Update: OK, so don't shoot the messenger. Major Nelson, apologetically updated his post regarding the Ninja Gaiden II demo for all regions. Originally the demo was to be available to all Xbox Live regions excluding Germany and India but now it turns out that you can add Canada and the US to that list. So, no Ninja Gaiden II demo tomorrow for Canadians or Americans. Major still suspects a demo will drop some time this late this week. Also, he promises to talk to a few people about the mix up. Somebody's gonna get-a hurt reeeeal bad (some NSFW Russell Peters love for you in this time of mourning).
Gamers outside of Japan eagerly anticipating a hands-on experience with Ninja Gaiden II only have a few hours to go. According to Major Nelson the demo for the upcoming action title will hit all Xbox Live regions (excluding Germany and India) at 0200 PT tomorrow.
Our fearless leader has already had a few days with the demo and expressed his love for it in the X3F TV Demo Impressions video late last week. Anyone on the fence about picking up the game should try out the demo when it launches tomorrow along side the retail release.
For those of you patient enough to wait, Major Nelson tipped gamers off to news that the Ninja Gaiden II demo should be hitting Xbox Live Marketplace by the end of next week. "Looking for the NG 2 Demo? I am told that it will be available by the end of next week," reads Major's Twitter page.
The demo, which was released today on the Japanese Marketplace, features two levels one section from the upcoming game and showcases some of the various ways players will be able to cut dudes into bits-n-pieces.
Until then make sure to check out X3F TV where we dissect, no pun intended, the demo for the anticipated action title.
Update: The demo is actually the same as the Japanese release and features only one section, not two levels.
Don't ask us how, but we managed to lay our hands on the coveted Ninja Gaiden II demo today. Sure, we could have used it solely for selfish purposes. We could have kept it to ourselves to play over and over again (which, come to think of it, we already have). But no! Rather than hog the demo, we've encapsulated our impressions in a new episode of X3F TV. Check out our impressions in the video above (hint: Ninja Gaiden fans will be pleased).
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After the demo news disappeared from the game's official site, many of us were worried that there would be no Ninja Gaiden 2 demo at all. Fortunately the demo does exist, and it should be online shortly. In Japan. Only.
Now we know that the 360 is no big success in the East, so why not just release the demo everywhere at once? No one knows. Posting on NeoGAF, Chris Paladino (Hi Chris!) of Gamerscore blog confirmed that the demo would be hitting in Japan, and that there would be a demo release in the other territories "soon". Whether the demo would have helped sales of the game pre-launch or not is going to be a moot point soon. Microsoft better get it online!
Those crazy cats at Gamerscore Blog are at it again. This time they've set their sights on the upcoming Ninja Gaiden II. It seems that Ryu Hayabusa, main character of the Ninja Gaiden series and all-around badass, has given up his ninja way of life in favor of a cushy job at Microsoft. At least, we think he has a job there. The trouble is that no one at the Gamerscore Blog office can seem to find him and believe him to be a lazy bum. Of course, we know Ryu better than that. Looks like they'll have to learn the hard way though. Check out the video to see just how dangerous it is to meddle with a ninja.
Microsoft and Tecmo today announced that the whirlwind of blood and errant body parts known as Ninja Gaiden II has gone gold. In other words, the game is completely and totally finished and only awaits pressing and packaging before copies are whisked to retailers everywhere on June 3. The press release also announces that the remaining promotional Ask a Ninja episodes will arrive on Xbox Live Marketplace on May 27, June 3 and June 10, so keep an eye out for those. Finally, a documentary entitled The Way of the Warrior: Ninja Gaiden II, which will air on Cablevision IO Digital on May 30. The documentary will also be made available on XBLM starting June 10. The documentary focuses on "the history of the ninja and how it impacted the game" and purports to feature "members of Team Ninja, historical areas of Japan, real life ninjas and exclusive looks at behind-the-scenes footage."
Strangely absent in the press release is any mention of the playable demo that's supposed to drop sometime this month.
If you're not familiar with the Ask a Ninja podcast, you really should be. As the title implies, the premise is fairly simple: ask the ninja a question, and the ninja answers it. It is the delivery of the answers that makes the podcast so great though. In a genius bit of marketing, someone at Microsoft decided to team up with Ask a Ninja to produces some special episodes of the podcast sponsored by Ninja Gaiden II. The first two episodes are available now on Xbox Live Marketplace, so feel free to download them at your convenience. For even greater convenience, you can watch them right now, as we've taken the liberty of embedding them in this post (how we did this shall remain secret, though we will admit that Ninpo was involved). Find the second episode after the break.
Sitting down with Team Ninja head (and snappy dresser) Tomonobu Itagaki, Joystiq (along with some people who aren't from Joystiq) got to dig up some info regarding Ninja Gaiden II. For example, gamers looking for something a little easier than the first game are in luck. While the Ninja Dog mode found in Ninja Gaiden Black essentially went out of its way to make fun of lesser players for choosing an easier difficulty, Ninja Gaiden II's Path of the Acolyte mode will do no such thing. Not that we had to worry about that. No, that fact is much more important for certain Joystiq bloggers (who shall remain nameless). Head over to Joystiq for the full interview.
Good lord. So many Ninja Gaiden II images. Adding more the already huge pile of Spring Showcase media, we bring you 40 new images of Ninja Gaiden II. We've got character renders. We've got concept art. We've got new screenshots. Hell, we even have special screenshots with no blood (good thinking on that one Microsoft). Please, dive into the gallery below. Just dive right in. Caress each image lovingly with your eyes. Your eyes work very hard, and they deserve the treat.
It's hard to know what exactly we did to deserve this fine month of May. First we get the Iron Man movie. A new Indiana Jones comes out later this month. Then there's all this Ninja Gaiden II coverage (not to mention the demo coming out sometime this month). GameTrailers has just unleashed a veritable flood of Ninja Gaiden II videos. Seriously, there are six of them. Seasoned Ninja Gaiden players will likely feel the urge to yell at whomever is behind the control though (he never jumps!!!11!!). Still, it's new footage and we're not about to complain. To be fair, we've actually featured one of the videos already, but we're throwing it in again anyway because the GameTrailers player is much, much better than GameSpy's. Check 'em all out after the break.
We didn't think hardcore ninja types had daddy issues but this latest clip of Ninja Gaiden 2 tells us otherwise. It showcases the ultra-ninja Genshin versus the father of Ninja Gaiden star Ryu Hayabusa. In the clip Ryu's father Joe Hayabusa (seriously, his name is Joe) faces off against the ultimate bad-dude before Ryu walks in and screams out for his father's safety, and probably because he never played catch with him as a kid.
After the jump you can check out another cutscene that features the werewolf boss, Volf (seriously who names these characters?). Surprisingly Volf reminds us of Kelsey Grammar's portrayal of Beast in X-Men 3. Well-spoken werewolves FTW!
Eurogamer recently got their (lucky, lucky) hands on a preview build of (Game of the Year 2008) Ninja Gaiden II and the word is good. According to Eurogamer, complaints leveled at the original (bad camera, wonky save system, respawning enemies) have largely been addressed. Oh, and we should probably mention that the game is reportedly beautiful, with Eurogamer praising it for its "incredibly sharp textures, vivid and atmospheric backdrops, and frenetic, pinball-like action that barely flinches no matter what chaos is unfolding on the screen." Perhaps most importantly for many gamers out there (not us, of course), the game now sports a much more forgiving difficulty curve as well as more selectable difficulty levels available from the start.
For the love of all that is good, the wait is killing us. That demo had better get here soon. Hit the "read" link to check out Eurogamer's full preview in the meantime.
Alas, we cannot have them. No, these were made by the (no doubt very loving) girlfriend of one lucky Ninja Gaiden fan. The shoes are hand painted and feature Ninja Gaiden's star ninja Ryu in front of a rising sun background. They are, as the kids say, "teh awesomez." While you won't be getting your hands on this particular pair, take heart, for creator Kirstentjie says that she's considering selling them locally and "hopefully internationally one day." Oh, let's hope that one day is very, very soon (and that Microsoft and Tecmo's lawyers don't mind).
The ever watchful folks over at 360Sync recently spotted a new Ninja Gaiden II standee at their local GameStop. At first glance it appears to be nothing more than your typical standee, but look closer and you can see glory. Yes, that is a Ninja Gaiden II Xbox 360 (and it appears to be an Elite at that). GameStop will apparently be giving these consoles away -- how many we don't know -- sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, the URL listed on the standee currently leads to a dead page. Here's hoping it goes live soon, because we have got to get our hands on that sweet console. Just look at it ... sitting there in all its majesty. That thing could probably slay a hundred demons before breakfast.
We're not sure how long it's been live, but there is a newly revamped (Game of the Year 2008) Ninja Gaiden II website up on Xbox.com. The website actually offers some very cool extras to fans of the series and, in a refreshing twist, the site offers some actual new information about the game for those who know where to look. Firstly, the website allows users to build their own custom desktop wallpaper using the games various weapons as a backdrop (see our creation above). The cool part -- and this is where the new info come in -- is that you can check out a brief video snippet of each weapon to help you decide which ones to pick. The videos show off weapons that have so far remained under wraps, most notably the kusari-gama (which has an awesome essence attack, the projectile weapons, and a new Ninpo called "Art of the Piercing Void." Another bit of new info: Ryu can now charge his projectile attacks as well as his melee attacks. We have to admit it's pretty cool to watch him hurl multiple incendiary shuriken into a hapless foe.
The website also offers a somewhat bizarre minigame in which players send attacks to other opponents. The strange part is that players have to wait for others to respond. It's sort of like playing chess over the phone, except instead of moving pieces on a board, your killing this with a sword. At any rate, it's a neat site, and all the fanboys slavering over Ninja Gaiden II (that should be all of you) should definitely check it out.
