Ninja-Gaiden-Sigma
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PlayStation 3 is getting more Team Ninja titles
There are few developers out there who are as outspoken about the power and potential of the PlayStation 3 as Yosuke Hayashi, the fellow behind Ninja Gaiden: Sigma. He has repeatedly defended the PS3 from developer criticism and has gone so far as to imply that developers who are having problems with the PS3 should just try harder. So it should come as no surprise that Ninja Gaiden: Sigma is not going to be Team Ninja's solitary PlayStation 3 title. In an interview with Eurogamer, Hayashi commented: "As I said, people who complain about the difficulty of creating games for PS3 should get out, right? While I'm saying that kind of thing, if I get out myself, then what I say doesn't mean anything! So, I should stay - right?" While no further details were given (the whole interview has not been published yet), it's great to hear that Sony has such strong support from one of the top Japanese development teams. If NG:S is any indication of what to expect from them in the future, we have a lot to look forward to.
Team Ninja 'has Wii fans,' would consider developing for console
Team Ninja's Yosuke "Itsygaki" Hayashi, director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma, told Pro-G that the development studio is not averse to developing a title for Wii, pending the title utilized Nintendo's more unique features. "We would make something for the Wii if we came up with something unique that would only work on the Wii," he said. Given Ninja Gaiden's upcoming DS release and its unique control scheme, we can only imagine how Itagaki and co. would go about utilizing the Wii remote's pointer capabilities. Our curiosity turns into discomfort, however, when we think of Team Ninja making a Wii version of DOAX. Hayashi further went on to describe the console preference demographic of the studio: "There are several groups within Team Ninja. The PS3 group, the Xbox 360 group, and there are Wii fans in Team Ninja." We've gone ahead and made a Venn diagram to help visualize the possible trichotomy.
Team Ninja designer tells complaining PS3 devs to 'get out'
The developers in Tecmo's Team Ninja don't much care for subtlety, not in their games and certainly not in their comments to the press. Ninja Gaiden Sigma director, Yosuke Hayashi, is fast on his way to becoming a miniature Itagaki (an Itsygaki, if you will) after speaking to Eurogamer in London yesterday. When the topic of developers noting difficulty in creating games for the PlayStation 3 comes up, Hayashi suggests, "if they think it's difficult, they should get out of the ring." Hayashi explains that in being a creator of games and in position to receive money from players, Team Ninja "shouldn't complain about the difficulty." Outspoken he may be, but the man at least implies that he'll stick to his guns as well as the PlayStation 3. "As I said, people who complain about the difficulty of creating games for PS3 should get out, right? While I'm saying that kind of thing, if I get out myself, then what I say doesn't mean anything! So, I should stay - right?" You be the judge of that when Ninja Gaiden Sigma gets out in a few weeks.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma will silence PS3 critics, says Hayashi
Yosuke Hayashi, producer and director of Ninja Gaiden Sigma at Team Ninja, has promised gamers and critics alike that they've done everything they could with Ninja Gaiden on the PS3. It is the best it can be, remake or not, and will silence those critical of the PlayStation 3's potential. From a speech given at a recent NGS event, Hayashi said "I have heard much criticism of the PS3, but I am confident that Ninja Gaiden Sigma will demonstrate how powerful the PS3 really is." We hope he's right because that demo was darn amazing. What's most impressive, though, is the final framerate and resolution count. With some advanced effects like self-shading, you'd expect the normal 720p at 60fps or 1080p at 30fps, right? No. Team Ninja is actually delivering those advanced graphical techniques with a persistant 60fps at an astounding 1080p! Hayashi claims that no game has yet to do that, neither on the 360 or the PS3. We can't wait to see it in action.
Worldwide PS3 releases for the week of June 11th
Ready to discover Sony's release plans for this week? Us too. Let's get started. US Games Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer EU Games Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer Asian Games Call of Duty 3 (Japan) Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Japan) Amored Core 4 (Korea) Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (Korea) Hooray. Another movie tie-in. Just what we English speakers have been waiting for. At least the Japanese will be having some fun this week with Ninja Gaiden. Knowing their mad skills they'll have completed it by the time it's released in the west in a couple of weeks. If you need something to occupy you until then, then you might want to pick up my new book - How to generalise an entire nation in a single sentence: It's easy with my three step program.. If you're particularly language savvy, or you can deal with just looking at the pretty pictures and not the words, then feel free to import any of the Asian releases. You may not be able to read those funny squiggles, but your PS3 can. Release dates are subject to constant change, so check with your retailer just in case.
European PSN releases for June 8th
Those of you who enjoy your beat-em-ups will no doubt be pleased with the recent European PSN update. As well as a couple of trailers for upcoming PS3 games, Sony gave us Mortal Kombat 2. The full release list is as follows. Mortal Kombat 2 (£1.99) Colin McRae: DiRT trailer (free) Ninja Gaiden Sigma trailer (free) Isn't it is nice to finally get some playable content with a name that doesn't start with "Go!"? MK2 is a worthwhile purchase, especially considering the low price. We reviewed it in May (back when the Americans got it), giving it a score of nothing-to-write-home-about out of ten. Things can only get better for the PSN though, with upcoming releases of Calling All Cars and Super Stardust HD. Will removing the spines of our friends over the internet keep us occupied until then? We hope so.
Ninja Gaiden: Sigma will reward you for playing the demo
As if PS3 owners didn't have enough reasons already to play the incredibly awesome Ninja Gaiden: Sigma demo, Team Ninja is giving us yet another. IGN writes that in the full version, you will be rewarded with an amount of in-game currency (Yellow Essence) depending on how far you've gotten in the demo, allowing you to purchase power-ups and items at the very beginning of the game. Did you unlock Rachel's level? Well you'll get a nice little bonus waiting for you when you start up the final version. Nothing jaw-dropping, but it's definitely a cool plus for those of you who have put in your time on the free demo and a handy leg-up for beginners. It would be great to see other developers do things like this -- it's always kind of a bummer if you've spent a ton of time on the demo and have nothing to show for it in the full version of the game. Even if it's just pulling in your race times from the Motorstorm demo, that would be really cool. Do you guys know of any other games that have this kind of demo - full version integration?
Team Ninja: no Ninja Gaiden Sigma for you!
We hope you weren't holding your breath for an Xbox 360 port of Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki has confirmed that the team has no plans to port the PS3 title. Of course, Xbox 360 owners can play both Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black, the games on which Sigma is based, but it's somewhat disheartening to know that 360 owners won't get a taste of Sigma's additions. According to Itagaki, Sigma was designed for Playstation followers who never had a chance to experience the game on the original Xbox. Not to worry though, as he assures the world that Team Ninja is "taking new challenges" on the Xbox 360. Here's hoping that these challenges are related to an actual Ninja Gaiden sequel and not the next generation of breast physics.
Play Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo, earn essence in retail release
The upcoming Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PlayStation 3 will reward players with Yellow Essence, the game's currency, based on the amount of time you played the demo, currently available via the PlayStation Network. With just under a month to go before Sigma sneaks onto North American PS3s (and even less for Japan and European gamers), Team Ninja is giving you a reason to play through the demo over and over again. The series has in all its iterations has attempted to up the ante in difficulty, so starting out with a bit of extra money for health potions couldn't hurt.
This week's crazy Japanese ads
The Japanese sure have crazy advertisements. Our favorite this week? The ad for FolksSoul (aka Folklore). The newly released demo highlights the title's unique SIXAXIS controls, where shaking your control can suck the soul out of a monster. But, what happens when that concept becomes too real? Check out this commercial, and a strange Ninja Gaiden Sigma ad, after the cut.
European PS3 owners give Sony important feedback
ThreeSpeech recently asked European PS3 owners how they Sony did for their recent March launch, asking if there were any surprises, good or bad, what gamers liked and didn't like about the system, and finally inquiring if they would recommend the system to friends. So far, over 130 comments have been posted and most responses are similar to what we've already heard over here. We want games! Comments suggest the PlayStation Store needs additional content and more frequent updates. While impressions of Motorstorm and Resistance are very positive, it seems everyone is still clamoring for a system-killer title. Lair, Heavenly Sword and Ninja Gaiden seem to be on many European PS3 wish lists, as well as the Sony online community Home. Although currently, North American PS3 owners are receiving almost weekly updates to the PlayStation Store, it wasn't until late February that the updates started to pick up. So perhaps in a few weeks, three months after the European launch to be exact, content will start to arrive at a more steady and constant pace. And as for that one game, destined to sell PS3 systems along with it, be patient. As recent impressions from the Sony Gamer's Day imply, we may soon have more than just one system-killer title to choose from. [Via PSXExtreme]
SGD '07: Ninja Gaiden: Sigma screenshots - Eight of them
New screenies! Pretty ones, at that. I loved this game on the Xbox and I have a feeling I'm going to love it again on the PS3 when it's released on July 3rd. In the meantime, be sure to check out these screenshots for your Ninja Gaiden fix. Including one which shows some Rachel gameplay. Those blood and fire effects look great. I could go on, but I'll let you look at them for yourselves. Enjoy. %Gallery-3230%
Ninja Gaiden: Sigma is complete, will sneak into American stores 7/3
Tecmo held a press event in Japan earlier today titled 'Tecmo's Nite Out 07,' where they announced their upcoming line-up of games. Like the other recent Gamer's Days, this was held as a kind of company-specific alternative to the now defunct E3, which would normally be held about now. A number of new titles were announced, and even though there was nothing new announced for the PlayStation 3, we did get some good news. According to IGN, the director of Ninja Gaiden: Sigma, Yosuke Hayashi, took the stage to announce to the assembled press that they had recently wrapped up development on the highly anticipated re-make of the Xbox classic. They also announced release dates of June 14th in Japan and July 3rd in North America. Unfortunately, no European date was announced. Guess we'll have to wait on Eidos for more details on that. This means that I have approximately two months to polish up my Ryu skills. I never really played the Xbox ones, so I have been getting my ass handed to me by the demo. The plethora of health items is helpful, but the lack of saves is annoying. Good lord, is it pretty though.
Final Ninja Gaiden Sigma boxart appears
Lately, we've had a lot of posts about pictures, or screenshots, or scans, or trailers without much actual news. The trend continues here, as the final boxart for Ninja Gaiden Sigma has arrived on the scene for some much-needed "oh, so that's what I'll look for in the store"-ism. As you can tell from the box, it's rated M (for Mothers, Protect Thy Young) and has a neat little fire going on in the background. Some ninja person is in the forefront, but we don't care about lil' ol' Ryu. We want to see that fire! It looks pretty nice, for boxart. There have been some awful boxarts in the past. Just awful. Anyway, this just goes to show you how near the release of this title truly is.
Ninja Gaiden demo strikes the Store
Every Thursday, the PLAYSTATION Store updates with this or that. Ninja Gaiden, the butt-kickingly awesome game from Team Ninja, will be available for play in today's update. The demo will feature multiple weapons, visuals running at 1080p and 60fps, and some mad ninja action. The demo is also supposed to have some unlockable stuff -- that's nice. We recall there being some kind of ninja-esque scoreboard for the demo, so we'll cross our fingers for that. Make sure that when you play it, your PS3 doesn't start to puff out smoke. Also included in today's update is a demo for Virtua Tennis, and various trailers.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Virtua Tennis demos assault US PS Store
Without warning, like the shadowy figures known only through whispers in the night, Ninja Gaiden Sigma has made its presence known on the PlayStation Store. The demo will be available today in the US, one day prior to its Japanese release, alongside a demo for Virtua Tennis. Also coming out today are trailers for Gauntlet II, The Wheelman, John Woo's Stranglehold and The Godfather. The full version of Ninja Gaiden Sigma is set for a June release (on disc). [Via SCEA news release]
Today's ninja-swordfighting-motorcycliest video: Ninja Gaiden Sigma
You've got motorcycles, ninjas, swords, and funky magic lightning-like powers. What more do you need? Ninja Gaiden Sigma manages to roll up things everyone likes into one game. Now, if they could work pirates into the game somehow, they might really have something. Especially if they were all on fire.
Eidos will distribute Ninja Gaiden Sigma in Europe
Europe, you've not been forgotten. No, Tecmo simply won't let you wait for Ninja Gaiden Sigma any longer than you have to. In fact, they've enlisted Eidos to distribute the game around Europe so that you won't have to wait months after the Japanese and American releases. You'll be getting it this summer, as will Japan and the US. If you want to estimate, take a look at our release date schedule and wiggle in about two, three weeks. We've talked enough about this game, really. It's going to be a great showcase as to how much a game has changed over just a few years -- visually and otherwise. It may also be a great showcase for the PS3 in general. This summer is going to be fantastic for gamers seeking a next-gen thrill on their beloved Sony console. Perhaps it will have a use other than a mirror to make sure you got the pizza off your face. Not that I did that.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma kicks the crap out of dev kits
Along with explaining why Ninja Gaiden Sigma isn't a "remake" or "port", Yosuke Hiyashi talks about his experience with the PlayStation 3 and what he planned to do with the title in a recent interview with Game Informer. While we'd love to make a list describing the main points of the interview, we're going to abstain this time -- not much is brand new to our ears. But we did catch wind of one question that caused us to grin with anticipation. Game Informer asked: Dead or Alive 4 blew up a couple of XBox 360's during testing because it pushed the system too far. Have you blown up any PS3 devkits with NGS? Hiyashi responds: "We've made a couple of devkits smoke, but we haven't had any actually blow up yet...it's really a matter of having a certain goal and then you try to see what you can get the hardware to do to achieve that goal, and by the time you look around you have smoke throughout the entire R&D floor." Awesome! So the PS3 doubles as a type of fog machine, too? Sounds like a win-win situation. If you'd like to catch up on all the NGS news, take a few minutes and read the entire interview -- it's not exactly a short stop, but it's worth it if you want to gather all the current knowledge on the title.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo hitting Japanese PSN in April
Are you in the mood to run on walls, acrobatically decapitate your enemies and wear skintight leather, but all too aware that these activities are generally frowned upon by the greater part of society? If you answered "yes" or managed to emit any sort of monosyllabic response, then Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a game that just might appeal to you. If, like this blogger, you're slightly stunned by your preparation to buy the once Xbox classic for a third time, you'd do well to note the April 27 release of a demo on the Japanese PlayStation Network store. With no confirmation of an American or European demo just yet, you might choose to wait until Ninja Gaiden Sigma's June release. Then again, there are other tactics you might use in gaining access to Ryu's PS3 debut. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
