Ryu Hayabusa has been enjoying an early retirement ever since the Ninja Gaiden series was put on ice years ago. Team Ninja has been busying itself with the Nioh games in the meantime, a more deliberate style of action title that takes things in a different, yet more modern, direction. Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection brings Ryu back with three major games in one package, but the genre has somewhat moved away from the flash and breakneck pace. How does it all stack up, then?
Well, let's first go over what's included. Simply put, Master Collection contains the enhanced editions of the three mainline entries. You get Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. To be clear, this collection is not a remaster; these are ports of the PlayStation 3 games, running at a higher resolution and a flawless 60 frames-per-second. While it's not a particularly impressive re-release, the package does also contain most of the DLC, a nice digital artbook and soundtrack, and allows you to play as various other characters too.
We'll begin at the beginning with Sigma 1. As the oldest of the three titles, it does show its age to a degree. The visuals are mostly fine but some effects, like fire making the whole screen swim about, can make things hard to read. In general, it can be difficult to acquaint yourself with your surroundings and the enemies, because the camera is frankly shoddy. Attacks can come from off-screen, and especially indoors, the camera just doesn't give you a good view of the vicinity.
Having said all that, the gameplay itself holds up surprisingly well. The first game in this trilogy is the least refined, with a slightly slower pace, clumsier menus, and less complex combat than its successors, but it lays solid foundations with slick, unforgiving action. Ryu is a nimble protagonist, able to run along walls and send enemies into the air, and you'll need to use every trick in the book to carve your way through the game. It's as tough as it ever was — fending off multiple enemies who don't really give you an inch is a tall order, but that stern challenge is a satisfying one to overcome.
Sigma 2 is definitely the best of the three, meanwhile. It smooths out the original's rough edges with a better camera, a gentler learning curve, and more cohesive presentation. The health system, which shortens your health bar the more overall damage you take, might sound harsh but it's actually more forgiving, as it refills up to a point once the enemies are clear. You can, and should, perform insta-kills on enemies with dismemberments, as otherwise they'll kamikaze you for a ton of damage. Additionally, you can only upgrade weapons at certain spots, and they don't take any currency, which means you don't have to make a choice between consumables or more power. With smart design choices like these, it's just a better game than the first in basically every way.
Which brings us to Razor's Edge, the series' difficult third album. It was critically panned at the time for its deviations from the core formula, and it's still a bit of a jarring change today. The combat is relatively unchanged — it's the same slick, quick action you expect — but it's surrounded by odd decisions that make the game less focused. Ryu's a ninja, but the odd stealth sections just feel completely out of place.
The presentation also feels incongruous with the other games, seemingly chasing a more Western audience with its more Hollywood bombast. We can't be the only ones irked by the Call of Duty-style mission briefings in the loading screens, or the unnecessary kunai wall-climbing sequences. At the end of the day, Razor's Edge isn't that bad. At its heart, the core gameplay is reminiscent of Sigma 2 — it's just wrapped up in design that doesn't fit the series all that well.
So, taken as a whole, we're left with an unusual collection. In some ways, the three games show their age, but ultimately we think the slice-and-dice combat remains pretty unique. You're rewarded for lightning reflexes and measured offence, and it does it all with a bloodthirsty grace. The visuals hold up surprisingly well given no real extra polish has been applied, and it's certainly interesting to see how the series evolved. Whether this is worth your time will be down to a couple of things. If you've never played Ninja Gaiden, this is a good opportunity to hop in and see what they have to offer. If you're already a fan, this is probably the best and easiest way to revisit these titles, warts and all. In a world where we have the likes of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Devil May Cry 5, this trilogy no longer represents the best that Japanese action has to offer, but there's definitely room at the table for what's still a brutal and satisfying series.
Conclusion
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection brings a trio of Ryu Hayabusa's adventures to modern systems, and that in itself is worth celebrating. The quality of the individual games does vary a fair bit, though, with Sigma 2 the best of the bunch. However, bringing them together is highly skill-based combat that rewards real mastery, and it remains pretty unique among modern action titles. While not without their flaws, there's still plenty to love about these PS3-era slash-'em-ups
Comments 56
Reminder: This collection is published by the worst publisher ever in terms of putting games on sale: Koei Tecmo. so don't expect a sale on it at least for 1 year and even then it will be 30% off. and for 3 games it's worth it anyway.
Appreciate them putting the games on new gen systems but would much rather off had a full on remake of one game rather than a port of 3 outdated games.
@Ben7982 koei tecmo will never do remakes, you know why? because they don't change their engine for 2 generations lol
God I had such a hard time with these games back in the day. I think this collection is the perfect excuse though to jump back in and put myself through it all over again.
Good to see it holds up well. I've always wanted to play these, but it was kinda hard considering the PS3 was old by the time I wanted to. Them being on PS4 will help with that a lot. I'll definitely pick this up at some point. I would've bought it at launch if it hadn't been competing with Chivalry 2 and the fact that I'm considering getting Scarlet Nexus.
@Ben7982
Not sure about a remake from the current Team Ninja. Nioh 1 and 2 are great, its other games, including NG 3/Razor's Edge, not so much.
I’m tempted to buy this. I played a bit of Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge on PlayStation Now and thought it was fairly decent.
Im confused how this game is a 7 but Ratchet and Clank: Rift apart is an 8..
"To be clear, this collection is not a remaster; these are ports of the PlayStation 3 games, running at a higher resolution and a flawless 60 frames-per-second."
Isn't that exactly what defines a remaster? Did you guys forget the PS2 HD Collections released on PS3? Those were remasters (heck, they kickstarted the whole remaster trend) and they did exactly what this does, so why would they be remasters and not this?
Definitely getting this.i play Ninja gaiden sigma 2 in 2012von my psvita.amazing . game.now a collection.oh yes.word up son
I play this game over Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.
@FullMetalWesker - Yeah, author seems to be confusing remaster with remake. These games are absolutely remasters. Work was even put into rebalancing the tag/trials missions as they were originally designed with coop in mind which is removed in this collection. They are not straight ports at all.
It’s a damn shame that the definitive version of the first with Black just isn’t possible to port forward.
I enjoyed Sigma 2 back in the day, but im not sure this is a release i need to play again any time soon, particularly if its a relatively bare bones remaster. I hope anyone who picks this up has an enjoyable time though!
I loved these games but i never played razors edge.i dont think i'll bother with these as it was very obvious that it was not a remaster merely a port which lets be frank here is not really acceptable in this age of console tech..they may still be great games but this is just a very lazy cash in..shame i had such high hopes..
Ninja gaiden is at the top of hack slash genre imo level design, boss fights, gameplay, characters. I played Dmc1 a few months ago and it was a nightmare so I'd rather keep these games in memory
So I've checked on amazon (uk) and this collection is nowhere to be seen.
'' Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. Wikipedia ''
This isn't a remaster ; even if they tweaked some things , then its considered just that..''tweaks'' . That's like calling PC games that released alongside the PS3 versions a ''remastered'' version , when its not , it just runs better on better hardware but , the game itself , at that time , is still dated for said time period it released.
A '' reboot '' means restarting a franchises story , and its arcs , with a new direction .
& a '' re-imagining'' means restarting an entire franchise from scratch and , re-imagining it all .
@Bush Have you ever heard of Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance ? Wouldnt be surprised if it de-throned ninja gaiden .
@nomither6 one of my favourites also I've played like 90% of all platinum games
@Waffles12415 sCorEs dOn'T mAtTer rEaD tHe rEvIeW
@nomither6 - If, by your quote, changing the image quality is a requirement to qualify for a remaster then these are remasters. The original PS/360 versions were sub 720p. These are 1080p on base hardware and 4K on PS4 Pro.
So are these censored or can we chop heads off here?
@OthmaneAD " This collection is published by the worst publisher ever in terms of putting games on sale: Koei Tecmo."
Nintendon't: Hold my beer
@Steel76 what was censored?
@colonelkilgore I think it was only released physically in Japan, you can find it on Play-Asia. Digital only everywhere else, it seems.
I looked up the censorship, replacing blood with purple mist and removing limbs no longer happens? Is this for real?
@Quintumply as a physical collector, than annoys the hell outta me. Cheers for letting me know though.
@Shigurui nah , the graphics are still the same. it's just being ran on better hardware than the PS3 . I explained that with my analogy of the PC .
@nomither6 - The graphics are now rendered in up to 4K. The definition of remaster that you quoted is absolutely met.
@Steel76 that's crazy! It should obviously be optional. Thanks for the heads up.
@Futureshark Hi I've been playing today and they've changed it the Sigma versions originally had no decapitations but this remaster has put them back in 😁
@naruball This collection has put the decapitations back in
@Steel76 In this port they've put decapitations back in
@Ben7982 Ever heard of punctuation?
Buzzing it still holds up well. I can't wait to get my flails out. Only £33 as well.
@Shigurui it didn't change the image/graphics though , it just made it visible in higher resolution .
edit : If this is passed off as a ''remaster'' then this is just going to cause confusion for actual games like Halo CE/MCC that had actual remasters. But then again , its already too late for that huh.
You're right I guess.
@Keyblade-Dan that's good to know. Thanks.
@Steel76 Sigma one has blood splatters everywhere dunno about 2 yet I'm still playing through one
@Keyblade-Dan
Nice one, thanks for the heads up (off).
Games don't age.
@Keyblade-Dan (or anyone else that has installed this): Is this collection one big, monolithic install, or separate download files for each game? I've noticed some remaster collections split up the games into their own downloads. Shenmue 1+2 did this, also the Bioshock Collection in which BS 1 and BS 2 are one download, while BS Infinite is a separate download. I actually prefer this approach, as I don't want to waste HDD space on the games in the collection that I'm not playing, and I'm not necessarily going to play/complete them all one-after-the-other in one huge binge.
If it is a single install, what's the installed size after the day 1 patch?
Thanks in advance for the info. Cheers!
Can anyone confirm if there are trophies for Sigma? They didn't have them originally on the PS3, but they did on the vita version. Either way, I'm really excited about this. Amazing games. I think the artwork and soundtrack mentioned in the review is only with the deluxe version.
@Loki7T1 it only appears as one game/application in the menu bar as the master collection and oddly you have to go to the product in the store to chose which game you want to play and this becomes the default one (there is no in game menu for switching between games). From this I'm confident you can download them individually if required. Hope this helps.
For anyone interested, Razor's edge is actually the second iteration of Ninja Gaiden 3, which was definitely disappointing and weak, razor's edge went a long way to improving the game, but it is still inferior to sigma 2.
@ColKojakSlapheadIII Interesting... thanks for the info.
@ColKojakSlapheadIII All three games have Trophies! They each have their own list, and all have a platinum.
@Loki7T1 They are a collection but unlike most remastered collections here you select what you want to play from your home screen press the options button over the game and a small menu will appear and you can pick what game you want to play the file size for each game is also really small 😁
@BoldAndBrash Same here.
@Waffles12415 Different reviewers, different games, man. You'll go crazy thinking like that. A website is a collection of different voices, not one voice. That's why they put the reviewers name at the top.
This is 3 (admittedly old) games in one package, so maybe the value for money put on some extra marks.
Ah yes I remember these games handing my ass to me on a plate!
@colonelkilgore same. I'm not even sure if I've ever played any of these games but would have liked to get this and at least try them. If I can't manage to get them physical though I'm not touching it. Can't stand this digital only crap (unless it's GOG for pc and I can download, back up and keep my own games without some middleman program in the way.) I've seen some imports on ebay and if I have the cash to spare soon will try there if they still have stock.
HI, thanks for the review, story wise, does it follow in the sequence of sigma 1, 2 and razor edge? Or are they self contained stories ?
@Steel76 The Switch version has a day one patch which adds the blood, gore and decapitation so I assume this will.
@Tencho2010 You definitely want to play in order, there is an overarching story narrative.
@Waffles12415 Different reviewer. Different genre of game. But most of all... Different opinions.
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