A Ninja Gaiden reboot is apparently in the works. Ninja Gaiden is a prominent action game brand that began in 1988 with a beat ’em-up arcade game and a beloved 2D action platformer for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ninja Gaiden has remained mostly silent since the completion of the Team Ninja trilogy in 2012 and a hack-and-slash spin-off in 2014. That looks to be changing, with Team Ninja announcing the return of Ninja Gaiden.
While the original Ninja Gaiden action-platformers are still popular, most Ninja Gaiden fans will connect the term with Team Ninja’s trilogy of tough 3D action hack-and-slash games. Ninja Gaiden games were both lauded and derided for their brutally challenging cinematic action and graphic brutality when they were released in 2004, 2008, and 2012. Ryu Hyabusa, the series’ protagonist, would slice at exceedingly difficult adversaries, frequently dismembering or decapitating them – at least until the savagery was toned down in Ninja Gaiden 3.
The news of a new Ninja Gaiden game came straight from Team Ninja, not IP owner Koei Tecmo, according to Noisy Pixel. Team Ninja delivered the keynote address at the Korea G-Star conference, a gaming trade convention. All that has been confirmed is that Team Ninja is working on a Ninja Gaiden reboot, but no more information about the project has been released.
While this is the first time a Ninja Gaiden revival has been announced, there have been several signs that it would come shortly. Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, a package comprising definitive copies of all three Ninja Gaiden games from Team Ninja, was published in 2021 by Koei Tecmo for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. It may be seen as Koei Tecmo testing the waters for the return of Ninja Gaiden, or as Team Ninja warming up to work on the series again.
Given the present dearth of information, it’s uncertain when further information regarding the Ninja Gaiden revival will be released. Likely, the next Ninja Gaiden game is still in pre-production, which means it might be years before it’s ready for public consumption. However, Team Ninja is notorious for its ambitious game delivery timeline, so anything is conceivable.
It’s difficult to imagine what a current Ninja Gaiden title might look like. Team Ninja might probably attempt to recapture the magic of its prior success by emphasising difficulty and brutality. Alternatively, it may make Ninja Gaiden into an action RPG like Team Ninja’s more recent efforts, Nioh and Wo-Long: Fallen Dynasty. In any case, there will be a lot of pleased Ninja Gaiden fans today.
