Ninja Gaiden 4 looks sick, is out in October, and has the exact storytelling I demand from a ninja game: 'You're a wanted criminal now'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Ninja Gaiden 4 got a new trailer and a release date at today's Xbox Games Showcase, and this thing looks like a fever dream I had back in 2013: which I mean as a compliment. I mean, what more is there to life than murdering enemy ninjas and demons in incredibly graceful and over-the-top fashion?
The major reason for excitement around Ninja Gaiden 4, after the unutterably disappointing Ninja Gaiden 3, is that Team Ninja has been on fine form ever since with the likes of Nioh, and on this occasion had the wisdom to rope-in Platinum Games, best-known for Bayonetta and a studio that boasts some of the best hack-and-slash talent the industry's ever known. And doesn't Ninja Gaiden 4 show it.
You wanna know what I mean by hack-and-slash talent? This trailer opens with a character called Seori saying "watch your back Yakumo, you're a wanted criminal now."
"I'll kill the dark dragon myself," says new protagonist Yakumo. "It's my mission as a raven ninja." The latter phrase is uttered as some goon's body slowly slides apart after being bisected by a ninja sword and all I have to say is: yes.
Then some dork called Misaki says "breaking the dark dragon free has consequences" before a shot of some thunder-y lightning-flecked skies, and we're into the action shots of enemies being chopped into pieces. So many pieces. We get a glimpse of Yakumo's various weapons which include one that morphs into a giant drill, which he then drills enemy bodies apart with, and an absolutely sick-looking hammer that I am going to main.
We've had about five seconds' worth of dialogue followed by about 400 enemies being eviscerated in 15 seconds and, you know what: take my ninjacoin.
But wait there's more: Seori pops up again and says "Ryu, there's something I need your help with" and say no more fam: we're instantly into our boy Hayabusa filleting monsters, executing a fool with a perfect Flying Swallow, executing perfect dodges, and cracking out the ninpo magic. I especially liked how the camera jerks down into a fixed position for the ninpo, which maybe doesn't look as slick as some modern titles but is how the Ninja Gaiden games have always done it.
At a certain point in the trailer some of you might find yourselves thinking "why does this giant mutated shark have an almost equally large humanoid skeleton inside it?" And it's a fair question but, if you need it answered, this isn't the game for you. I on the other hand am going to brutally kill that skeleton shark for daring to exist in my videogame.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is out October 21, 2025, and you best believe I've got a hot date that night with a dark dragon.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Vogue
34 minutes ago
- Vogue
Atsuko Okatsuka Is Here to Make Friends
Right. Or you need an earthquake or something—everyone will get really close. I always say that a common enemy doesn't have to be a person. It could be Mother Nature. It could be a long line. Your grandmother raised you, and she figures so prominently in your content that she's become a celebrity herself. I do get along with the elderly more. Kids and I butt heads a lot. They don't like me. I've met so many babies with my haircut, and they're like, Why does this baby get to walk around? Why does she get her own seat on an airplane? And I'm like, You have no idea. You have so many things ahead of you. Every rule, every law is for you. You are the future. People would email me asking to get my grandma in their films, because they needed a Taiwanese or Asian grandma. It was, like, 12-hour shoot days for a SAG [Screen Actors Guild union] production. There are rules for children for SAG. They can only work certain hours and they have to have a teacher on set. So I was like, surely there are labor rules for seniors there. There isn't. They're just considered 18 and older, so they'd be able to work my grandma the whole 12 hours without rest. I'm finding out that with elders, there isn't anything protecting them. In an article for Tokyo Weekender, you said you feel like you have a sixth sense about culture. Do you feel like it's nurture or nature that's made you such a keen observer? It's probably both. You do have to be curious about other people and how they live and think. I was born in Taiwan and then moved to Japan, and then I was moved to America abruptly. Not my choice, any of these things. So I had to adapt quickly and be able to read people. The first language I really heard in America was Spanish, because of my classmates. And then I had Russians in my class, a classmate from Turkey. I had to learn where that was. The Russian kids didn't speak English, and I didn't either, so we were like, Do we come up with a third language? Do we use our physicality? I'm a very physical performer. I use my eyes a lot. Sometimes I make a noise instead of a word. I think all of that developed from me trying to connect with all kinds of people from all kinds of places.


Geek Vibes Nation
an hour ago
- Geek Vibes Nation
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut On PS5
When I booted Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on PS5, the first thing I noticed was how clean the image looks in native-4K and how effortlessly it held 60 fps. Every blade of pampas grass bent in silk-smooth motion, and the DualSense gave a gentle pulse each time the in-game wind changed direction. Those next-gen details—4K resolution, higher frame rate, near-instant loads, and refined haptic feedback—felt like they were all purpose-built for Sony's newer hardware. Still, there's more to the gameplay, something that makes it the 'ultimate Samurai tale', and I hope to unpack that. Jin Sakai's War for Tsushima The main campaign still opens in 1274, with Mongol ships firing flame arrows into Komoda Beach and the island's samurai garrison collapsing. As I guided Jin across fox dens and ruined temples, his dilemma felt sharp: cling to a rigid honor code or embrace the stealthy 'Ghost' the people need. Navigation remains minimal—no minimap, just the Guiding Wind and a subtle HUD—so the scenery stays front-and-center. If you'd rather view the invasion through the lens of classic cinema, toggling Kurosawa Mode swaps color for grainy black-and-white film stock and muted audio, an ode to the director who defined on-screen samurai. Iki Island — A New Chapter with Old Wounds Director's Cut folds in the Iki Island expansion, which took me about eight hours because I kept getting sidetracked by the coves and shrines. Jin sails to Iki to hunt The Eagle , a shamanic Mongol leader who literally attacks his mind (forcing him to relive childhood trauma tied to his father's last campaign there). Combat is far from predictable. New Shamans chant from the back line, buffing anyone in earshot until you break their guard, so fights become a deadly priority puzzle. Your horse isn't just transport anymore. The Horse Charge technique lets you tap L1, lower your lance, and bowl through patrols—perfect for softening a fortress before finishing on foot. The new Saddlebag quietly stocks spare arrows and bombs, turning the horse into a mobile resupply station for longer stealth runs. Sprinkle in animal sanctuaries for cats and deer, two fresh Mythic Tales, and harder multi-weapon foes, and Iki strikes a smart balance between nostalgia and outright novelty. Samurai Super-Powers on PS5 All those additions shine because the hardware keeps up. Fast-traveling from a Shinto shrine to a coastal duel usually takes less than three seconds; loading tips rarely appear at all. Marvel Rivals High RAM Usage: Causes and Solutions Adaptive triggers stiffen as I draw a longbow, then relax with a thrum when the arrow flies. DualSense haptics spike the moment steel meets steel, and a subtle wave rolls across the grip whenever the wind points me toward the next tale. Tempest 3D Audio lets me pinpoint a Shaman's chant behind a bamboo wall before I even spot him. Finally, because PS5 renders cinematics in real time, the Japanese voice track now syncs perfectly. Try Ghost of Tsushima on Playstation 5 at the lowest prices Together, these four pillars make Director's Cut the most polished way to live out a samurai legend. It feels handcrafted for the PS5's strengths yet still respects the soul of the original adventure. Blades, Bows & Ghost Tools Swinging the katana still revolves around four stances. Patch 2.00 introduced an optional lock-on and target-cycle system, which makes duels easier to track without breaking flow. Add the PS5's 60 fps fluidity and every mikiri parry feels razor-sharp. I bounce between stealth tools—black-powder bombs, wind chimes—and straight-up swordplay because the DualSense signals exactly when a perfect parry lands. Activity Cards also let me jump straight into a Mythic Tale or boss rematch, trimming busywork between encounters. Verdict — Why Director's Cut Belongs in Your Library On PS5, Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut fuses blockbuster presentation with tactile nuance: 4K/60 visuals, near-instant loads, nuanced haptics, and an expansion that deepens Jin's journey. Add a robust co-op suite that now spans consoles and PC, and you have a package that respects both your time and your hardware. If you're hunting for a single-player epic that showcases what your PS5 can do—and then sticks around as a multiplayer staple—sharpen your blade, feel the guiding wind in your palms, and defend Tsushima in its finest form.


The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
Mario Kart World is the perfect Switch 2 launch game
All sequels have to live up to their predecessors in some form, but few have as daunting a task as Mario Kart World. It's a follow-up to the best-selling game across Nintendo's last two console generations, and a game that eventually doubled in size thanks to an ambitious array of downloadable add-ons. So instead of following Mario Kart 8 with another release that simply adds more, Nintendo shifted in a slightly different direction. Mario Kart World is still Mario Kart; it has a daunting Rainbow Road to speed across and frustrating blue shells to steal victories away from you. But it also introduces an open-world structure that makes the game feel larger and more cohesive. This makes it the ideal game to show off what the Switch 2 is capable of at launch. The biggest change for World is its structure. In all past Mario Kart games, racetracks were discrete entities. Baby Park and Bowser's Castle had nothing to do with each other. But for World, the entirety of the game takes place on a singular landmass with different areas and biomes, like the map in Fortnite. And because of this, everything is connected. When you race through Grand Prix mode, you go through four tracks that cut a specific path through the continent, one following the other. At first, this gave me a sense that the tracks were less distinct and singular, because they bled into one another. At the start of the Choco Mountain track, for instance, you start out in the quaint green fields of Moo Moo Meadows, because that course comes before it. And it isn't until the second lap that you actually get to the mountains. But eventually I came to enjoy the fluidity of the track design, and how it gave the feeling of a larger overall world. I'm not sure if this structure is necessarily better than the more straightforward racetracks of past games, and it's certainly a change that takes some getting used to. But it ended up winning me over, in part because of how different it feels, and how much I'm enjoying playing the same tracks repeatedly to find all of the details and paths. The structure also gives rise to my favorite addition to World: a new mode called Knockout Tour. It's sort of like a battle royale version of Mario Kart. Instead of a handful of distinct races, you're ushered through a series of six connected tracks without stopping. At certain points throughout the race, a gate appears, and any racer behind the position noted on the gate will be knocked out. This progresses until only one kart rider remains. I've been playing Mario Kart for decades, but Knockout Tour still managed to create a new kind of thrill in me, one strengthened by its longer runtime and harsh win conditions. It also makes for a great spectator experience. It's a lot of fun watching people just make it over the line. There are other new features in the game. That includes new weapons like an ice flower for tossing snowballs at other racers, or a mushroom that turns you into a giant that can squash your enemies. You can pick up food at drive-through restaurants for a speed boost (and costume change), and grind on rails and ride on walls, though I've yet to master either of those high-level techniques just yet. And the cast of racers is gigantic this time, expanded even further by all of the different outfits you can unlock for characters like Peach and Waluigi. These elements go a long way to making World feel like a proper sequel. But again, it's the world at the heart of World that makes it feel truly new — and like a showcase for Nintendo's latest hardware. World 's courses are larger and more intricate, with lots of alternate pathways, but they're also a lot more chaotic. The game features 24 people per race, instead of the previous 12, and there always seems to be something or someone blowing up on screen. You can drive on water now, and that often means racing across massive cresting waves, and many of the stages are teeming with wildlife, from lumbering dinosaurs to herds of zebras. The levels aren't just big, they're alive, dense with things to see and interact with (and avoid being hit by). And yet, in my experience, the game always ran smooth and solid. This was true when playing online (both in handheld and docked modes), as well as in four-player split-screen, in which there is frankly too much information happening onscreen at once. It is the definition of chaos. But it also worked perfectly. Of course, World isn't an open world in the same way that Red Dead Redemption II or Cyberpunk 2077 are. It's not a dynamic space filled with things to do and people to see. But it's surprisingly close for a family-friendly racing game where you can ride a motorcycle as a dolphin. The weather and time of day shift, and there's a new Free Roam mode where you can simply drive around the map, exploring with zero pressure. There isn't a whole lot to do aside from some straightforward challenge missions scattered about, but I've spent a long time simply observing Nintendo's strange creation. At one point, I realized that the city buses actually stopped to let Shy Guys and Toads on and off. It's a completely unnecessary detail, but one that goes to show how thought-out this place is. There are a handful of minor issues with the game — unlocking characters relies too much on luck, and it's a weird miss to not have the Free Roam mode support split-screen play — but the scale, density, and cohesiveness of World are more than enough to make them easy to look past. Mario Kart 8 was such a high bar that Nintendo couldn't simply do that again. Instead, the game's designers created something much more interesting: a place that feels vibrant and alive. Now you just have to race through it.