On the occasion of the latest Nintendo Direct, Team Ninja officially released the presentation trailer for Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, a box set that included the three most representative adventures of the most famous ninja in the history of video games. We are obviously talking about Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. As the most passionate have had the opportunity to notice and ascertain, however, the Collection does not include all the incarnations of the saga, excluding Ninja Gaiden Black e Ninja Gaiden 2.
Probably the newbies of the saga do not know that Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Sigma 2 are two remakes of the first two chapters of the saga, to which both graphic / technical improvements and some changes to the gameplay have been made. This last feature caused mixed reactions in the fanbase which, precisely, wanted the original formula to remain unchanged.
Well, after many requests, the development team has clarified the reason for this exclusion and, unfortunately, the reason is not the happiest: the source codes Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 have been partially lost. Of these games, in short, there are only the versions intended for the trade, on which however it is no longer possible to intervene for remastering works. Although these were relatively recent video games, the only possibility for Team Ninja to include those versions too would have consisted in a real remake of the two titles, an option not viable for logistical and, above all, economic reasons.
Fumihiko Yasuda, Team Ninja brand manager, confirmed the usability of the parts of the source codes that remained intact and that, therefore, the Sigma versions they were chosen as “100% complete”.
We remind our readers that Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection will be released next June 10 2021 on Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC. There are two versions of the game, a Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition, which will include a digital artbook and the soundtrack of the three games (also in digital version).
Stay tuned for more updates on this.
