It's always a good time to play the Ninja Gaiden trilogy, although if you've played the previous games you may not find much incentive to do so again.

The grandmaster of difficult action games is back. The Ninja Gaiden Master Collection pulls no punches, nor does it change or cater to modern sensibilities. It’s as classic as it was in 2004, with some crow’s feet doing little to tarnish it. It’s still absolutely nails, but if you’re a fan, you can’t go wrong with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 & 2. Oh, and the third game is in there too.

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection brings age but also wisdom to the table. Most gamers have heard of Ninja Gaiden either by reference or by playing one of the original games. This collection brings the games to players who have not experienced it before and with the addition of the Hero easy mode there is no reason to fear the gruesome challenge these games used to be if you just wanted to experience it. For fans of the series, while it has not been remastered it has been spruced up with the new framerate and plays very smoothly on a Series S and X. If you need to get your ninja on and enjoy a fast combat action game, then this collection could be for you.

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection brings back to the table 3 great classics of the character action genre. Some graphic issues and the lack of new additions and fixes makes it feels like the work in this adaptation has been the bare minimum. Also, there are big problems in the control of the third title, which makes a stain in the impeccable gameplay of the first two of them. All in all, this collection offers a great amount of content at a reduced price, making it hard not recommend it to any lover of action games.

Ninja Gaiden Master Collection includes Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. The first two revolutionized the action genre a few years ago, but don't get your hopes up about anything else in this collection. Times have changed and these games were not adjusted, nor polished one bit. And while it might seem that this will please the most purist fans, this is not the case either, as the collection does not contain the first version of each installment.

Xbox owners certainly have viable means to experience these titles in other forms, but when it comes to convenience and accessibility, Ninja Gaiden Master Collection is a solid value proposition all the same.

A very low-effort remaster collection, that even pales in comparison with the same games ran via enhanced backward compatibility on Xbox.