Was Ninja Gaiden’s Most Catastrophic Entry Really That Bad?

Bring up the name “Ninja Gaiden” and gamers of a certain age will perk up, a twinkle in their eye. Memories of suffering at the hands of the original NES trilogy are engraved for all time in entire generations of players. From the debut of the arcade game in 1988, to the masterful reboot on the original Xbox in 2004, the Ninja Gaiden series is infamous for its soul-crushing, yet incredibly rewarding gameplay. When news dropped in 2012 that a brand-new Ninja Gaiden game was on the way, fans perked up. With Ninja Gaiden Sigma 3 being a passable, but ultimately disappointing entry in the otherwise excellent 3D series of titles, fans were excited at the prospect of a Ninja Gaiden game stepping up to their expectations. What they received two years later instead has become considered to be one of the worst games of all time.

Released in 2014, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a spin-off title based on the Ninja Gaiden universe. As the series’ core narrative has existed within the 2004’s rebooted universe, Yaiba exists alongside the more recent Dead or Alive characters such as Ayami, Momiji, and Kasumi. In the first of several dramatic tonal shifts for the series, Yaiba does not feature the series’ main character, Ryu Hayabusa, as its protagonist; instead, players take the role of disgraced warrior Yaiba Kamikaze. Everything from the story to the playable character, to the tone is a radical (and oftentimes offensive) departure from every single Ninja Gaiden game that came before it. This, and many other reasons, is why Yaiba performed so terribly that the Ninja Gaiden series hasn’t been seen since.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a Raunchy, Foul-Mouthed Departure From the Series’ Roots

Potty Humor and Blood Galore

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Yaiba Kamikaze is an arrogant and despicable human being to his rotten core. Killing his entire clan on a whim, Yaiba sought out the most powerful warrior in the world to test his skills against. Facing off against Ryu Hayabusa, Yaiba was struck down and killed himself, his story seemingly coming to a dirty end. But when the mysterious Forge Industries resurrected Yaiba and equipped him with a variety of robotic enhancements to make up for his lost body parts, they inform him that his new lease on life came at a cost: he must battle his way through a zombie outbreak and discover its source. Yaiba is forced to enter into the mission and proceeds to hack, slack, and curse his way through an extremely bloody adventure.

Unlike previous Ninja Gaiden games, Yaiba is a third-person hack-and-slash game more reminiscent of God of War than its namesake series. Armed with a sword and chain weapon, Yaiba can slash and swing his way through hordes of enemies, performing execution moves, and even filling up a Bloodlust meter to make himself even more lethal. Gameplay outside of combat consists of basic platforming, whether by jumping, climbing, or swinging through environments.

Puzzles appear now and then but hardly pose any real challenge. On paper, Yaiba seems like a surefire hit. It’s soaked in wild splashes of neon and zombies; it features an abundance of crass and shocking low-brow humor; and its combat is significantly different from other Ninja Gaiden entries, a move that could help alleviate concerns of repetition. The only problem with all of that was that no one, fans and critics alike, liked any of it.

Yaiba is Universally Reviled In Every Regard

There’s a Good Game in There, Somewhere

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Immediately upon its release, Yaiba was scorned by nearly every major review outlet. Criticisms were placed on its presentation, its writing, its gameplay, its performance, and its deliberate over-reliance on puerile high school humor. Fans had wanted a new Ninja Gaiden title, not another game full of zombies. By the end of the year, Yaiba was being placed on lists of the worst games of the year and even the worst games of its entire generation. Fans who had been anticipating a return to form for the Ninja Gaiden series received a punch to the gut instead, and no amount of dorky, profanity-laden humor could ease the blow. People found Yaiba to be a bland, repetitive title that catered to a hyper-specific demographic of fans.

The biggest issue with Yaiba is that it carries the Ninja Gaiden name with it. Ninja Gaiden is a special series in that it exists predominantly in two very different generations of video game consoles. The NES games are lauded as being among the best action platformers on the system. They boasted outstanding graphics, fantastic music (go and listen to Stage 1-1: Weapon’s Lab from Ninja Gaiden III right now), razor-sharp gameplay, and super impressive anime-style cutscenes.

The Xbox reboot titles helped redefine what 3D action games could be with their otherworldly difficulty, gorgeous visuals, and superb updates to the series’ universe. There are decades worth of history, performance, and expectation that comes with the Ninja Gaiden series that Yaiba not only failed to live up to but also insulted, too.

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What made Yaiba even more painful for fans was the fact that video game industry legend Keiji Inafune (of Mega Man fame) had helped create the game. Inafune acted as character designer and co-director of Yaiba, a level of pedigree that should have resulted in success. Dark Horse Comics even got involved, too, by providing a mini pack-in comic to help flesh out Yaiba’s backstory. With comic talents like Tim Seely and Rafael Ortiz on board, it certainly looked like Yaiba had all the right pieces in place. But no amount of style was going to change people’s perceptions of its gameplay and content.

Had Yaiba simply been entitled Yaiba and not had the Ninja Gaiden title attached to it, there is the chance that it would have been better received. Had it not had decades’ worth of history behind it, not to mention fan expectations following Sigma 3, it might have had a softer reception. But choosing to make a spin-off title in such a wild manner was a death sentence for the game. Even if its gameplay was tighter and its humor reigned in a bit, there’s a very small chance that fans and critics would have warmed up to it and made it a smash hit. Take away its title and Yaiba has no bearing on Ninja Gaiden in any way aside from featuring a ninja-adjacent character as a playable character.

Yaiba Is Worth Playing, As Long as Players Turn Their Minds Off First

It’s Dorky, but Not Unplayable

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Ten years later and Yaiba has still languished in mediocre obscurity. The failure of Yaiba was so great that there has not been a single Ninja Gaiden game released since, whether as a core entry or spin-off title, which has been extremely alarming to long-time fans. Koei Tecmo has instead focused their efforts on the Nioh, Dynasty Warriors, and Nobunaga’s Ambition series, leaving one of their most cherished flagship franchises in the past. There is hope for the future of Ninja Gaiden, though, as series producer Fumihiko Yasuda has stated that the idea of a new entry has been considered, even acting as a female-driven spin-off title. As for Yaiba, however, there has not been, and probably never will be, mention of him again.

Ten years and an entire console generation later, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z as an action game is fine. It’s disappointing as a Ninja Gaiden game, but as an irreverent action title, it’s perfectly playable. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it never really wanted to in the first place. Yaiba was a gamble that unfortunately came up snake eyes. With Borderlands 2, DMC, Shadows of the Damned, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon pushing the envelope for mature humor in games during that generation, it’s understandable why Yaiba attempted to go for the same low-hanging fruit.

It looked at what was popular at the time (lots and lots of zombies) and took a stab at delivering what it thought fans wanted. It’s not a perfect game by far, but it also isn’t the absolute dredge of gaming like it was made out to be on launch. If watching giant robo-dogs urinate and drag their butts can elicit a giggle, well, Yaiba is the game to play.