Many moons ago in the early ’90s, I grew up with a copy of the Nintendo Power strategy guide for Ninja Gaiden II. That excellent tome contained bios on all of the game’s enemies, and I recall being entranced by one in particular: a gourd-like axe-wielder named Pumpkin Head.

Fast forward 35 years, and Pumpkin Head returns as one of the many villains in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a spirited revival of 2D Ninja Gaiden lovingly crafted by The Game Kitchen. More specifically, he shows up in the first stage to chuck an array of blades at new hero Kenji, who wears a blue costume that’s only a few degrees removed from series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa’s classic attire.

Frankly, Ragebound is the best that 2D Ninja Gaiden has ever been, sprinting a delicate tightrope between homaging the past and offering something new.

The throwbacks are the first thing that you’ll notice. Aside from Pumpkin Head, the game feels specifically designed to appeal to all of the folks who played the NES trilogy as kids. From the prologue – which stars Ryu’s father shortly before he perishes in the moonlight duel that started the original Ninja Gaiden – to Kenji’s wall jumping and ceiling-climbing prowess, which feels right out of Ninja Gaiden III, this effort was clearly built by fans with an appreciation for the source material.

That said, even though The Game Kitchen might have made their mark in the Metroidvania genre with Blasphemous, here they thankfully resisted the urge to muddy the waters with exploration and an endless array of branching paths. In both its older entries and Xbox-era reboot, Ninja Gaiden has always been about pure action above all else, and Ragebound exemplifies this with more than 20 levels that are carefully designed affairs with zero BS. There’s no need to endlessly refer to a map to figure out where you’re going, and while there are some collectibles to gather if you want, the focus is squarely on expert platforming and slashing through enemies – a refreshing change of pace in 2025.

If this sounds simplistic, know that it’s anything but. Unlike the games that inspired it, Ragebound stars not just Kenji, but a kunoichi named Kumori whose soul is bound to Kenji’s thanks to demon shenanigans. You control Kenji by default, and his forte lies in melee swordsmanship and somersaulting off of enemies. Whenever you need a kunai toss, however, you’ve got to swap to Kumori, and you’ll also pilot her to flip hard-to-reach switches in a demonic parallel universe.

Switching between both characters quickly becomes a practised act of synergy thanks to the hordes in Kenji and Kumori’s way. Some enemies are infused with blue energy, meaning Kenji has to kill them. Others are pink, meaning that they’re Kumori’s targets. Slaughter the right foes with the right characters, and you’ll harvest this energy and rip through armoured baddies in your path with a single hit. Your Rage Meter will also steadily accumulate, letting you unleash a screen-clearing attack when full.

The resulting experience is a thrill for speedrunners, meter management freaks, and anyone else who gets a thrill in receiving an S ranking as they dash through levels. And considering that the NES Ninja Gaidens are frequent speedrunning fodder these days, I’ve simply got to hand it to The Game Kitchen for once again doing their homework. They brought back Pumpkin Head, distilled classic Ninja Gaiden to its essentials for a modern revival, and managed to make me feel like a kid again as I played through their efforts. So while Ninja Gaiden 4 might take up more attention as the shinier new chapter in this franchise, Ragebound is something special, and steals the katana-scratched crown as my top ninja game of 2025.