Every Ninja Game Released in 2025, Ranked (Including Ninja Gaiden 4)

It’s been a big year for ninjas! While ninja-themed games appear every year, 2025 saw a particularly large number of releases. This surge was largely thanks to the return of the Ninja Gaiden series, which bookended the year, but other notable titles like Ghost of Yotei and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (which also came to several new platforms) contributed to the trend.

Let’s compare the upcoming ninja games of 2025, including Ninja Gaiden 4 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, to see how they measure up.

8) Assassin’s Creed Shadows

A new Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan seemed like a guaranteed success. The series is always at its best when it explores unique locations, like Baghdad in its golden age or colonial America, and the idea of a stealthy assassin fits perfectly with feudal Japan. However, despite this promising combination of ninja themes and the Assassin’s Creed formula, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is unfortunately one of the most disappointing and dull games in a series that has always been inconsistent.

Shadows unfortunately falls short in several areas. The game’s depiction of Japan is frustrating to explore, with thick forests that push players onto repetitive paths instead of encouraging discovery. The world feels lifeless, filled with dull, repetitive tasks and assassination missions that don’t add much substance. Combat feels clumsy, and enemies lack impact, likely due to the game’s focus on collecting loot and RPG elements. The story offers little depth and ends abruptly, almost as if it were unfinished, leaving the characters, Naoe and Yasuke, underdeveloped.

Shadows unfortunately falls into the same trap as many recent Ubisoft open-world games, feeling uninspired and like it was made by too many people. After the disappointing releases of Valhalla and Mirage, the Assassin’s Creed series needed a bold, refined direction. Shadows, sadly, doesn’t deliver on that need.

7) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown

Most Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games are fast-paced action titles, making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown a surprising change of pace with its turn-based strategy gameplay. However, this new approach generally works well.

The game uses fast-paced action and dynamic collisions to emphasize the power of its characters. Levels constantly move forward, encouraging players to stay active and avoid defensive strategies. Each of the four characters has special, distinct attacks that players must carefully consider before each turn, adding a layer of strategic depth. However, the gameplay can become somewhat repetitive, as the game reveals its mechanics quickly and repeatedly defeating enemies loses its appeal after a while.

Tactical Takedown introduces a bold new story for the Turtles, eliminating both Splinter and Shredder and forcing them to redefine their purpose. While the premise is unique and emotionally resonant, the game’s lack of voice acting prevents the characters from fully expressing their personalities. This perfectly encapsulates the entire experience: engaging and intriguing, but limited by budgetary constraints.

6) Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black aims to be the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden 2. The original Ninja Gaiden 2 was a strong sequel, improving upon the first game with intense, fast-paced combat. While seemingly chaotic, battles demanded precise timing and skillful control. The PS3 re-release, Sigma 2, made changes to things like enemy health, the number of enemies, and the amount of blood, and also added new characters. While Sigma 2 improved some aspects of the game, it also had drawbacks, creating an opportunity for Ninja Gaiden 2 Black to offer the best possible experience of this modern Ninja Gaiden title.

Black blends the strongest elements of both original versions of Ninja Gaiden 2. It includes the blood and upgrade system from the first game, along with the new characters and powerful sword from Sigma 2. However, it’s not the ultimate version because it still retains some of Sigma 2’s weaker points, such as enemies having too much health and fewer enemies appearing on screen. It also lacks all of the costumes and survival modes. While Black is still a fantastic way to experience a great game, it feels incomplete and doesn’t fully live up to its name.

5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate clearly takes inspiration from the game Hades, borrowing many of its core elements. Like Hades, it’s an action game played from an overhead perspective where you improve your character with upgrades during each attempt, and the story unfolds as you succeed. However, Splintered Fate isn’t simply a copy. It offers a wide range of upgrades, letting players customize their Turtles with powerful ninja abilities or focus on unique, ooze-based attacks. The game also feels great to play, with responsive controls and smooth combat that makes all those upgrades truly shine.

The game starts strong and is enjoyable for a while, but it falls short of being truly great due to a few key issues. It leans too much on traditional RPG elements, which can lead to frustratingly early game overs if you can’t deal enough damage. The game also lacks variety in its encounters, especially during boss fights. While the writing has some funny moments and the voice acting is good, the story itself isn’t very engaging and feels incomplete – like the real ending will come in future downloadable content or a sequel. These flaws prevent Splintered Fate from reaching the level of Hades, which excels in storytelling, gameplay, variety, and visuals. However, it’s still a surprisingly good game, especially considering it began as a mobile title.

4) Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Though the original Shinobi hasn’t been seen for 14 years, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance proves how to successfully revive a classic game series. A key to its success is its stunning art style. The game features bright, colorful environments and fluid character animations perfect for a ninja-focused title. The over-the-top special attacks are also impressive, filling the screen with beautiful visual effects. Art of Vengeance is rare in that it manages to maintain the quality of its striking artwork throughout the actual gameplay.

The game looks great, and that quality extends to the way combat feels. Pulling off long combos shows how well-designed the fast-paced, aerial-focused melee system is – Joe Musashi’s attacks connect smoothly. However, combat isn’t perfect. Some moves leave you vulnerable for too long, or don’t activate when you expect. A lot of abilities also use the same buttons, which can be frustrating. While landing a 147-hit combo is incredibly rewarding, Art of Vengeance’s complicated controls can sometimes make things more difficult than they need to be.

Despite a few flaws, Art of Vengeance is a solid start to bringing the series back. With some improvements, it has the potential to be as visually impressive as its overall design suggests.

3) Ninja Gaiden 4

Ninja Gaiden 3 and its updated version, Razor’s Edge, were both major letdowns. Thankfully, after a 13-year wait, Ninja Gaiden 4 has finally erased the bad memories of that previous installment.

This new game from PlatinumGames builds on what fans loved about their previous titles, while also bringing its own unique style. Combat is incredibly fast-paced, emphasizing quick reactions and dismembering enemies. It features more emphasis on skillful defenses like parrying and dodging at the last possible moment, adding a new level of strategy to each fight.

Like Sigma 2, Ninja Gaiden 4 features tougher enemies that can withstand a lot of damage, rather than many weaker, faster ones. While this can make fights feel overly long, quickly moving between enemies and performing impressive combos delivers the same exciting feeling as the original Ninja Gaiden games. Despite being held back by its length, awkward vehicle sections, lack of innovation, and those durable enemies, Ninja Gaiden 4 still retains enough of the series’ core elements to point it in a positive direction.

2) Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound

The Ninja Gaiden series started with 2D games, so it’s fitting that one of its best installments since 2008 is also a 2D title. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound focuses on the smooth, fast-paced movement players expect from a ninja game. Levels are designed to encourage continuous action, and the Hypercharge system really showcases this. When enemies glow, the two playable characters, Kenji and Kumori, gain the ability to instantly defeat them with a single hit. Knowing when to use this power against tough enemies creates a great flow and allows for a lot of skillful play in Ragebound.

While mistakes aren’t punishing, Ragebound truly shines when you flawlessly complete a challenge without pausing – that feeling of smooth, uninterrupted progress is incredibly satisfying. This encourages players to learn and get better, letting them live out a ninja-like experience. Boss battles take a bit longer, but they’re equally well-designed, demanding you master enemy patterns to succeed. Aside from a few annoying instances of damage from simply touching enemies, everything is brilliantly crafted and beautifully presented with The Game Kitchen’s stunning pixel art – some of the best around.

The new game could have simply recreated the punishing difficulty of the original Ninja Gaiden titles. However, the developers at The Game Kitchen chose a different path. While acknowledging the challenging nature of the older games, they aimed for a fairer and more balanced experience. The result is a game that successfully blends elements of the classic titles with modern design, offering a rewarding challenge that feels both familiar and fresh.

1) Ghost of Yotei

At first glance, Ghost of Yotei seems very similar to Ghost of Tsushima. That’s partially true – it shares a comparable style and is another open-world action game taking place in Japan. However, dismissing it as just more of the same overlooks the many subtle but significant improvements Yotei makes to the original Tsushima’s gameplay.

The combat is more dynamic thanks to a wider range of weapons, tools, and abilities, all working with the game’s responsive controls. The user interface has been improved to make finding the best armor less of a chore, and there’s a lot of great armor to discover. Cutscenes feel more impactful with enhanced facial animations (in both English and Japanese), which better convey the story’s dramatic themes of revenge. Traveling the world is faster thanks to a quicker horse and redesigned roads. The detective work sections appear less often and are much more streamlined with clearer hints. Even simple actions, like putting away your weapon, feel smoother and more natural than in the previous game.

While there are various enhancements in this sequel, the biggest achievement is how Sucker Punch Productions redesigned the open world of Yotei. Exploration feels much more organic this time, even with some familiar activity types – though they’re less repetitive and often have unique elements. The game cleverly uses visual cues – like a burned building, a troubled fisherman, or a mask-covered bar – to draw players toward interesting things. It encourages curiosity and rewards players with unexpected side missions or story details. These carefully placed moments are scattered throughout the map, making the world feel more vibrant and alive compared to many other open-world games. This stands in sharp contrast to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which presents a dull and lifeless version of Japan.

Okay, so I just finished playing Ghost of Yotei, and wow. The world they built is seriously immersive, and it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen on my PS5 – the colors just pop. They really paid attention to the details, too; everything feels polished and refined. Honestly, this is Sucker Punch at their absolute best. It’s easily one of the top exclusive games on the PS5, and if you’re into ninja stuff, this is the game to play in 2025. It’s just a stunning experience overall.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/gaming/feature/ghost-of-yotei-lethal-difficulty-one-caveat/embed/#

2025-10-22 19:15