Ninja Gaiden fans were treated to an exciting reveal last month, when Koei Tecmo confirmed it was releasing Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection during a Nintendo Direct presentation. The trilogy will bring together the three games from the rebooted Ninja Gaiden series, but astute fans will have noticed that the team is using the Sigma versions of the first two games, rather than Ninja Gaiden Black or Ninja Gaiden 2.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Sigma 2 were updated re-releases of the first two games made for the PS3 in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Considering they were marketed at the time as the "more complete" versions of the games, it would seem to make sense to incorporate them into Master Collection, but in reality both Sigma games ended up changing or removing a few things. Sigma left out much of the bonus content from the original game and its first remake, Ninja Gaiden Black, while Sigma 2 removed the admittedly rather excessive gore and violence system from Ninja Gaiden 2.
Unfortunately, the reason why these versions are included isn't due to choice but necessity. The original code for Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 was unsalvageable. In an interview with Famitsu Weekly, Team Ninja brand manager Fumihiko Yasuda explained the decision: "To be honest, there are only fragments of the data that remain. We couldn’t salvage them. However, when developing Sigma Plus and Sigma Plus 2 [re-releases of the Sigma games for the PlayStation Vita], we got as much of this kind of data together as we could and organized it."
While Ninja Gaiden fans are no doubt pleased that the code of some version of the games has survived to 2021, it's likely difficult for them not to feel a little put out by what they're missing. The first Sigma game infamously got rid of several unlockable costumes, along with versions of the original SNES and arcade games and some of the cutscenes. With a June release date looming, it's uncertain whether Team Ninja will be adding any of that content back in, so prospective players who missed out on the Xbox versions back in the mid-2000s might simply be out of luck.
The Ninja Gaiden situation is emblematic of a larger issue in the games industry at large concerning the preservation of games as more servers and hard drives are lost to time along with the code sitting on them. With the recent news that Sony is shutting down the PS3, PSP and PS Vita shops permanently, discussion is raging in the community about what to do when certain games are on the precipice of being lost forever.
Still, whatever small shortcomings Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection might have, it'll still be good to have some version of these iconic games playable on modern consoles. And if the stark difficulty of the main Ninja Gaiden games doesn't appeal, perhaps a possible appearance from series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa in Super Smash Bros will do the trick.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection launches on June 10 for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Famitsu Weekly/Kotaku