Ni-Oh returns as Team Ninja collaboration

Buried beneath all the Ninja Gaiden 3 hoopla, GamePro reports Team Ninja today revealed a collaboration with developer Kou Shibusawa on a "samurai action" game. The cause is noble indeed, as it would seem Team Ninja will help finish Ni-Oh -- a sort of "Duke Nukem Forever" project that's been simmering on Tecmo Koei's back burner for years.

First teased at TGS 2006, Ni-Oh has undergone a long, sheltered development, earning a brief mention in an April 2009 issue of Famitsu -- and nary a word since. Team Ninja did not confirm whether the game will remain exclusive to PS3 and wisely made no guarantees on a release date.

[Wikipedia says: Ni-Oh was original conceived as a multimedia project that would include a film based on a lost Kurosawa script. The movie was eventually canned.]