Nintendo let the flood gates open with some announcements today with their first real Nintendo Direct since 2019. After shocking fans the previous day, Nintendo didn’t hold back as they gave us some impressionable titles to look forward to later this year and beyond. One of those titles really made a splash in the community, and in fact, it was three of them. Team Ninja has officially announced the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection, which houses the three modern entries of the Ninja Gaiden series, and it launches this year on June 10.
Even though it was featured on the Nintendo Direct, the collection is also launching for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC through Steam. By extension of backwards compatibility, the collection will also be available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection will include Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, and all of the respective DLC. As we already mentioned, these three titles are Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo’s modern reboot of the classic Nintendo Entertainment System franchise from the 1980s and 1990s.
The first entry, Ninja Gaiden, initially launched in 2004 for the first Xbox console before being repackaged as Ninja Gaiden Black which included the famous, or infamous Master Ninja difficulty. The game was then ported to the PlayStation 3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and once again for the PS Vita as Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. The second game, Ninja Gaiden II, was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360, and yet again was ported to the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
The third and final game, Ninja Gaiden 3, was released in 2012 for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and was ported to the Wii U as Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. Ironically, the latter was actually ported back to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 just one year later, making the first version of Ninja Gaiden 3 essentially obsolete. Thankfully, the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection has the final iterations of each game, including the first game which is being rebranded as Ninja Gaiden Sigma, finally bringing the Sigma name full circle.
The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection will officially launch this year on June 10 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/Series S, Nintendo Switch, and PC through Steam.