HIGH Linking seamlessly flamboyant chains of acrobatics and death.

LOW No rapid-fire option for automatic sword swings can wear on the thumb.

WTF Super Express to Hell!

Ninja Gaiden‘s been on vacation for a while at this point. Well, break time’s over, bastards — The Game Kitchen, developers of the highly regarded Blasphemous series, have decided to cook up a delicious new entry in this legendary IP.

Despite Ninja Gaiden typically being known for its bloodsplatteringly vicious 3D combat entries, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound instead hearkens back to the classic NES trilogy with a modernized take on the 2D ninja platforming that got the ball rolling in the first place.

After a short playable prologue, Ragebound’s new protagonist Kenji Mozu scoots through a quick obstacle and tutorial course introducing the most important mechanics and subsequently gets Izuna Dropped on his head by the legendary Ryu Hayabusa as a reward for completing his trial.

Things suddenly kick off in a serious way, Ryu has to leave for America in a hurry, and series veterans will undoubtedly be pleased to hear that the Hayabusa Ninja Village continues its longstanding tradition of being razed to the ground by demons every other week.

Before long, Kenji joins forces with Kumori, a Black Spider Ninja Clan operative with a penchant for hurling razor sharp kunai into the faces of anyone she deems unpleasant. The catch is that they have to literally fuse into a single body to survive, so while Kenji emerges from this joining as the dominant character, Kumori aids him as a powerful spectral sidekick capable of hurling projectiles and using ninpo magic to annihilate any fiends standing in their way.

I found these two new protagonists to be great, playing off one another as mismatched partners facing impossible odds — one full of zeal and righteousness, the other cynical and pragmatic. They may be original characters, but players familiar with the franchise are likely to recognize certain parallels in their design and combat style right away. Kenji is basically a greener, brasher approximation of Ryu Hayabusa and Kumori carries herself as an infinitely cooler version of Ayane from the Dead or Alive series.

As someone who may or may not be dead, Kumori is also able to step into the Demon Realm whenever Kenji comes across demon statues dotted throughout the stages. These tend to be where the toughest platforming challenges take place, but even though Kumori has to complete her tasks on a strict timer before being recalled, she won’t die if she takes too much damage or drops down a pit which allows for as many retries as the player needs to succeed.

Combat is slick, speedy and satisfying thanks to perfectly responsive controls. Kenji can kill many enemies with a single sword slash, cut through incoming projectiles, or kickflip off nearly every enemy or attack in the game using a technique known as the Guillotine Boost — and it isn’t just an optional extra thrown in to spice things up. Players will be required to frequently make use of it to cross yawning chasms filled with airborne baddies or to bounce their way towards secret areas and items tucked just out of reach.

The other major new addition is the ability to Hypercharge Kenji and Kumori’s attacks by killing specific enemies in sequence or sacrificing a little health, allowing them to slice through most enemies’ defenses to dispatch them in one murderously powerful blow. It’s exceptionally useful, and in order to fully leverage it, players will have to think quickly about the optimal approach to many situations.

It’s important to note that Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound isn’t a metroidvania or a roguelike — it’s a traditional stage-based action-platformer in the vein of the original NES titles. Nearly every stage looks fantastic in a chunky pixel art manner, with plenty of detail and great animation throughout as players follow Kenji and Kumori’s journey through burning temples, mountain pathways, across the tops of high-speed trains and more. I only disliked the design of one stage, a sickly and unpleasant biolab which simply didn’t hold up to the quality of the others.

Also of note is the amount of variations throughout each stage to help spice gameplay up. Whether fleeing from a demon who somehow learned how to operate a bulldozer, speeding across the countryside on a motorbike or having to take cover from powerful explosions in the background of an unfinished construction yard, there are plenty of neat setpieces to help keep things interesting.

The journey may not always be an easy one, but I absolutely loved it. It’s just… Goddamn, my thumb really hurts now.

Given that Kenji and Kumori have fixed stats, players can’t simply level up by killing minions to overcome challenges through brute force. That said, there are numerous Golden Scarabs and Crystal Skulls tucked away in each stage which can be used to purchase items from a shop between stages. Obtaining new projectiles and super arts, and equipping up to two talismans that help or hamper their chances of succeeding in each level can make a real difference.

Positive effects can include healing on chain kills and obtaining Hypercharge attacks from linking multiple Guillotine Boosts together, whereas negative ones may involve not healing at checkpoints or restarting the entire stage upon death in exchange for higher completion ranks at the end. Every stage has a rank associated with it, and challenges can range from trivialities such as deflecting a few projectiles to more challenging ones such as beating Ryu Hayabusa in a duel fresh out of the tutorial.

Make no mistake, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound can be a tricky game, even on the Normal difficulty setting. However, it also allows players to make the experience as easy or as hard as they like, whether through unlockable weapons and talismans or by using an in-game accessibility menu that can slow down overall speed, reduce taken damage or even make players invincible to pretty much anything other than falling off the map — so while it’s a tough game by default, pretty much anyone should be able to succeed through tweaking various settings. There’s also no antiquated ‘lives’ system looming overhead, and plenty of checkpoints to quickly return to.

In fact, about the only real complaint I have about Ragebound is that there’s no rapid-fire option in the menus for repeated sword slashes. Some of these bosses can take a real pounding, so after a few deaths and hammering away at the melee button like a madman each time, my thumb started to feel somewhat abused. It’s not typically a concern while making headway through each stage, but some bosses have massive health pools to be whittled down, leading to serious physical fatigue.

Aside from that one issue, it’s hard to fault anything about Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. It’s damn near perfect, and offers an immensely satisfying experience with plenty of replayability — it’s so good, in fact, that after completing it for the first time, I sat down and immediately completed it again on Hard Mode.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by The Game Kitchen and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S/PS4/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed twice with all achievements earned. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violence. The official description reads: This is a 2D action-platformer based on levels and characters from the Ninja Gaiden universe. Players control small ninjas as they battle enemies (e.g., human commandos, ninjas, demons) in fast-paced combat. Players use swords, thrown weapons, and magic skills to kill enemies. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Some attacks allow players to dismember or behead enemies, and a handful of boss creatures are depicted with exposed organs and/or skinless, flesh/sinewy bodies. Some female enemies are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., low-cut tops, a lot of cleavage). The word “a*s” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. All dialogue is delivered through text. The subtitles can be altered and/ or resized, though seemingly not enlarged. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

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HIGH Unsettling, majestic art direction.

LOW Annoying trial-and-error platforming challenges.

WTF The illogical way to unlock the canonical ending.

Gamecritics.com has already published a spot-on review for the original version of Blasphemous, but the devs’ continuous devotion (no pun intended) to this grim realm warrants a second take. Since the initial review, The Game Kitchen has released three free DLCs that add substantial weight to the whole experience — and most importantly, they alter the canonical ending. Given how essential this new conclusion is to the entire premise of the never-ending cycle of penance trapping the land of Cvstodia, judging the final version of Blasphemous requires a new set of pros and cons.    

Gameplay-wise, Blasphemous remains a 2D metroidvania focusing on melee combat and platforming — the original review holds the rest of the basic details on this. Please see that review for more of the nuts and bolts.

After beginning this updated version, main character The Penitent One is given a clear quest, and he proceeds to unearth why things are the way they are in his cursed land by besting a plethora of grotesque creatures and screen-filling bosses. Along the way, he unlocks new combo attacks, completes quests given by NPCs in order to learn magic skills, and relies on invincibility frames courtesy of a dash move and very generous parrying to defeat towering monstrosities.

The setting of Blasphemous implies an allegorical depiction of medieval Spain, featuring a society built upon overzealous acts of self-harm and various forms of voluntary sacrifice that might bring one closer to the grace of The Miracle — the deity looming over the adventure. So, many of the areas we visit involve huge edifices raised for praising The Miracle, populated by enemies with appearances twisted to a worrying degree due to fanatical following of religious teaching. The result is an often awe-inspiring landscape reminiscent of pre-renaissance-era Catholic paintings of sinners carrying out punishment in places other than heaven.

Even if this concept seems like well-worn ground, I sincerely cannot think of a title that comes close to rivaling Blasphemous. The art direction is simply amazing and will leave a lasting impression on the player — guaranteed!

The bosses are (literally) the biggest examples of how potent this artistry can be. Many of them appear before us in forms that make their human origins nigh unrecognizable as a result of the The Miracle “rewarding” their unwavering faith. It is unfortunate, then, that Blasphemous had only a handful of bosses on release. Luckily, all three DLCs address this issue in prudent ways.

The Stir of Dawn DLC added five (!!!) new bosses that we can face during New Game+ mode, meaning they are designed to be challenging. Plus, this DLC introduces a new NPC shedding more light on the nature of The Miracle, and further revelations await after defeating this squadron of tortured souls.

Are they too tough or unfair, though? To me, not in the slightest. Looking back after completion, I can confirm that none of these new bosses had anything like unfair recovery times or endless spamming of ranged attacks. On the contrary — everything the game teaches us in the first playthrough remains applicable and effective the second time around. So, instead of making these extra bosses encounters that I’d rather avoid (see: Elden Ring’s Malenia), Blasphemous succeeds in offering new challenges that are appropriate.

Moving on, the Strife and Ruin DLC added an awesome boss-rush mode where we can face combinations of bosses divided into several difficulty tiers. This is an excellent way to learn their patterns and perhaps train ourselves for a no-hit run across the entire campaign.

Also, this DLC added a special set of timed platforming challenges, filled to the brim with insta-death pitfalls. When it comes to these specifically, I have to side with Mike and say that insta-death is something videogames outgrew decades ago — and the developers seems to agree with us now since they’ve said that Blasphemous 2 won’t implement them. Plus, failing these obstacle courses has no negative consequence on a playthrough, and completing them does gets us a cool new magic skill to try.

The final DLC, titled Wounds of Eventide, is where the most pleasant surprises await us. This content comprises two new bosses, two entirely new areas, it gives new personas to three prominent characters, introduces a new NPC of great importance, changes the final boss fight, and on top of all that — brings a new ‘canonical’ ending that’s far meatier than the others, and it leads directly into the sequel.

Eventide alone is enough of a reason for a second play and a second review, and without spoiling anything, I’ll say that those who chose to entertain its notions will find much to ponder about here.

One thing that does grind my gears, however, is the convoluted steps we have to fulfill to reach the true ending. I tried to do so without any outside help the first time, but that proved futile after a dozen hours. Unlike the other endings, unlocking the new one requires us to perform a specific action which is quite impossible to discern without prior knowledge. Anyone trying to suss it out for themselves will likely feel like they’ve been kicked below the belt by how esoteric it is. Thus, it’s far wiser to simply google that information beforehand since the ending can become unreachable after a certain point of a playthrough.

While I suppose it’s possible to stumble upon that discovery by chance, I really wished the true path of The Penitent One was laid out in a more logical manner. Even so, the entirety of what Blasphemous is today represents a shining example of an airtight combat system set within an utterly captivating 2D world — and what was once an experience that only scratched at the surface of its own implications now offers fully-fledged discourse that isn’t light on conclusions.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

— Konstantin Koteski

Disclosures: This game is developed by The Game Kitchen and published by Team17. It is currently available on PS4, XBO, PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 50 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed several times on different difficulties. There are no multiplayer mods.

Parents: This game has received an “M” rating by ESRB, and contains Blood and Gore, Nudity and Violence. The board’s official summary reads: “This is a platformer game in which players hack and slash their way through the fantastical world of Cvstodia. From a 2D side-scrolling perspective, players traverse platforms while using a sword and special/magical attacks to kill enemies (e.g., ghouls, demons, monsters, corpses) and boss creatures in frenetic combat. Large blood-splatter effects appear frequently during gameplay, and several enemies can be torn into pieces or blown apart. One boss battle depicts a colossal figure tearing apart players’ character; a human-like enemy splits apart vertically upon death. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence: a character getting impaled by a sword; a character’s helmet filling up with blood from a wound. During the course of the game, some creatures are depicted with exposed breasts and buttocks; certain male creatures’ genitalia can be seen briefly in the background.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All of the conversations and narrations are clearly recorded and the subtitles’ size makes them easy to follow. Text cannot be resized or altered. Sound is completely unimportant for playing and beating this game due to the total absence of audio-only enemy cues. In my view, this is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game does not offer a controller diagram and the controls are not changeable. This is a 2D game where the analog sticks don’t play an important role, so the D-pad moves the character, the face buttons are for attacking, jumping and interacting with the menus, while the bumpers are for dashing, parrying, healing and using magic skills.

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HIGH A brilliant concept and exceptional writing.

LOW I really wish there were touch controls.

WTF A game with leftist politics? 

If there’s one thing I’ve come to expect from videogames — at least those in the triple-A sphere — it’s that their politics are usually awful. We even wrote a piece here at GameCritics highlighting that very fact. Whether it’s a slight skewing towards the right or aggressive centrism, too many titles never say the right thing at the right time. It’s concerning, but not surprising since most big-budget games can’t afford to ‘alienate’ their playerbases. Thankfully, many indies don’t suffer from the same fear. 

The Flower Collectors is an adventure set in Barcelona during 1977. Players control Jorge, a retired cop confined to a wheelchair. Jorge is something of a curmudgeon, and confused by a world that’s constantly changing. He spends most of his time sketching the people in his part of town, trying to capture every detail he can. 

The game is played from a first-person perspective from within Jorge’s apartment and balcony, using his vantage point to solve puzzles and mysteries. The opening moments have players using a pair of binoculars to watch people on the street while capturing specific moments for Jorge to draw in his sketchbook.

For example, I was instructed to find a “scene with contrasting characters.” I saw a priest speaking to a homeless man and Jorge began drawing. It’s not incredibly dynamic, but I loved how players are acclimated to the play mechanics in this context by getting them used to scoping the area out and finding specific things. After the sketches are done, Jorge consults a board and places each picture with its corresponding label.

Things changed once I heard a gunshot outside my apartment, and I was introduced to Melinda, a young journalist trying to get to the bottom of a series of conspiracies. Jorge and Melinda clash as they reflect different attitudes and react differently to the climate of Barcelona in the ’70s.

Melinda’s a staunch leftist and progressive, hungry for the truth. Jorge is set in his ways, seemingly bitter in an evolving world. The two bicker about small things, like Jorge insisting on calling women “girls”, or his critiques of socialism. Melinda is uneasy trusting a cop to help in her crusade, but the two learn to work together as Jorge uses his vantage point to guide her while communicating via radio.

The same ‘spotting things’ gameplay elements return, but now modified slightly. Jorge has a camera at this point, and must piece together crime scenes on his board. Playing detective is great and figuring things out never feels frustrating. It’s a smooth ride and cracking each case throughout ten chapters is exciting.

The writing in The Flower Collectors is exceptional and deals with themes like politics, grief, depression, homelessness, and police corruption. Seeing a game not only acknowledge socialist and leftist themes but embracing them feels like a revelation in the current real-world climate where the hard-right claims so much ground.

Politics aside, the dialogue feels ripped from the best political thrillers of the ’60s and ’70s, with the main point of influence (obviously) being Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, while also taking cues from films like The Conformist. 

The visuals are incredibly stylish, with every character portrayed as an anthropomorphized animal (Jorge is a bear and Melinda is a cat) reminding me of comics like the landmark Maus, in which different ethnicities and religions were portrayed by different animals. Barcelona itself is gorgeous as well, with bold lines and a wonderful color palette that looks great in both day and night. 

The Flower Collectors is a short but sweet experience that succeeds based on the merits of its writing and storytelling. It’s a game that successfully tackles political corruption and champions the left, yet still manages to be an engaging addition to the Adventure genre — something I wish more of its peers would do. While we probably won’t see a major studio adopt these politics anytime soon, I’ll always know that there’s at least one out there that does it well.

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Mi’pu’mi Games. It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer. 

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated T for Blood, Violence, Language and Use of Tobacco. Violence plays a large part of the game’s narrative but it’s not gratuitous or gory. Still, I feel like the game is better suited for adults, as its themes are a bit dark for young children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:  All the dialogue here is subtitled, with various visual cues used to solve puzzles. While none of these things can be resized, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable.

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