Team NINJA recently announced Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, which is set for release on June 20th. This collection of remastered games bundles together the trilogy of hack-and-slash action games. Each entry in the series has seen multiple releases over the years, and these remasters are based off the later released Sigma versions for the first two games, and the Razor’s Edge version of the third. The Sigma entries were originally ports that were specifically made for the Playstation 3.
This has led to some fans being upset with this selection of games, as the Sigma variants are not simple improvements or additions to the original release. They also make alterations to the games, which in the case of Ninja Gaiden II in particular, have proven to be controversial. While Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 added new bosses, new playable characters, and a new weapon, several cuts were also made. Some bosses were removed, fewer enemies are placed in levels, and much of the gore of the original was also drastically toned down. With the lower enemy numbers, the game in general was also made less challenging.
Team NINJA brand manager Fumihiko Yasuda recently acknowledged this issue in an interview with Weekly Famitsu, as translated by Kotaku. Yasuda revealed that the reason the Sigma versions were selected for this collection is that the source code for the original versions was lost. He said that “there are only fragments of the data that remain.” He went on to explain that the Sigma Plus versions of the first two games was the source used to build these remasters from. These versions being ports of the Sigma games to the Playstation Vita.
What do you think of the Ninja Gaiden source code being lost? Do you prefer the original or Sigma versions? Let us know in the comments.
