This was the year of the Ninja video game: these were the best in 2025

If you’re a gamer who also likes ninja-themed things, 2025 might have been the best year ever.

It seems like everyone and their dog released ninja and samurai games this year, as if they had discussed it in advance.

Including a remaster and a new platform for an older game, we count eight ninja and samurai games released this year alone, and nine if you’re willing to add a Ninja Turtles tactics game.

Let’s talk about the plethora of katana-focused games coming to PC and consoles this year.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

(Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox)

Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally fulfills the request that gamers have been shouting from the rooftops since the series launched in 2007: a ninja-themed game.

This is the most controversial game on the list, listed for many reasons by ragebait YouTubers, along with a few valid reasons.

Shadows presents one of the most stunningly rendered depictions of Japan in the Warring States period, offering a landscape of big cities, soaring mountains and a vast coastline without feeling like a theme park.

The game cleverly divides AC’s two mechanical paths into two characters: Naoe the Ninja and Yasuke the Samurai. With a few exceptions during the story, you can play the vast majority of the game as whichever character you choose, allowing you to tackle the game as a shadowy shinobi or a samurai tank.

It has the typical problems of an Assassin’s Creed game: the map feels both too big and too crowded. It feels foolish to stab someone in the neck just so they can survive being barely touched, although we recommend turning in one-hit kills for a true assassin experience.

If you don’t generally like Ubisoft games, Shadows won’t change your mind, and you’ll want to avoid this one. If you want to hop on horseback and explore one of the most beautiful games since Red Dead Redemption 2, while shedding plenty of blood, then this is the game for you.

Spirit of Yotei

(Available on: PS5)

The follow-up to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei, is set in a very different part of Japan, taking place 300 years later, at the end of the Warring States/Sengoku period.

You play as Atsu, who seeks revenge against a group of masked nobles who murdered her family. It’s strangely similar to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but don’t let that stop you from playing them both.

It just so happens that getting revenge on “a bunch of guys” is a solid formula for an open-world game. Atsu is not like Jin; she is not bound by honor to any single means of revenge, though she is a kenshi, or sword master.

There are no “honorable ways” for her to step down. You can go stealth, you can play dirty, whatever you do. Instead of stances, you have four different weapons at hand (such as a spear or Kusarigama), each of which is intended to counter specific enemies.

It’s also a stunning game and an excellent showcase for the PlayStation 5.

Ninja Gaiden II Black

(Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox)

Team Ninja took over the reins of Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden series at the launch of the original Xbox.

The most beloved of the three original Team Ninja-developed Ninja Gaiden games and their subsequent rereleases was Ninja Gaiden Black, as it added two new difficulties: a new easy mode called Ninja Dog and a more difficult Master Ninja mode.

These made the game much more accessible to those who struggled with the high skill floor of the first release, and offered a new level of difficulty for those aspiring to new mastery.

While another branch reworked all three games, called Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Black is the fan favorite and was the only one in the series to get this treatment until earlier this year, Team Ninja Ninja Gaiden II eclipsed Black on PC stores, PlayStation 5, and Game Pass, remade in Unreal Engine 5.

Ninja Gaiden II Black increases the bloodshed and enemy count, rolls back the upgrade system to something like Ninja Gaiden Black’s, and removes some poorly received bosses and modes added to Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Fan comments say the game feels quite similar to the original release, and largely lives up to the expectations that come with a Ninja Gaiden game.

Ninja Gaiden4

(Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox)

One Ninja Gaiden game simply wasn’t enough from video game developer Team Ninja.

Team Ninja not only overshadowed the Ninja Gaiden 2 remake, it also unveiled Ninja Gaiden 4 in January.

Now it’s here, and early reception is strong, with a “Very Positive” rating on Steam.

This time around, the studio teamed up with PlatinumGames, combining both teams’ signature action styles into a rare sequel that actually delivers results instead of leaving fans nostalgic for the past.

Ninja Gaiden: Furious

(Available on: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch)

Okay, two Ninja Gaiden games weren’t enough. With two modern Ninja Gaiden games coming out in the same year, Tecmo has for some reason (just to be clear) decided to license the Ninja Gaiden to one of the best 2D action developers around.

The Game Kitchen, developer of Blasphemous and Blasphemous 2, brings the game back to its roots, with an 8-bit-style sidescroller that refuses to flinch when it comes to difficulty and precision.

Of the three Ninja Gaiden games released this year, Ragebound takes home the trophy as the highest rated on both Metacritic and Steam.

Shinobi: art of revenge

(Available on: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch)

While Ninja Gaiden Ragebound aims to take us back to the days of NES games, Shinobi aims to do something new without leaving its roots.

Keeping things two-dimensional, Shinobi expands on the standard sidescrolling with an overworld map where you can go back and forth to new and old levels, and ‘metroidvania’ elements, with secret areas and branching paths.

The controls are fluid and the bosses are fun throughout the game. Plus, the game is absolutely gorgeous to look at.

Honorable mentions

There are a few others that deserve mention.

First, the re-release of Ninja Five-O on digital stores. This game is sought after as one of the rarest Game Boy Advance cartridges, and this is the first time it has been widely available to gamers.

This year also saw the release of Rise of the Ronin, an open-world game originally released last year for the PlayStation 5, developed and published by Ninja Gaiden publisher Koei Tecmo.

Rise of the Ronin is set in the 19th century, at the end of the shogunate, as American black ships arrive.

If you prefer with your ninjas Also If there are turtles, there’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, a turn-based TMNT game that forces you to keep your turtles on their feet and moving as they fight.