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s Microsoft is set to announce at a pre-Tokyo Game Show press event shortly, Ninja Gaiden 2 is real, heading to Xbox 360, and -- in an unusual twist -- being published by Microsoft itself, rather than Tecmo. While still under development by Tecmo's Team Ninja, the publisher shift puts it next to games like Halo 3 and Mass Effect as part of Microsoft's first-party lineup.
Apart from potential adjustments in how the game's marketing plays out, it doesn't seem this change will have much impact on the game. Anyone worried that Microsoft would want to censor the series needs to do little more than look at the first screenshots released for the game -- blood flows, splashes, and flies more than in pretty much any other game to date. In fact, at first glace, we'd forgive you for thinking the big new thing in Ninja Gaiden 2 is blood (or rather, the amount of it).
But naturally, there's a lot more to the game. We don't have the full details just yet, but we were able to pick up some early information. Perhaps as a way to counter many of the complaints about the series' difficulty, one of the central gameplay changes is a new health system that will automatically heal players to a certain extent. We don't know exactly how this system will work, but it seems to be similar to Halo 1's setup where a certain portion of your life will recharge if you can stay out of trouble for a few moments, but another portion of your life (your "armor," to continue the Halo comparison) will remain missing until you make it to the next save point.
Between those save points, you'll bounce from New York to Tokyo to the Netherworld, and as you can see in the new screenshots from the game, come across an area called the Aqua Capital with gondolas and a river running through the center of town. It's hard to say much definitively about the game's New York appearance, but a "stage select" screenshot released by Microsoft suggests that the Statue of Liberty will make an appearance.
For weapons, Ryu Hayabusa now has claws on his hands and "razor-like blades" on his feet, according to a Microsoft press release, which he can use to aid his decapitations, but it's not clear if he has these for the entirety of the game or just at certain points, and how they fit into the story. As you can see in the screenshots, decapitations are back and fit in nicely with the blood effects.
The final bit of information we have at this point is that there will be a new Master Ninja Tournament and players will be able to upload Karma scores to leaderboards on Xbox Live.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is set for release in 2008, likely in the latter half of the year given the timing of the game's announcement. For the full reveal of the game, look for a cover story in the December issue of EGM, which will have much more information than we've been able to round up thus far, as well as exclusive images and impressions of the game.
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