Gaiden 3 to develop Ryu’s character falling flat suggest that perhaps the gameplay focus was the right choice.

The serious tone shift in 3 isn’t met with an improved script. The bad writing undermines the more serious tone and made me feel grateful for how much the first two games did not take themselves seriously at all.

Still the student:

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For a first time experience, the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection provides plenty of gameplay variety, challenge and even a little bit of innovation between titles (for better or worse).

Ninja Gaiden 3 feels decidedly weaker, but the quality in the first two titles made this collection extremely rewarding for a newcomer like me.

Sadly, the collection struggles to live up to the ‘master’ title – the performance on the Switch for these games is really poor. And from what I have heard, the PC port is also especially bad.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma fares a lot better than the latter two games, with the increasingly fast gameplay in the latter games having a tremendous effect on frame rate. 

The game often ends up looking incredibly pixelated and blurry. 

The camera is noticeably poor and whilst the combat remains absolutely excellent, nearly every other area could have done with a lot more work to live up to the ‘master’ label.

The story here is that the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection offers new players the chance to experience this excellent series in one complete package. The collection is packed full of content and challenge that encourages replayability. 

For more long-term fans however, this half-hearted attempt fails to elevate the game in the way you would expect of a remaster.