Summary
There hasn’t been a newNinja Gaidengame in 13 years, with the series living off re-releases and remasters for over a decade now. Bringing it back for a new audience with a direct sequel after such a lengthy hiatus was always going to be a difficult task, but Team Ninja struck gold and found the perfect way.
Or I guess, struckGame Pass Core.
During last night’s Xbox Developer Direct,the long-awaited Ninja Gaiden 4 was announcedin a thrilling, action-packed breakdown that encapsulated what makes this series so special (a whole lotta guts and gore). But at the very end, it announced a surprise second reveal — Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a ground-up remake of the original game in Unreal Engine 5.
Hook, Line, And Ninja
The showcase opened with Ninja Gaiden 4, showing us the lavish ruins of a dystopian, futuristic Tokyo being traversed by an agile but brutal ninja. We saw them slice apart foes in action bouts that already look like the perfect blend of old-school hack ‘n’ slash and newer Soulslike motifs, lending to Team Ninja’s recent foray into the genre withNiohandWo Long: Fallen Dynasty. It’s a big-budget, over-the-top action game from a studio that regularly rivals FromSoftware at its own game — regardless of whether you’re a Gaiden fan, it was an exciting opener.
But it still needed more to get people on board, people beyond the diehard fans who have been clutching at straws since Ninja Gaiden 3.
Ninja Gaiden 4 was the hook. It got people interested, whether they’re a fan or not. Then came the uppercut that Team Ninja was shadowdropping an entire remake of the second game, starring Ryu Hayabusa who featured so heavily in that opening trailer, and everyone had a reason to jump aboard the Ninja Gaiden train. As the showcase came to a close, many will have undoubtedly rushed to get Ninja Gaiden 2 Black installed.
Studio head Fumihiko Yasuda himself said that they wanted to “give players something to enjoy as they wait”, and so this remake was cleverly designed to a) tie players over until Ninja Gaiden 4, b) introduce newcomers to the series with a more up-to-date game that’ll flow seamlessly into the newer entry, and c) keep Ninja Gaiden in the spotlight for longer. Shadowdropping is often incredibly risky and tends to hurt sales (as does Game Pass) since you miss out on that major marketing push, but doing so with an entire, big-budget remake made a huge splash, one that will inevitably leave a mark.
It doesn’t need to sell well or be a breakout hit, it just needs to put Ninja Gaiden back on the map. Yesterday’s reveal did the heavy lifting, and the idea that ‘you may play it right now — for free’ goes far beyond what a standard remake might accomplish. Dropping Ninja Gaiden 2 Black on Game Pass is the perfect appetiser, and so many new fans will be joining the old guard in looking forward to the sequel when it arrives later this year.
