Ninja Gaiden 3 announced, Team Ninja sans Itagaki, vague speculations ensue

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Videogamer.com article

It was teased at some secret presentation during the TGS. Only one image has been released.



Besides all the vague and pointless conclusion-jumping going on in the above article, there are some interesting angles. Itagaki is gone from Tecmo and has since started his own studio with some other former Team Ninja members, and they're working on a new game, Devil's Third, for THQ. This game is due out in 2012 or something, and with Ninja Gaiden 3 in the works they may even be in competition eventually.

It seems a safe bet to assume that Tecmo has put Yosuke Hayashi, the same guy who directed the two Ninja Gaiden Sigma games, in charge of Ninja Gaiden 3. That should be interesting as well, because he's had different ideas from Itagaki and changed each game significantly from the originals. In fact, Itagaki has said that he thinks the Sigma games were inferior products. In general, the Sigma versions are more forgiving and easier than the originals, and Sigma 2 is greatly censored compared to Ninja Gaiden 2, with all the blood sprays removed.

Having only recently gotten my 360 back I managed to get through Ninja Gaiden 2 a few weeks back on the normal difficulty and I already found it to be much easier than Black, though I went into Black blind and didn't have much trouble with that once I figured things out. The enemy projectile spam only becomes a problem on the harder difficulties. And that last boss? What the hell kind of pushover garbage was that? Granted, I had to beat Black's last boss with only half my health and a single healing item, but I beat Ninja Gaiden 2's last boss on my first try. It was very disappointing.

I can only hope that Ninja Gaiden 3 will maintain some sort of challenge and return the Team Mission Mode with new characters (and not make it day 1 DLC).

ginguskahn

Well, Sigma's where never a huge step down, but has this guy directed a game from the ground up yet? (any game, not a NG). I hope its still hard as nails and that the blood on his hands in that photo means they are going full gore!

I bet Itagaki is pissed right now.

Bionic Monkey

NG 2 was a bit of a let down from the first game that I never even finished it. So, on the one hand, I'm hesitant to give the series another chance, but on the other, with somebody behind the helm that doesn't have the sole goal of punishing the players for having the balls to actually get good at his last game, maybe this one will actually turn out good.

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When I think about the Black and Ninja Gaiden 2, I actually find them to be opposed, at least in the process it took me to beat them.

Black was a hard series of patterns and optimization. Everything that gave me trouble did so only when I tried to force myself through. The infamous skill checks, like the first boss and the chapter 6 or 7 boss, are tools that force a player to stop fucking around and just Contra. As a verb. You're not getting through until you recognize what the game wants you to do and then do it.

Playing Ninja Gaiden 2 was the complete opposite. Every time I looked for a pattern I found that I was just making trouble for myself. When things looked like they needed study, what they actually needed was some brute force. By the end of the game I was just mashing hard attack combos until I lopped off a limb, and there were some bosses that only went down to brute force. When I had to fight the pair of giant fire tortoises I was sure it would be a problem, until I just got up under each them and mashed away until they died. When I had to fight the leader of the Black Spider clan I spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out his patterns, then beat him easily by just doing more damage than him.

I hope they move back towards Black, because I enjoy that more.

Turkey

I also hope that it moves closer to Black. I hope they keep the health bar from 2 though.

Antihippy

Hopefully it's multiplatform immediately now.