If I had worked on Dead or Alive 4 with the folks at Team Ninja, I would definitely spend my bonus money on this amazing Ryu Hayabusa statue from First 4 Figures. The company that has brought us so many pretty works of Metroid and Zelda art has been awarded the license for Ninja Gaiden II from Microsoft and TECMO, and the first product coming out of that license certainly does not disappoint.

Ryu is clad in a lovely black leather ensemble, standing a whopping 18 inches above his base of artificial grass, with the full piece measuring 31 inches tall once you figure in the Eclipse Scythe. As with all things First 4 Figures, Ryu is extremely limited and rather pricey - only 1,999 pieces are being made at a cost of $349.99 each. Each model comes with a certificate of authenticity that allows you to purchase the same numbered version of the next in the series. Grab those bonus checks and head over to First 4 Figures to preorder!

We knew Ninja Gaiden II Mission Mode was coming on July 25th, but what exactly is Mission Mode? Mission Mode is a pack of 25 new missions for the game, broken up into two sets. Karma missions involve trying to get the highest possible score, while survival missions are all about taking on hordes of enemies with a single weapon to see how long you last.

The pack will be available tomorrow for 800 Microsoft points, or the price of your standard Xbox Live Arcade title. Is it worth it? Not a clue. A real ninja does not pay to go on missions - we get paid for them, and then kill the guy who pays us, taking the rest of his money.

More Ninja Gaiden II Missions for Your Pleasure! [Gamerscore Blog]

The Meaning of Ninjy

Those looking for more to do in Ninja Gaiden II should start rooting through the couch cushions for loose Microsoft Points, because details on the game's DLC have appeared, like, out of nowhere. One second there's a puff of smoke, the next Gamersyde reports that you'll be paying 800 MS Points for 25 new missions via Xbox Live. Cheap!

According to the report, two types of self-contained missions will extend the life of your Ninja Gaiden II experience: "Karma Attack missions task you with obtaining the highest score, while Survival missions give you a single weapon to fight off as many enemies as possible." What? No camera battle missions? That's the best part!

Ninja Gaiden DLC details [Gamersyde]

July is Ninja Month! So says Xbox Live, which now randomly sports a Ninja Live ad which takes you to ninja paradise. Well, not exactly ninja paradise. In ninja paradise, you'd all be dead. Instead, you get links to ninja movies and television shows, ninja games, ninja style, and this particular Ninja Gaiden II page, which displays the dates for new Ninja Gaiden II content. July 11th sees the release of NGII Skull videos, and then on the 25th the game gets its Mission Mode on righteously.

I personally want to thank Microsoft for making Ninja Month every bit as special as they did Pirate Month. Oh wait, there wasn't a Pirate Month, now was there? FACE!

Ninja Gaiden II Outfits Are Out

Ninja Gaiden II owners, Tecmo has stuff for you to buy. Today, three costume packs for Ryu Hayabusa went up on Xbox LIVE. The three packs (dubbed "Demon", "Shadow Walker", and "BioMetal") are 200 Microsoft Points a piece — that's $2.50 in US money. Each pack contains five costumes variations on the pack's theme. So that works out to fifty cents an outfit. Way cheaper than real ninja clothes!

コスチュームパック [IT Media]

NECA's Ninja Gaiden II Figure

Hard Proof That Tecmo Japan Is Lying? (This Seems Like It)

Things are going from bad to worse for Tecmo. First Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki announced he was leaving and suing Tecmo, while a totally separate lawsuit has been filed against Tecmo by Hiroaki Ozawa and co-plaintiff Tatsuki Tsunoda. Ozawa is the Tecmo Labor Union leader and Ninja Gaiden 2 lead engineer, while Tsunoda is the Ninja Gaiden 2 level design lead. Two key Team Ninja members! That alone does not bode well for Tecmo. But, this isn't just a story of two guys trying to get some overtime, but also apparently of deception, falsified statements and a dead, beloved company president. There's concrete evidence in the plaintiff's claims — so concrete that it could very well be the silver bullet for Tecmo's current upper management.

Ozawa and Tsunoda both filed their suit this past Monday. According to the suit, the workers were illegally placed on a "flexible hours" work scheme where overtime was not paid. Because of this dubious employment structure, overtime for the employees exceeded over 100 hours per month in unpaid overtime. Along with the lawsuit, they provided hard evidence to prove that Tecmo's actions were unethical and illegal.

First Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki sues former employer Tecmo, now this. On June 16th, two Tecmo employees filed suit with the Tokyo District Court for unpaid wages, demanding 8.3 million yen (US$77,000) in payment. According to the suit, the workers were illegally placed on a "flexible hours" work scheme, starting four years ago. From that point, overtime wasn't paid, apparently. The plaintiffs represent all 300 Tecmo employees and contest that because of this dubious employment structure, overtime for the employees exceeded over 100 hours per month in unpaid overtime. Tecmo developer Hiroaki Ozawa is one of the plaintiffs in the case, and since February has headed up the "Tecmo Labor Union". The suit even claims that Tecmo has created false documents and has covered up accounting documents. Officials are looking into whether Tecmo has violated labor laws. Things look bad for Tecmo. Very, very bad.

テクモ社員、残業代求め提訴 [jiji via my game news flash]
テクモ労働組合の執行役員2名が未払賃金を求めて提訴 [Game Watch Impress]

The Itagaki-Tecmo pissing match may have hit a new level of animosity. 1Up, attributing only "word on the street," reports that as many as 36 key members of Team Ninja are walking, and preparing a class-action lawsuit against Tecmo regarding unpaid bonuses they were due for completed games.

Earlier this month Tomonobu Itagaki, who leads/led Team Ninja, announced his intention to quit Tecmo, effective July 1. In his announcement he was PO'd about a company decision not to pay bonuses on a completed game, so, chances are his comrades feel the same. Tecmo, for its part, says the bonus to Itagaki that is in dispute was approved by a previous management team, not the current one.

1Up also writes:

Another problem for Tecmo is that in Japan, any lawsuit filed against a publicly-traded company must be immediately reported to its shareholders on the same business day. The fact that Itagaki had actually filed a complaint against Tecmo in Tokyo District Court on May 14, but Tecmo management withheld this information from shareholders, possibly as late as when the notorious developer released his high-profile public statement on June 2, creates even bigger problems for the game publisher.

Of course Tecmo still owns Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, and can hire developers to make all the games it wishes off of those franchises. But if this is true, it's absolutely a fair to wonder what they'll be like without, and how faithful they'd be to the gaming experience so many have come to expect to this point.

Rumor: Three Dozen Team Ninja Members Leaving With Itagaki [1Up]

Last month when I spoke with Tomonobu Itagaki in San Francisco he told me that Ninja Gaiden II represented the culmination, the absolute height of the franchise and because of this he would no longer be making any more Ninja Gaiden games. Ninja Gaiden has always been about perfection of timing, on some level the art of the sword, this is no more evident than in this latest game.

But is Ninja Gaiden II really the franchise's swan song or is Itagaki's decision to ditch Team Ninja and sue Tecmo over unpaid bonuses the real reason he won't be making any more of the titles?

Details Surface About Akihabara Killer (Ninja Gaiden 2 Confusion)

As we reported earlier, tragedy struck Tokyo's video game/anime/manga district Akihabara this Sunday. A 25-year-old-man stabbed 17, killing 7. Truly, truly horrible stuff. The killer's name is Tomohiro Kato, and according to blog Japan Probe, details about him include: He had been to Akihabara many times in the past. He worked for a Tokyo-based temp company and had been sent to Shizuoka for work. He played tennis in school. One of his year book sketches includes a character from Namco RPG Tales of Destiny with messages he wrote in English (after the jump). The mass media has already latched onto the game connection, instead of the tennis one to explain this senseless spree. (Because tennis driving people to kill makes no sense — but apparently video games does!)

The chilling part (if trying to kill 17 people wasn't chilling enough!) is how Kato chronicled the events leading up to his mass murders. Truly disturbing. AFP via Yahoo! News incorrectly points out: "On a different site, an anonymous posting on May 27 was entitled 'A disaster in Akihabara' and warned that an incident would take place on June 5." As commenter muu points out, the "disaster" that the thread is referring to? Ninja Gaiden 2 — which went on sale, you guessed it, on June 5th in, that's right, Akihabara. The thread is apparently nothing more than a fanboy flamewar. That Ninja Gaiden 2 Xbox 360/PS3 fanboy fight appeared on television news here as well (above). Yahoo! News Japan has pulled its original story, but at time of posting Yahoo! News was still running that AFP story.

Let's Quickly Learn About Ninja Gaiden

X-Play History [Go Nintendo]

Microsoft Thanks Itagaki For Years of Support

When Tomonobu Itagaki dropped a bombshell late last night telling us through a translator that he was not only leaving Team Ninja but suing his former employer, it was pretty stunning.

Temco later declined to comment saying that they were aware of his statement but unwilling to say more. Now Microsoft is chiming in, responding to our request for comment, thanking Itagaki for his years of Xbox support.

Tomonobu Itagaki has decided to leave TECMO and Team NINJA to pursue other opportunities. We thank Tomonobu Itagaki for the many years he has supported Xbox as he has contributed immensely to the success of the videogame industry as a whole.

I'm sure that if Itagaki carries out his threats and leaves Team Ninja he won't be leaving game development. In fact he told us as much last month when he decided to drop another bomb, saying that Ninja Gaiden II was his swan song and that he was thinking of creating a shooter set in the Pacific Theater during World War II, perhaps one from the Japanese perspective. The question now is will he form his own studio or latch on to another collection of disenfranchised, but artistic developers. Yeah, probably not, I think it's more likely he's going to Microsoft, but I can dream.

Win Free Copy of Ninja Gaiden 2

Trivia time! And not just any old trivia, Ninja Gaiden 2 trivia! And for the 20th person who answers the poll and sends the correct answer to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom with the subject heading "Ninja Gaiden II" and a picture of your most recent meal will get a free copy of Ninja Gaiden II. Just like that!

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Late last night Tomonobu Itagaki's translator Andrew Szymanski contacted Kotaku to tell us that the famed producer of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden was leaving Tecmo and suing the company for unpaid bonus.

He blamed his departure on President Yoshimi Yasuda, saying that Yasuda told him that "if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it." So Itagaki is doing both.

We contacted Tecmo last night and this morning for comment on the surprise departure and just received their mostly no-comment response:

"We’re aware of the statement sent out to the press by Itagaki but do not have anything more to add at this time."

Requests for comment to Microsoft Japan and Microsoft have gone unanswered, but we'll be sure to keep you up to date as this story shakes out.

To read Itagaki's full statement to Kotaku hit up the link.

Itagaki Leaving Tecmo, Suing Tecmo [Kotaku]

Ninja Gaiden II Demo Is Mostly Up In Europe

Rejoice! The Ninja Gaiden II demo that came out last week in Japan is now unleashed on the moderately Western world! It's Europe's turn today, with the demo now available everywhere Europeans live in large numbers with the exception of Germany, who must have been naughty. I can only imagine that Microsoft's Larry Hyrb typed out this post on his blog, hit publish with a stick, and then dived for cover for fear of the backlash of angry U.S. and Canadian fans, desperate to get their hands on what seems to be the last Ninja Gaiden game Itagaki will ever create, now that he's angrily stormed out of Tecmo.

Hopefully the demo will be available to the rest of us by the end of the week as promised, though with the game being shipped to stores today I doubt it really matters all that much anyway.

Demo: Ninja Gaiden II [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Itagaki Leaving Tecmo, Suing Tecmo

Tomonobu Itagaki is leaving Tecmo and suing the company for unpaid bonuses. The Dead or Alive creator cites an unfulfilled Dead or Alive 4 completion bonus, stating, "President Yoshimi Yasuda chose not only to violate this agreement, but also turned defiant, telling me 'if you are dissatisfied with the decision not to pay the bonuses, either quit the company or sue it.'"

Tomonobu Itagaki's translator Andrew Szymanski contacted Kotaku, telling us, "At approximately 2:30 PM Japan Standard Time today, June 3rd 2008, an official statement from Tomonobu Itagaki was sent by fax to major Japanese news outlets. In the interest of fair and expedient reporting of this story throughout the English-speaking world, I have been asked by Itagaki to convey this statement to you. Herein find attached Itagaki's official statement, in English, for the benefit of your readers."

What does this mean for Itagaki's future? Szymanski does not know, adding, "You will likely have questions regarding the content of the statement, or about Itagaki's future plans. I am afraid that I will be unable to answer such questions for the time being; however, rest assured that more information will be forthcoming as soon as it is deemed appropriate to do so." Quitting Tecmo (and suing it) means the chances of Itagaki making Dead or Alive 5 are more dead than alive. Guess he wasn't kidding when he said Ninja Gaiden II would be his Ninja Gaiden swan song. Hit the jump for Itagaki's full statement.