Tenchu 4 sneaks onto Wii

After Tenchu 2, series developer Acquire parted ways with the stealth action series, and the franchise parted ways with numerical order. Tenchu 3 became Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, and the line of games has since experimented with subtitles and even stray letters (Tenchu Z).

Things are coming full circle, given that Ubisoft announced today that Tenchu will be returning to its numerical progression with Tenchu 4 for the Wii, and original developer Acquire is at the helm. Ubisoft has licensed the right to publish the game in North America and Europe from the current owner of the Tenchu brand, From Software.

For the fourth full installment in the series, Acquire will pick up the feudal Japanese tale of Rikimaru and Ayame as they work from the shadows to preserve peace. The main game will stretch across 10 missions, but Ubisoft is promising an extra 50 side quests for players to sneak through.

Tenchu 4 is scheduled for release early next year.