When it comes to stealth and action, nothing beats playing the role of ninjas.
Truth is, good ninja games are not as common as you’d imagine – it’s a pretty niche genre. You can find ninjas in many games, but not many games that are entirely about them (unless they’re hiding?).
We’ve compiled this list of the best ninja games on Steam so you can find a new favorite game or just try out something new and exciting. Some are well known, others are much more obscure.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
| Genre: | Action, Adventure, Beat ’em Up, Side Scroller |
| Developers: | Tribute Games Inc. |
| Release Date: | June 16, 2022 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | Online Co-op, Shared/Split Screen Co-op |
| Average Playtime: | 2 hours |
This game brings Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael back together in a spectacular side-scrolling beat ’em up game. This game is a love letter to these characters and vintage TMNT titles Turtles In Time.
If you look deep enough, this game reveals all things that the developers love. From time to time, April O’Neil and the turtles perform special moves from Street Fighter and other popular games, a clear tribute to the games that inspired them.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder Revenge was made by the Beat ’em Up masters at Dotemu and Tribute Games. It has cutting-edge gameplay with roots in time-tested battle systems. In other words, it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It
With your favorite Turtle, blast your way through pixel-art-created fantasy locations and hordes of foes. Each character is distinctive because of the special skills and moves that help set them apart in that way.
Don’t argue with me on this one. They are turtles, but they are also ninjas. I don’t care if they are teenagers as long as I can be Raphael in a beat ’em up game.
Cyber Shadow
| Genre: | 2D Platformer, Action |
| Developers: | Aarne “MekaSkull” Hunziker |
| Release Date: | January 26, 2021 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 8 hours |
Despite being designed to emulate NES games, this game looks much better than any 8-bit side scroller. The artwork and gameplay incorporate many ideas from more modern games. This is the nostalgia trap that Shovel Knight used.
Although the game sounds and looks somewhat like an 8-bit game, the enemies are expertly designed and meticulously detailed. I often screenshot and take some time to admire this game’s intricate pixel artwork.
You begin this game with a relatively weak character, much like many other games of this genre that you may have played, such as The Messenger.
Nothing substantially different from the NES version of Ninja Gaiden. You jump, climb, and slash your enemies for a while. However, things do change as you progress.
You receive upgrades as you progress through the game, steadily improving your power and movement skills. Cyber Shadow also confronts you with more challenging obstacles at the same time.
Although you get many power-ups, your adversaries and setting become more threatening. You will always feel like the game is challenging, no matter what you find, which is a good thing. It is nice to have new toys, but not when they ruin the fun of the game.
Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker
| Genre: | Action, Arena Fighter |
| Developers: | Soleil Ltd. |
| Release Date: | August 31, 2018 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | Online PvP, Online Co-op |
| Average Playtime: | 6 hours |
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker was created by developed by Soleil but published by Namco-Bandai, much like most games based on anime released on Steam. In this game, players get to compete in 4 vs. 4 battles, with all eight players battling at the same time.
Additionally, the game allows players to build their own characters for the first time ever. So, if you’ve always wanted to create your very own original Naruto character, here’s your chance.
This game’s history begins when Naruto is the Seventh Hokage, and Konohagakure is hosting the Chunin Exams.
Four categories are used to define characters. Defense types concentrate on strong attacks with an emphasis on defending teammates and applying strategies to obtain an edge in various game modes. Attack types focus on close range, speed, and offense.
Characters known as Heal types are created to assist the squad with healing Jutsu or unique skills. Finally, you have the Range types, which focus on using large projectiles from a distance.
Despite having 20 characters when it first launched, the game gained a ton of DLC. So, if you enjoy both Naruto and competitive gaming, this may be a lot of fun.
The Lego Ninjago Movie Video Game
| Genre: | Action, Open World |
| Developers: | Traveller’s Tales, TT Games |
| Release Date: | September 22, 2017 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | Shared/Split Screen, PvP Shared/Split Screen Co-op |
| Average Playtime: | 6 hours |
Protect their native island of Ninjago from the wicked Lord Garmadon and his Shark Army. This game allows you to play as Lloyd, Jay, Kai, Cole, Zane, Nya, and Master Wu.
By mastering the art of Ninjagility, you may rank up and improve your ninja’s combat abilities. This game’s action was given a bit more attention than other Lego games.
You can traverse places by high-jumping and wall-running. On top of that, ninja actions and winning battles help you upgrade your ninja skills.
Don’t get me wrong, this still is a Lego game. As such, you will find all these games’ usual Lego tropes. These games are not meant to be hard and revolve around adventuring with easy combat and light puzzle solving. That said, this game does it very well.
The game is based on the movie LEGO: Ninjago The Movie, containing cutscenes and a story mode based on the movie. This is a bit sad because it makes the game a little shorter than your usual Lego game.
Characters still have different abilities that you must learn how to use, and the game design still makes you use each character’s individual strength.
In the end, this is like most games of the franchise, but with some innovations. If you like Lego games and Ninjago was part of your childhood, give it a try. It might surprise you.
Mark of the Ninja: Remastered
| Genre: | 2D Platformer, Action, Sider Scroller, Stealth |
| Developers: | Klei Entertainment |
| Release Date: | October 9, 2018 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 7 hours |
Mark of the Ninja is a stealth-oriented 2D platformer. The player must go silently through various settings while avoiding guards’ gaze and carrying out silent executions.
This is a remarkably good title that manages to bring the thrill of stealth gameplay to a 2D platformer. In Mark of the Ninja, the player character is visible to adversaries in light areas and invisible in dark sections. You will constantly use those two things to remain hidden and pass through guards without warning.
However, going within a set immediate distance of an enemy’s face results in the player being observed regardless of illumination. There are other things that can cause you trouble. For instance, sounds reveal the player character’s position. There’s a lot in this game to be appreciated.
Besides its core mechanics, you can also upgrade your items and abilities. That way, you can make the gameplay feel better by fine-tuning it to your play style. Besides, getting new ways to achieve your goals also make it easier for you to unlock the game’s secrets.
Once unlocked, the game’s New Game Plus option has more intelligent foes that may kill the player with a single shot or hand-to-hand combat while limiting the player’s line of sight to a cone pointed in the direction they are facing. If you like challenging stealth games, give this one a shot.
Warframe
| Genre: | Action RPG, MMO |
| Developers: | Digital Extremes |
| Release Date: | March 25, 2013 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | Online Co-op |
| Average Playtime: | 116 hours |
Players in Warframe take control of Tenno soldiers. They are an ancient warrior race that has awoken in the future of Earth after being in suspended animation for generations. They currently find themselves at war with many factions in the planetary system.
Tenno carry out their tasks using a combination of their powered warframes, a range of weapons, and special skills. The game has introduced vast open-world areas that are a lot of fun to explore and receives constant support from the developers.
All Warframes, weapons, and other non-cosmetic equipment can be obtained in-game over time by regular activity, which may include some grinding. Warframe is intended to be a free-to-play game. Spending in-game money can ease and accelerate the process.
You can buy new weapons, warframes, equipment, blueprints to build that equipment, and cosmetics like skins and capes in the market using Platinum or Credits, which you earn in-game. Only in-game purchases can be made to gain some cosmetic items.
However, some indirect upgrades, including arsenal slots for Warframes, weapons, and specific other equipment, may only be purchased with platinum.
In general, there are a ton of various weapons and warframes to employ in Warframe, along with superb combat, an engaging storyline, and fantastic music. This game delivers on the Space Ninja Power Fantasy, if that is even a thing, and is undoubtedly fun.
Strider
| Genre: | 2D Platformer, Action, Adventure, Metroidvania |
| Developers: | Double Helix Games, Capcom |
| Release Date: | February 19, 2014 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 5 hours |
Not many games manage to be as good as the original when they are remade. However, Capcom has some weird magic going. They remade one of their most successful franchises, Resident Evil, and the new games are fantastic.
The same happened here with Strider Hiryu. The gameplay changed to a fast-paced Metroidvania game. Still, it also keeps enough from the original to feel like a Strider game, but better. It’s something impressive, to be honest.
Balance was one of the most significant issues for the staff because the action in the reboot happens eight times faster than in the original game. The gameplay mechanics of Hiryu were also impacted by his appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom video game series.
The story is quite simple. In order to deal with Grandmaster Meio, the villain of this game, the Strider organization sends their best assassin, Strider Hiryu, to the metropolis of Kazakh City. The game is basically telling again the core of Strider’s story, which is the battle against Grandmaster Meio.
The game incorporates aspects from the initial Strider arcade game, the NES game, Strider 2, his appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom fighting games, and the original Moto Kikaku manga.
Numerous modified versions of famous Strider themes may be heard in the game’s soundtrack. The soundtrack is very much intended to resemble the music from the original games. If you like Metroidvanias and badass sci-fi ninjas, this game is a must.
Ghostrunner
| Genre: | Action, First-Person, Parkour |
| Developers: | One More Level, 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks™, All in! Games |
| Release Date: | October 27, 2020 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 7 hours |
A gloomy cyberpunk megastructure, the Dharma Tower, serves as the setting for Ghostrunner. This intense first-person hack and slash game features frenzied action and thrilling, high-speed parkour sections.
As Jack, the Ghostrunner, the player must rush, jump, wall run, and grapple their way through deadly situations. The player will also come across adversaries who must be carefully dealt with. It doesn’t take much for them to end you. However, it is also true the other way around.
Most enemies will perish from a single hit, and Jack has a tool called Sensory Boost that he can employ to slow time down, deflect bullets in midair, and dodge other objects.
Your objective is to reach the top of the tower. This place served as humanity’s final refuge following a global calamity but is now controlled by a nasty ruler. Work your way up from the bottom, meet the ruthless Master of the Keys, and wreak revenge.
The violent first-person hack and slash game Ghostrunner takes place in a dark cyberpunk megastructure and contains hectic gameplay and thrilling, lighting-fast parkour segments.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
| Genre: | Hack and Slash, Action |
| Developers: | PlatinumGames |
| Release Date: | January 9, 2014 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 7 hours |
You might have noticed by now that I love sci-fi ninjas. This is why I like Strider, Cyber Shadow, Warframe, and Ghostrunner. With that in mind, you should know by now that I would never leave Raiden, the cyborg Ninja, out of the list.
If you are unfamiliar with this game, let me tell you what this is all about. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a goofy, over-the-top, stylish action game like Devil May Cry. It is a visual spectacle in which you slash through dozens of enemies at ease while listening to heavy metal.
Although you can be stealthy at times, why would you want to? Raiden can single-handedly defeat a giant robot by cutting it into small pieces with his apparently indestructible katana. If that’s not the ultimate power fantasy game, like prototype or Devil May Cry, then I don’t know what it is.
The game offers a unique “free slicing blade mode” that is incredibly cool and sets it apart from the competition. Players can use it to precisely slice enemies and objects in front of them.
It can also be used to enter a bullet time state that enables players to precisely slice targets during the action. That’s kinda like letting players have Raiden’s reaction time, and it feels awesome. This game is the ultimate cyborg ninja experience.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
| Genre: | Action, Adventure |
| Developers: | FromSoftware |
| Release Date: | March 21, 2019 |
| Find at: | Steam |
| Multiplayer: | N/A |
| Average Playtime: | 30 hours |
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a legendary adventure made by developer FromSoftware. In this game, you will make your way through a mystical Japan in order to get your deserved revenge.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes place in the Sengoku era of late 1500s Japan, a time marked by ongoing battles for life and death. Honestly, the period is very fitting to the kind of game that FromSoftware decided to make.
You play as the “one-armed wolf,” a dishonored and deformed warrior who was saved from certain death. Now, nothing, not even death itself, can stop you from embarking on a risky expedition to reclaim your honor once the young lord is taken.
The game has fewer role-playing features than FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series and lacks character creation and multiplayer components. However, it does feature skill trees, some ability customization, and gear upgrading.
Combat in Sekiro relies on utilizing a katana to break an enemy’s posture and balance rather than hitting to reduce their health points. Doing so will eventually lead to an opening that enables a single fatal strike.
Additionally, the game has stealth mechanics that let players quickly kill some adversaries if they can approach them unobserved. This isn’t the same as Dark Souls. To be honest, it’s not really a Souls-Like. Yet it’s still one of the best ninja games ever made.
