For the ninja-obsessed folks who may have grown up on Sho Kosugi movies, Naruto manga, or classic ninja video games, 2025 was their year, thanks to a confluence of releases both nostalgic and new. After a spate of popular ninja games in the late 1980s (Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Strider) and early aughts (uh… Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Tenchu), ninja representation has cooled — but not this year, when no less than six major releases arrived on virtually every modern platform.
The better news? Nearly all of them ranged from great to S-tier, innovating the ninja-action genre in exciting and distinctive ways. Ninja fans finally got their Japan-set Assassin’s Creed, which co-starred the kunoichi Naoe. And while Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrived with no shortage of controversy, Ubisoft’s AAA entry into the ninja game space offered a taste of ninja-stealth-action, a style of game rarely seen in blockbuster form these days.
And for the video game fan who longs to throw shuriken, climb walls with spiked gloves, or hide underwater while breathing through a bamboo snorkel, there’s even a seventh, very late year release in the ninja game genre that’s worth checking out.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
One half of a ninja game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally takes Ubisoft’s historical action franchise to feudal Japan. Shadows is a gorgeous, meaty entry in the long-running Assassin’s Creed franchise, and Naoe just happens to be the better half of the game.
As we noted in our argument that Shadows would have been better as a single-protagonist game, former gamexplore contributor Tyler Colp summed it up well by arguing that everything Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed developers have done to date with stealth-action has culminated in Naoe.
“With Naoe, the point is to avoid directly clashing with enemies, and that works in the game’s favor,” Colp wrote. “Ubisoft has wall-climbing and traversal mastered at this point, so castles turn into 3D puzzles when you play stealthily. When I prepare to clean out a base, I plan out my route based on what’s in front of me: Bushes are checkpoints to stop and observe patrolling guards, dark rooms are possible escape locations, and rooftops are perches to pinpoint my targets.
“Stealth in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is all about execution and adapting to whatever happens when you inevitably screw up. It’s actually fun when things go wrong because you have to play to Naoe’s strengths as a tiny ninja who isn’t equipped to take on multiple enemies swinging at her — well, as long as you’re not using the weapon that breaks the game. As soon as you’re caught, everything in the environment can be your lifeline against a squad of samurai hunting for you.”
Blade Chimera
Few other games on this list are as cool as Blade Chimera, which is more Metroidvania-oriented than pure ninja-action. Developed by Team Ladybug and WSS Playground, Blade Chimera pulls more heavily from Konami’s Castlevania games than Metroid to create a more varied combat system that lets players mix and match guns, close-range melee weapons, and the powers of their magical demon sword companion.
Much of the action in Blade Chimera is centered on Lux, a shape-shifting spirit-sword demon-lady with broad-ranging powers. Lux can act as a shield; rematerialize missing objects; turn into a rope for your ninja hero to swing from; and serve as an ad hoc platform to jump off of. She can even become a jetpack. She’s arguably the star of the game, not the military ninja Shin, and one of the year’s coolest, most innovative weapons.
Ninja Gaiden 2 Black
A surprise drop that kicked off Team Ninja’s “year of the ninja,” Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is the third major version of Ninja Gaiden 2 — and arguably* the best, most balanced version of the game to play in 2025. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black brought the franchise to Unreal Engine 5, resulting in one of the best-looking Ninja Gaiden games to date. Hopefully, it’s a signal that Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja plan to do even more with the Ninja Gaiden franchise.
*Ninja Gaiden 2 Black hews more closely to the original Xbox 360 version of Ninja Gaiden 2, as envisioned by late director and producer Tomonobu Itagaki, but it does have its shortcomings — both technical and design-wise. And you can’t fight the Statue of Liberty in this version.
Ninja Gaiden 4
I have conflicted feelings about Ninja Gaiden 4, which aimed to deviate from the formula of modern Team Ninja action games, but ultimately felt off, empty, and unsatisfying. With Ninja Gaiden 4, Team Ninja and co-developer PlatinumGames attempt to kickstart the bloody action franchise with a new protagonist, Yakumo, a member of a rival ninja clan — the Ravens — who has been tasked with putting an end to the evil Dark Dragon’s curse.
Ultimately, I feel much more muted about Ninja Gaiden 4 now compared to when I burned through it this fall. From gamexplore’s review:
“With its new characters, harsh challenges, and a deep well of techniques to perfect, Ninja Gaiden 4 is a fascinating side-step that helps modernize the 3D ninja action formula […] while also giving fans of Platinum fare like Astral Chain, Nier: Automata, and Vanquish something new to chew on. It may not be the Ninja Gaiden you remember, but it’s got good blood running through its veins.”
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound
The biggest surprise of 2025 was Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, the 2D side-scrolling action-platformer from The Game Kitchen. Ragebound follows the trend of dual-ninja protagonists in more interesting ways than its 2025 contemporaries, letting players try two styles of ninja who ultimately become one super-powered killing machine with shared abilities. An audio and visual treat, Ragebound is a tight and efficient action game full of beautifully animated sprites and respectfully retro music — without ever being cloyingly nostalgic.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound captured the heart and soul of multiple eras of Ninja Gaiden games and manages to stand on its own, thanks to solid gameplay, tight controls, and a sharp presentation. But it wasn’t the year’s best 2D side-scroller…
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
After falling in love with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, I was cautious about the prospects of this year’s Shinobi revival. The original Shinobi and its direct arcade follow-up Shadow Dancer are two of my most formative video game experiences, and Sega’s wild changes in direction for the Shinobi franchise since then have yielded mixed results. But Shinobi: Art of Vengeance smartly pulls from Genesis-era classics like Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master and Metroid-style games to make Sega’s ninja franchise feel brand-new — and distinct from every other game on this list.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s cleverly designed combat puzzles, enjoyable lock-and-key exploration gameplay, and slick art style helped propel it to gamexplore’s top 50 games of 2025, a feat no other game on this list managed to pull off.
The Last Ninja Collection
Look, I have not yet played The Last Ninja Collection, an assemblage of classic ninja games from the Commodore 64 and Amiga era, in part because it was just released on Steam on Dec. 18 (console versions are inbound, as part of the collection’s Kickstarter fundraiser). It includes seminal, bestselling PC games The Last Ninja, Last Ninja 2, Last Ninja 3 and Ninja Remix, alongside fighting games International Karate, IK+, and Bangkok Knights.
But I fondly remember The Last Ninja and its direct sequel; they’re landmark games released at the height of the ninja craze in the West and offer distinct takes on the ninja genre. If you want to experience the early days of ninja video games, start here!
