Recently, porous nanostructured transition metal oxides with excellent electrochemical performance have become a new class of energy storage materials for supercapacitors. The ever-growing global demand of electrically powered devices makes it imperative to develop renewable, efficient and reliable electrochemical energy storage devices. This review article focuses on the Ni based transition metal oxides and their composite electrode materials including carbons, metals and transition metal oxides for supercapacitor applications, providing an overview on the charge mechanisms, methodologies and nanostructures discovered in recent years, and latest research findings. The NiO and their composites possess higher reversible capacity, good structural stability, and have been studied for usage as novel electrode materials for supercapacitors. Their fine-tuned physical and chemical properties make them ideal candidates for supercapacitor applications as they possess higher accessible electroactive sites, which will provide both high power density and also high energy density. Moreover, synergistic effects can be derived from the constituent materials of the NiO based composite electrodes. The potential problems like device fabrication, measurement techniques, and future prospects of utilizing these materials as supercapacitor electrodes highlighting the fundamental understanding of the relationship between electrochemical and structural performances are also discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.