Ninja Gaiden 2 headlines MS pre-TGS conference

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 September, 2007

Ikaruga XBLA also confirmed.

Microsoft has announced Ninja Gaiden 2 will be released exclusively for Xbox 360 next year during a press conference in Tokyo earlier today.

The media briefing - ahead of next week's Tokyo Game Show - also saw the publisher announce that Lost Odyssey will be released on 6th December in Japan and in Europe and North America next February.

Meanwhile, Xbox Live Arcade was given a boost by news of Rez HD and confirmation of Treasure shoot-'em-up Ikaruga.

Other titles on the way to Live Arcade courtesy of Japanese developers include EXIT (by the end of the year), Omega Five (Hudson) and Triggerheart Exelica (Warashi - a shoot-'em-up with dynamically adapting difficulty).

Square Enix also demoed Xbox 360's Infinite Undiscovery and the 360 build of next-gen title Last Remnant, while Beautiful Katamari - still, by the looks of it, a 360 exclusive - was highlighted ahead of its October release.

You can check out a brief Ninja Gaiden 2 teaser trailer on Eurogamer TV right now, or have a look at the first shots in our NG2 gallery.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • woodnotes #1 4 years ago

    Wooohooo!!! Although we already knew this yesterday.

  • Dizzy #2 4 years ago

    >Infinite Undiscovery

    Where do Japanese get those names??? What the hell is an Undiscovery????

  • evild_edd #3 4 years ago

    \o/ to Ninja Gaiden 2.
    \o/ to Ikaruga. Like Rez, I shall be buying this though I already own it on Dreamcast.

    It's a bit of a shame that the AA XBLA titles coming out I already own. I'd love to see an HD version of Radiant Silvergun on XBLA as I never got the opportunity to experience RS having never owned a Saturn. Come on guys (Treasure)... make it happen!

  • kissthestick #4 4 years ago

    you er......erm, dont discover anything :) ..i think

  • Cloudane #5 4 years ago

    Crikey, the Xbox 360 is getting some great shumps soon!

  • evild_edd #6 4 years ago

    Oh, and NG2; Lost Odyssey; Fable 2; Alan Wake; Banjo 360; and (if it ends up actually being any good) Too Human!!!

    360 is looking strong for 2008 exclusives.

  • SomaticSense #7 4 years ago

    Hmmm Rez HD, never played it but always wanted to. My prediction going by Lumines Live:

    First pack, includes a quarter of the levels, and couple of the options in the options screen unlocked - 800pts

    Second pack, with some more levels and a couple more options included - 400pts

    Third pack, with the rest of the levels and options unlocked, including the ability to now change the volume - 800pts
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 10:18

  • Skeletor #8 4 years ago

    Ninja Gaiden 2 looks just freaking incredible! Blood and chopped off limbs all over the place, sweet!

    http://ww w.gfdata.de/archiv09-2007-gamef...

  • RexRunti #9 4 years ago

    With such a great pre-TGS conference it makes you wonder what MS will actually annouce at the show. (Probably a Japanese price cut.)

  • Mordum #10 4 years ago

    Seems like a bit of a slap in the face for PS3 owners. They have their appetite whet by Ninja Gaiden Sigma, just to have Ninja Gaiden 2 announced as exclusive to the 360.

  • JonFE #11 4 years ago

    At long last a NG2 announcement! NG was, probably, my favourite xbox game (and punished me relentlessly for it), so more of that is certainly welcome in my book :)

  • Yossarian #12 4 years ago

    Seems like a bit of a slap in the face for PS3 owners. They have their appetite whet by Ninja Gaiden Sigma, just to have Ninja Gaiden 2 announced as exclusive to the 360.

    This was always going to be the case.

  • sport #13 4 years ago

    NG2 will be the best game ever made. You read it here first.

  • Gurgeh #14 4 years ago

    Ikaruga is rock hard... unless of course you are this man

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=lzhCa5l5AFA
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=lzhCa5l5AFA
    [/link]

  • Les #15 4 years ago

    "Seems like a bit of a slap in the face for PS3 owners."

    Would be amazed if it didn't end up to be a timed exclusive like everything else unfortunatley these days... :( Unless NG Sigma sells really poor...

  • Dizzy #16 4 years ago

    >Would be amazed if it didn't end up to be a timed exclusive

    Published by MS m8.

    Why would MS publish on PS3???

    The best that can happen for PS3 owners that want to play this game is that it comes out in 1-2 years under a different name.

  • Monkey_Puncher #17 4 years ago

    I read somewhere that Microsoft are actually financing the development of Ninja Gaiden 2, so I'd be very suprised if it does ever actually appear on PS3.

  • miiiguel #18 4 years ago

    360 goodies!!! Plz stop! Toooo much...

  • neuroniky #19 4 years ago

    I can think of several retro games that should be published on Live! just like Rez and Ikaruga... Chu Chu Rocket (can you imagine how much fun you can have with it on Live?), Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun (I WANT THIS!), Dracula X Rondo of Blood (THE PcEngine classic), IK+... not to mention a lot of different Neo Geo games...

    Oh, and we need Powerstone 1, 2, 2.5,3, whatever... just release a Live! playable Powerstone, Capcoooooooooom!!!

  • rhinoxious #20 4 years ago

    WOW those screens loke groe-tastic,

    Ninja Gaiden is probably my favourite game I haven't completed, must grit teeth at difficulty and go back and finish it.

    Is it backwards compatible on 360?

  • Davey #21 4 years ago

    As a PS3 owner, and a massive NG fan, this hurts me :-(

  • lambtron #22 4 years ago

    Just buy a 360 when it comes out - you have a PS3 so you must be loaded anyway ;).

  • Machetazo #23 4 years ago

    Chu-Chu - can't be far off.

    They took (confused?) discovery as a term for uncovering something or someone so undiscovery would mean, uh, un-uncovering. Yeah.

    Sounds like the characters find something they don't want others to - so, they undiscover it? Infinitely :p (or forever )
    See, it makes perfect sense. :D

  • Darren #24 4 years ago

    Oooooooooooooooooo Rez HD and Ikaruga on the Xbox 360... deffo intererested in those... :)

  • miiiguel #25 4 years ago

    Davey: yeah... I mean 360 is becoming one of those machines that everyone should have, just like a PS2 in the old days. It's not expensive, it has every great title, when it's not exclusive is equal quality (more often than not, even better). PS3 you should keep, for... historical reasons.

  • The-Bodybuilder #26 4 years ago

    >"just to have Ninja Gaiden 2 announced as exclusive to the 360. "

    Then they should buy a 360.
    If you can afford a ps3, then surely....

  • Skeletor #27 4 years ago

    Oh miiiguel...why don't you just shut the fuck up? You're trolling on basically every article you comment. Is this moronic dick-comparison-bullshit really that much fun?
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 11:57

  • RexRunti #28 4 years ago

    I'm suprised EG haven't put up Itagaki-san's comments yet as they were, as usual, the sort that can start a fanboy war (IGN have a minute by minute conference break down and man does NG2 sound good).

  • Davey #29 4 years ago

    Yeah dont get me wrong I love my PS3, i think its great, but the 360 has some serious looking exclusives. Maybe if i get the urge in the future ill pick one up, but for now, im good.

  • miiiguel #30 4 years ago

    Skeletor: you shouldn't "personaly aim" at me in those terms, I think it's rude and out of context.

  • Les #31 4 years ago

    "I mean 360 is becoming one of those machines that everyone should have, just like a PS2 in the old days."

    No, that'd be the DS and Wii...

    "Skeletor: you shouldn't "personaly aim" at me in those terms, I think it's rude and out of context."

    It's definitely rude. Not sure about out of context though...

  • Les #32 4 years ago

    "Published by MS m8."

    For real? Doesn't make much sense unless they were paid big bucks. On the other hand, MGS 2 also appeared on Xbox but 3 didn't and there was the MGS remake on Cube and nothing else, so it's happened before.

  • SomaticSense #33 4 years ago

    "Davey: yeah... I mean 360 is becoming one of those machines that everyone should have, just like a PS2 in the old days. It's not expensive, it has every great title, when it's not exclusive is equal quality (more often than not, even better). PS3 you should keep, for... historical reasons."

    While I don't believe you are trolling as such, you are actually wrong on a few of those assumptions.

    PS2 was expensive when it came out, granted not as much as the PS3, but the difference in price was not that different to the Xbox. Or at least not as much as the difference between the 360 and PS3 is now. The PS2 had loads of quality games, but it didn't have EVERY one, like you claim. And as both an Xbox and a PS2 owner, I can categorically say without doubt that the multi-format releases were almost always better quality on the Xbox.

    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 12:31

  • Monkey_Puncher #34 4 years ago

    Just incase people are wondering about exclusivity with the game, it sounds like Microsoft are funding development so the game won't appear on any other system even 6 month or a year down the line.

    Got this quote from gamespot..

    "Currently, Ninja Gaiden 2 is set for a worldwide release on the Xbox 360 sometime in 2008. However, unlike its predecessors, it won't be ported to other consoles down the line. Instead of being published by Tecmo, holder of the Ninja Gaiden license, the game is being bankrolled and distributed directly by Microsoft Game Studios. Exact terms of the publishing deal were not made public as of press time, nor were any details on the title's story or gameplay"
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 12:39

  • miiiguel #35 4 years ago

    SomaticSense: yeah, I agree with you on that quality issue which is different nowdays (PS2 versions were in fact usually worse than XBox), but the differences were marginal, imo. And the library compensated it for the PS2 side.

  • JonFE #36 4 years ago

    @rhinoxious:
    Yes, both Ninja Gaiden and NG: Black are backwards compatible, albeit a bit slower IIRC (which may actually be a good thing, come to think of it:)

  • The-Bodybuilder #37 4 years ago

    If it's bankrolled by MS, that will mean it will get a public, nationwide maerketing push that it derserved (unlike the first one, which just had a couple of posters in HMV at oxford street).

  • Skeletor #38 4 years ago

    @miiiguel
    I aim at you "personaly" because YOU keep dissing other systems and their players for no apparent reason. Just keep on trolling, mate *hits ignore poster*

    Btw, NEW SCREENS:

    http://ww w.1up.com/do/media?cId=3162695&...
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 13:48

  • miiiguel #39 4 years ago

    I might "diss" some systems everytime it seems pertinent for their lack of results (AKA good games), but never fellow gamers.
    I never ever told anyone to go have sex with themselfs, or to shut up, or any kinda of depreciative adjective.

  • udat #40 4 years ago

    Ninjas are like, totally sweet.

  • Xerx3s #41 4 years ago

    As a PS3 owner, and a massive NG fan, this hurts me :-(

    Why did you think that they did NG: Sigma? To hook up more players and expand the fanbase for NG2. Sure, profit is nice but the timing is too perfect for it to be anything else.
    No doubt that there will be quite a few sigma fans who will be picking up a 360 for this.

  • Poet #42 4 years ago

    infinite undiscovery screens plz. Lost Odyssey next year?

    :(

  • macmurphy #43 4 years ago

    Have Ikaruga on the Cube, without doubt the finest shooter I ever played (never played Silvergun to be fair). It was one of the most enjoyable games too, and I'm not even much of a shooter fan. Whilst we're on the subject of XBLA arcade games we fantasise about, wouldn't it be great if they all buried the hatchet and allowed a release of Goldeneye. It would be quids in for everyone involved (Microsoft/Rare/Nintendo) if you had a virtual console release at the same time. Also there's an overlooked little game that had stunning multiplayer, it was called Return Fire. That would be awsome on XBLA, surprised no-one else has released it yet. Anyone know if it's planned? Also can someone explain why they're not releasing old Xbox games? Something like Mashed would be awesome on XBLA, it's already made so I'm guessing a conversion would be simple enough and an instant moneyspinner. Any plans for putting early xbox titles on XBLA?

  • Les #44 4 years ago

    "I might "diss" some systems everytime it seems pertinent for their lack of results (AKA good games)"

    LOL, 'might', LOL, LOL, LOL, etc.

    Anyway, I only diss people. People that I think are stupid. Which is about 90% of this world's population. Makes no sense to diss a product.

  • dllord #45 4 years ago

    Ninja gaiden was the hardest game ever, loved it! i hope they don't tone this one down!

  • miiiguel #46 4 years ago

    "Anyway, I only diss people. People that I think are stupid. Which is about 90% of this world's population. Makes no sense to diss a product. "

    You do, "diss" products, I remember a Vista argument not so long ago, but anyways, things seem to get personal with this very unimportant thing that is in fact, "what's the product that delivers more", and I can imagine why, and for that I am sorry.

  • matrim83 #47 4 years ago

    I think in the (yet another) console flamewar people are loosing sight of the important thing here.

    NINJA GAIDEN 2!!!!!!!!!

    /cartwheels around thread.

    Oh and Tecmo please no ghost fishes.

    /Remembers.
    /Shudders.
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/07 @ 18:54

  • TRUTH #48 4 years ago

    Here's some more good news for you 360 owners and 2d beat em up fans: SNK will be releasing Fatel Fury, Samurai Showdown, King Of Fighters series on XBLIVE. All given the HD treatment. Also the next Castlevania might appear as 2d game on 360, this depends on the sales on DS/PSP versions (Though different games).

  • Ryze #49 4 years ago

    evild_edd

    What he said.

    +1

    Treasure - ryze from ur grave....

  • Ryze #50 4 years ago

    /Looks at miiiguel

    /YAWN.

    Let's hope the camera moves properly in NG2. It's fucking annoying in NGB

    Is there no way of fixing that shit? It needs an minimap ala GTA also, as you lose your bearings every 10 seconds, right before someone thumps you from behind the camera.

    Annoyance... in an otherwise amazing title.

  • wired009 #51 4 years ago

    Better camera control would be great. I also hope they polish up the menu system. It was a pain in the butt to select weapons and items. Especially potions in mid combat.

  • quantumsheep #52 4 years ago

    @macmurphy

    I've said it before, but I'd love to see the original Elite on XBLA - I have it on GBA and it's still as addictive as ever and would be perfect while we wait for Elite 4 ;)

    Ikaruga and Rez are great additions to XBLA.

    I find I spend more money on XBLA games than anything else these days. Got 26 games at last count, more if you count the Arcade unplugged disc.

    Then of course I've got the Nintendo classics on Virtual Console, and it seems I'm spending far more on these old/smaller games than on big name new releases! :o