Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is poised to bring the infamously difficult ninja action series back to the games industry when it releases this summer. For fans of the recently dormant series, Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection modernizes the games with a fresh coat of paint and brings them together in one convenient place.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection bundles together Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge along with nearly all of the games' post-launch content. Ninja Gaiden is a notoriously difficult action hack-and-slash series that requires players to utilize a variety of attacks and moves to survive punishing encounters and boss fights.
In a newly released trailer, developer Team NINJA highlights the multiple playable characters that are present in the collection. Having multiple characters with their own equipment and move-sets is a big part of adding replayability in action games similar to Ninja Gaiden and provides avenues for players to master multiple characters or find one that matches their playstyle.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection includes the iconic Ninja Gaiden ninja Ryu Hayabusa as well as Ayane, Rachel, Momiji, and Kasumi as they were included in the original games. Each of the characters has its own weapon and fighting style, making them very different to play from Ryu and one another, all showcased in the video.
The video gives shows off not only how each character plays but how the collection looks overall. The trailer exhibits Ninja Gaiden's fluent and intricate combo-focused combat with some skilled gameplay, including a particularly slick clearing of a staircase by none other than Ryu Hayabusa. The character showcase trailer also shows off some of the various environments and enemy types that players can expect to come across in the collection.
With Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection's producer expressing interest in a female-led spin-off, and with many fans thinking a new entry in the series is long overdue, there is hope that the collection will be the jumping-off point for a revival of the iconic franchise if it performs well enough. With the recent success of Team NINJA's Nioh 2, which even received a Ninja Gaiden crossover, it does seem plausible. If that doesn't happen, however, at least fans of the series will be able to revisit some of their favorite titles from the series with a modern sheen on them and optimized for modern PCs and hardware.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection releases on June 10 for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with backward compatibility on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.