E3 2005: Ninja Gaiden 2 Not for 360?
Team Ninja does not confirm the sequel for Xbox 360. Could it be headed to the PS3?
by Hilary Goldstein
May 20, 2005 - An interesting thing happened on the way to speak with Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki -- Ninja Gaiden 2 could not be confirmed as an Xbox 360. Long assumed to be headed to Microsoft's next-gen system, it seems either Team Ninja isn't ready to make the 360 destination official or Gaiden 2 is secretly being developed for PS3 or GameCube Revolution. When we asked how NG 2 would improve on the 360, the translator let us know that Team Ninja would not confirm the next Gaiden for Xbox 2. That doesn't mean it isn't coming to 360, but it certainly opens the possibility for development on one of the other next-gen systems.
To add a little fuel to the fire, last year Itagaki informed IGN that Team Ninja was looking into developing titles for the next-gen Nintendo and Sony platforms. In any case, Ninja Gaiden 2 is a long way from reality as Team Ninja will not fully dedicate itself to developing the sequel until after DOA 4 is complete.
As for those who felt Ninja Gaiden on Xbox was too difficult, be afraid. The difficulty won't likely be lessened for the sequel. However, when asked if NG 2's difficulty would equal that of the ridiculously tough Ninja Gaiden: Hurricane Pack, Itagaki said that Hurricane Pack could be made so difficult because it was free. Well, we thought it was funny.
We'll continue to investigate the final platform destination for Ninja Gaiden 2. Our guess is that it's still Xbox 360, but we wouldn't be shocked if it ended up being PS3 or Revolution.
