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!

コスチュームパック [IT Media]

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]

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?

Loved
Limb-Lopping Animation: The sheer level of gore is stunning when you first sit down to play the game, and later, later it's still stunning. Don't get me wrong, I love it, it is a celebration of violence that is both fitting for the title and useful in gameplay. Useful? When faced with an armless, or legless ninja they can be, like an injured animal, even more dangerous, so the glistening red stumps help you spot who can be taken out with a quick, merciless series of beautifully detailed cuts. This over-the-top gore balanced with the graceful cuts of the weapon and movements of Ryu blend to create a beautiful ballet of death that alone is worth the price of admission.

Stunning Backdrops: Brown maybe the color of first-person shooters, but you can find just about every hue of the rainbow in Ninja Gaiden II. The eclectic mix of settings and backdrops are so lovingly detailed, so scenic that I found myself stopping to look around and marvel at the spectacle of, say, a world washed red in a rainfall of blood or Team Ninja's take on a future Tokyo, complete with flying cars. This mix of beautiful backdrops also helped keep the game moving forward, avoiding the trap of sameness that often can tear a game's level design down.

Fast-Paced, Tactical Combat: There is a moment, I imagine, for everyone, when they foolishly approach Ninja Gaiden II as a button-masher, but the game's subtle level of tactics, timing and defense eventually come through and they learn the pace of Ryu's frenetic battles... or they die a bunch and give up on the title. For me Ninja Gaiden II is at its heart a game about timing. The game can approach the insanity and necessary perfection of a hardcore shoot-em-up, but instead of facing waves of bullets, players must deal with masses of enemies filling the screen. One misstep can lead to a chain of attacks that leaves Ryu depleted or dead. Never is this analogy more fitting than with the boss battles. Each of these fiends have very specific attacks and can really only be dealt with in one or two ways. Defeating them is more about figuring out how to do so than taking them head-on.

Save System: The game's new save system, which makes the save points much more plentiful and automatically saves before boss battles, is a welcome addition to a game notorious for its difficulty.

Hated
I'm Ready for My Close Up: The camera controls remain problematic at the best of times. At the worst of times it can make the game frustratingly hard to deal with. It seems that Team Ninja, when tweaking the camera, was more worried about capturing the action from a cinematic view than they were dealing with the need to make Ryu easier to control. This isn't in anyway a deal breaker, just frustrating at times, especially when you're forced into first-person perspective and the game sort of freaks out.

Blinded By the Fight: What? You're complaining about the camera angles twice? Yes, strange voice in my head, I am. Actually this is more about a confluence of problems that occurs a handful of times in the game. There are four or five major battles in the game that become so crammed with people, so lit up with bloom, effects and colors, so confused by the camera angles that you have no idea what's going on. At times you can't even see where Ryu is.

Double Down Bosses: Each boss, and there are quite a few of these in the 14 levels of Ninja Gaiden II, are painfully hard to defeat, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is that with the exception of a single boss, you end up having to face off with every one of the bosses two different times. It feels more like a device to lengthen the game than something meant to add to the experience.

Slooooow Motion: I like what the game is trying to do, overwhelm you with mayhem on a level rarely seen in an action title, but there's a reason it's rarely seen: It's too intense for a console to handle. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally, on the slicker levels, when the screen fills with bad guys the motion slows down to a crawl, a slow motion crawl. It manages to stay smooth, which helps, but it's annoying to see such chug in a triple A title.

Weak Community Features: It's a minor complaint, but why add something like the ability to record and playback chunks of gameplay without putting some effort into it? You can't edit, you can't control the playback at all and you can only share your full save-point-to-save-point recordings if you are ranked on the leaderboards. Seems like a waste to me.

Ninja Gaiden II is a spectacular game but it's marred with some of the same tragic flaws that have followed the series since its introduction into the world of 3D, most notably the camera angles. Despite that and some of the most painfully hard boss battles I've encountered, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through almost every bit of the game. In fact, I've already started through a second time on a harder difficulty level.

Ninja Gaiden II is a game you should expect to frustrate and to reward, and it does both quite well, you just have to deal with a bit of design pettiness along the way.

Ninja Gaiden II was developed by Team Ninja and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Retails for$60. Available on Xbox 360. Played to completion on easiest "Path Of The Acolyte" setting. Played first two chapters on "Path of the Warrior" setting. Saved one film.

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X-Play History [Go Nintendo]

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.

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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]

Yeah, there's nothing that can be done about that. Things like economic policies, the fact that the size of the size of the population of children in Japan is dwindling, people are moving away from console gaming — there are a lot of factors involved, it's not just Xbox 360 doesn't do well in Japan because it's Xbox; there's a whole load of societal factors involved there. It's not as though the hardcore would make a big difference. This all goes back to decisions that politicians made like sixty years ago.

Of course, by moving away from console gaming, Itagaki means moving away from HIS console gaming. Nonetheless! Itagaki will be announcing Dead or Alive 5 later this summer. It's unconfirmed whether this DoA will also be an Xbox 360 exclusive.

Itagaki Interview [Kikizo] [Pic]

Like Ninja Gaiden II? Don't like fiddling around with a Japanese Xbox Live account just to play the demo? Me too. So...good news! Microsoft's Larry Hryb has slipped into his Twitter account a little note on the status of a Western demo for the title, writing "I am told that it will be available by the end of next week". That was written last Friday, so "next" week is actually this week. Be sure to count down the days on your calendar. In blood.

And for all of you heading to your Xbox 360 to log in to your Japanese account, make sure you upgraded that baby to Gold first...Silver users will have to wait a few days before they can start the download...as I just discovered minutes ago. Stupid Silver account, making me look bad.

We'll let you know as soon as this becomes available to the western world.

Demo: NINJA GAIDEN 2 (Japan Only) [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

I think Kamiya-san makes good games. However, I think they, the systems, gameplay elements in his game tend to be rather shallow and he makes up with that through stylish presentation. I think if you were to compare them directly, the combat and other gameplay elements in Ninja Gaiden II are much deeper than projects that he works on.

...In my games its all based on a back and forth with the enemies, its very interactive. You feel like you're pushed to the brink but you manage to survive, the enemies are as out to get you as you are to get them. Whereas other types of action games, one of which being Devil May Cry, enemies exist there as objects on which you unleash your attacks.

Gotta give Itagaki this much: at least he's not boring!
Talking with Tomonobu [OXM Thanks, Hatchetforce!]

What did you think of the PS3 game Ninja Gaiden: Sigma? I'm told you won't even sign copies of the game...?

Itagaki: It was no good.

Why's that? I thought it was pretty good.

Itagaki: All you need to do is play Ninja Gaiden II and then try and play Sigma afterwards and you'll see why. Despite the fact that it's on a 'next-generation' console there's no evolution whatsoever. That was made not by me, but one of my sub-ordinates who basically tried to copy the success of Ninja Gaiden.

Ouch. We thought it was pretty good! Elsewhere in the interview, Itagaki confirms that Ninja Gaiden II will never appear on the PS3, and if it ever did that would be "a loss of face for everyone involved."

Tomonobu Itagaki Interview [CVG] [Pic]

I think it [Grand Theft Auto IV] is made extremely well and is a fun game... People always use that as an example of violence in games. But I don't think there's anyone who takes their job as seriously as the guys who make that game. You only have to look at all the detail in there.

That's a pretty high compliment right there, Rockstar!

Itagaki Talks GTAIV [CVG]

"Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I'm not planing on making any other games in the series," Itagaki said through a translator. "So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise.

"I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous."

When asked if he plans on making a "swan song" Ninja Gaiden title for the PlayStation 3, Itagaki replied " that would be ridiculous."

Instead, the creator of the beloved franchise said he wants to make something that is "totally new, completely unrelated to anything I've done before. Not any part of any existing franchises."

Itagaki said what he'd like to do is work on another action title or perhaps a war themed game, perhaps something set in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

"I think the Pacific theater of World War II is a interesting topic," he said. "I think it would be cool to work with an American developer and do a game based on the Pacific Theater."

"I think it would be cool to do something like what Clint Eastwood is doing for that time period," he added, referencing Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima which shows both sides of the war.

When asked how long he had been thinking about doing such a title, Itagaki said it was something he came up with during our short interview.

"That's what it's like to create something; you start from nothing and you have to clear your mind and come up with new ideas," he said. "I'm interested in that period of time, for my generation, that was an event that influenced us more than anything else. I think that would be an interesting topic to explore."

If it turned out that a Japanese developed game about World War II was "too politically charged," Itagaki said he might want to explore the same issues in a game set in space.

Update: Apparently, this is what they call B-roll footage, not an officially sanctioned trailer for the game and not intended to be shown in its entirety. We think it's just a spectacular selection of gameplay, but please note this is "raw" unedited video.

What are they showing? Ninja Gaiden II, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Too Human, and several games without 2 or Too in them, including Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, and Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One.

Crecente will be there all day for the event, so you can expect all sorts of fun stuff from him later in the day. While we busy ourselves setting up galleries and processing videos for your enjoyment, feel free to read through the official press release, after the jump.

Microsoft Game Studios Unveils Gears of War 2 Gameplay

"Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise" Set to Burst Onto Store Shelves This Fall
LONDON - 13th May 2008 - Today Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) and industry luminaries from the world's top development studios will be on hand to show off the latest features of the year's most in-demand titles; present will be Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, TECMO/Team NINJA's Tomonobu Itagaki and Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack. This year, the visage of Marcus Fenix joins the likes of Ryu Hayabusa, Banjo, vivacious piñatas, cybernetic gods and a hero with a loyal dog sidekick in the all-star 2008 MGS line-up that promises to make Xbox 360 the console of choice for players everywhere.

Attendees of the MGS San Francisco showcase event will witness the first extended taste of "Gears of War 2," the sequel to the blockbuster third-person tactical action game that sold nearly 5 million units. Epic Games Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski, will demonstrate dramatic new gameplay elements and stunning visual effects in a campaign sequence from early in the game - where Marcus Fenix and COG forces engage in pulse-pounding firefights between two Derrick transports, fend off vicious Reaver fly-by attacks and rabid Brumaks - all in the same rollercoaster ride of a level. As the most anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive title of the 2008 holiday season, "Gears of War 2" offers an unforgettable gameplay experience that blends a gripping story with visceral combat on a grand scale.

MGS will also crack open "Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise," set to appear on store shelves this September. Developed by the creative masterminds at Rare, this sequel to the colourful, sleeper hit builds upon the gameplay of the original and adds innovative twists to the mix. In an effort to help Piñata Central rebuild their computer database of piñatas, players will send piñatas at full candiosity to parties all around the world while using their creativity and imagination to attract, capture, protect, train and manage more than 100 newly discovered and existing piñata species. An exciting, new "Just for Fun" setting makes getting into the game fast and easy. For the first time, players will be able to collaborate together on a garden through a rich co-op experience, connect and play with others online via Xbox LIVE as well as instantly introduce new piñata species to their garden through an innovative new feature utilizing the Xbox LIVE Vision Camera.

MGS will also pull back the curtain on another beloved franchise with the triumphant return of Banjo, one of Rare's most successful characters, in "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts." Defying the laws of nature, a bear, a bird and a backpack team up to embark on another incredible adventure this November. MGS is breaking the rules of traditional platformer games by putting the power to invent new abilities for Banjo directly into the players' hands. By using their ingenuity to build imaginative vehicles that can be combined with infinite variations, gamers help Banjo successfully complete missions through multiple terrains. Through exploration, discovering hidden secrets and solving puzzles to win rewards, players will continually find increasing ways to customize and improve their contraptions, creating an unprecedented level of user-generated content and emergent play for a 3-D adventure game.

These instantly recognizable franchises join the enviable company of "Fable 2," "Too Human" and "Ninja Gaiden II" from Team NINJA/TECMO, making Xbox 360 the home of the best blockbuster game experiences this year.

Other news and features of 2008 Xbox 360 blockbusters:

• "Fable 2": The wait is almost over for the sequel to THE biggest action role-playing game in Xbox history. Swords, guns and now the newly unveiled magical power round out the combat in this action RPG from acclaimed developer Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios. Players will have even more choices to continuously shape who their characters become in a world 10 times the size of the iconic Xbox game. "Fable 2" introduces a host of exciting new features for gamers, including a first-of-its-kind Xbox LIVE Arcade experience, and a genre-stretching multiplayer experience, allowing gamers easily play "Fable 2" with friends and family side-by-side from the comfort of a living room couch. Players can immerse themselves in this vibrant world that only Lionhead and Molyneux could create, beginning this holiday.

• "Too Human": Today, MGS and Silicon Knights will confirm that the wait is almost over - "Too Human" will be available on August 19 in North America and August 29 in Europe. "Too Human" is an epic, highly anticipated action game with integrated RPG elements and features a rich storyline with deep character development, both hallmarks of Silicon Knights' legendary tradition of video game development. Additionally, Silicon Knights is showcasing for the first time, the title's online cooperative play via Xbox LIVE; allowing gamers to experience "Too Human" with friends in a multiplayer setting.

• "Ninja Gaiden II": Team NINJA/TEMCO will reveal today that gamers can get a head start on expanding and customizing their "Ninja Gaiden II" experience with the release of Gamerpics and Themes, available as PDLC on Xbox LIVE beginning today. The Gamerpics packs include five new images each, at 100 points per pack; and the Themes, which focus on heroes and bosses, are 150 points per pack. Soon gamers everywhere will follow Ryu Hayabusa's entire blood-drenched mission - through cities like Venice, New York and Tokyo - to avenge his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. "Ninja Gaiden II" slashes its way onto store shelves on June 3 in North America and June 6 in Europe. Additional "Ninja Gaiden II" PDLC will be available for download on May 20, with subsequent releases throughout the summer.

• "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One" on Xbox LIVE Arcade provides a first-of-its-kind RPG-Adventure experience based on the popular Web comic. The creative collaboration between Penny Arcade creators Mike 'Gabe' Krahulik and Jerry 'Tycho' Holkins, legendary game designer Ron Gilbert and producers at Hothead Games results in a 100-percent authentic Penny Arcade experience that pushes bizarre characters, outrageous combat and adult humor to the precipice of darkness. "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One" will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade May 21, 2008.

Microsoft Game Studios is the home to many of the industry's biggest franchises and continues to set the bar for top-quality entertainment experiences for players of all types. Characters from the game universes of "Gears of War," "Fable," "Banjo-Kazooie," and "Viva Piñata" have enthralled gamers young and old all over the world. In 2007, MGS made history with some of the biggest video game launches ever, including Halo 3," "PGR4" and "Mass Effect."

With games often among the highest rated in their class by critics, Microsoft Game Studios delivers the best and most complete game experiences exclusively on Xbox 360, fuelled by the passion of 10 million gamers worldwide playing on Xbox LIVE.

This is just the beginning of what promises to be another landmark year for games on Xbox 360. Stay tuned for more announcements in the coming months.

Team Ninja is nearly unrivaled in its ability to squeeze expert visuals out of console hardware. They're equally skilled at perfecting hammy voice acting, evidence by the latest batch of Ninja Gaiden II media. This is awesome, potentially spoiler-filled stuff, as Ryu Hayabusa is subjected to melodramatic speeches from the game's Greater Fiends and supporting cast. If you're looking for pretty graphics plus plenty of cheeseball delivery—"I recognize that stink, the repugnant stench of the Dragon lineage!"—don't pass on this batch of new clips.

Ninja Gaiden II [GameTrailers]

I did spend enough time to make my way through the first chapter, so I at least got a taste for controls and gameplay. First things first though, the build I was sent an early build, the cut scenes were only about 70 percent complete, and the game has yet to be fully optimized, so I'm going to ignore some of the technical glitches that popped up with my time during the game. The game also didn't include the ability to level up weapons.

In Ninja Gaiden II, an Xbox 360 exclusive, Ryu Hayabusa is out to once more save his clan and the human race. The game is built on a new game engine crated by Team NINJA and Tomonobu Itagaki and features a new auto-health system and the ability to save clips of your favorite battles to share them on Xbox Live.

The game's opening chapter takes place Tokyo's Sky City and has Ryu working his way around and through high-rises as he takes on a slew of ninja.

The combat system used in the game is surprisingly complex. It seems, at first blush, to be all about button mashing, but it didn't take me long to realize that button mashing just leads to having your katana handed to you. Instead you have to keep a careful eye on the timing of your attacks, something easier said than done in the game since most attacks come in waves. If you're not careful you'll be quickly dragged down and stabbed, beaten, or kicked repeatedly.

To make matters worse, some pretty brutal attacks, like say completely slicing off an enemies arm or leg, don't make the opponent less dangerous. My first time with the game ended abruptly, when a legless ninja, who I assumed was dead, grabbed my legs, dragged his bleeding body on top of mine and stabbed me in the chest until I was dead.

Worse still are the guys with missing arms, who will stand in the background zinging shuriken at you as you try to deal with the flood of more able bodied ninja trying to overwhelm you.

I discovered pretty quickly that you can dispatch these dismembered ninja quickly and colorfully with a single button tap if you time it right. And the graphics for these quick kills are amazing, typically ending in lots of overkill that involves both a gutting and a beheading. Oh, did I mention the blood? The blood does not disappoint, whether it's arterial blood spurting from a recently severed arm or the splash of blood that spatters a window during a beheading.

Once you get past all of that blood and the fact that cutting off an arm or a leg doesn't necessarily mean you've dispatched a ninja, the game has a fairly smooth adjustment period. You have to move around a lot, back up a lot, time things well, to make it through the flood of bad guys. Overtime i came to realize that the game has its own timing, its own pace that isn't as frenetic as the onslaught might initially have you believe. In fact it's quite a bit slower. There's just no room for mistakes.

Now I was playing it through on what I suspect will be the medium setting, the hardest one you can choose on your first time with the game. I ended up having to redo different areas many times before I could survive, but my survival typically came because I played better, not because I mashed buttons faster.

The first chapter ending up taking me about 45 minutes to play through, in, in-game time, according to the chapter-end summary. It included a nice variety of settings and a couple of interesting enemy types, wrapping up with a boss battle that was just brutal. I don't want to spoil anything, but it was one of those battles that is completely unforgiving. One mistake and you're toast, OK maybe you can make three, but very little margin for error.

Even with the boss battle, though, I felt I finally succeeded because I was playing better, not because I got lucky. I like that in a game.

Ninja Gaiden II's first chapter was fun, it wasn't the sort of game that had me up all hours thirsting to play more, but I can tell that it's the sort of game that will slowly sink its hooks into, gradually upping the play until you can't put it down.

Who could possibly fill the leather bustier opening left by the absence of Rachel in Ninja Gaiden II? Sonia, apparently, who will be performing the role of obscenely anatomically gifted ally to Ryu Hayabusa in the Xbox 360 sequel. Yeah, huge cans. Who could've possibly seen this coming? According to the above trailer, toe-headed Sonia works for the Central Intelligence Agency, which is obvious by her CIA standard issue fuck me boots. Maybe she works in the agency's demon-killing ninja affairs department—I really don't know, but she's sure to help in fiend-slaying while all sorts of flesh flops back and forth to the delight of the undersexed.

SEE?! He does have eyeballs. Told ya so!
Fable 2 Diary [GameTrailers via Fanboy Killswitch Thanks, DJ T!]

"Violence is not about cutting an enemy into pieces or seeing a lot of blood," he [Itagaki] says. "That's not what real violence is." To emphasise his point, Itagaki reaches for a sheathed samurai sword mounted in his office, and holds it out in front of me.

"In the Japanese warrior tradition you would shame an opponent. A real sword expert would aim his slice at the first four fingers of his opponent's sword hand. This would cost a warrior his livelihood and someone suffering this wound would normally commit suicide rather than live without their sword hand.

"That's what I consider to be real violence," he says...

I don't make games for other game developers nor am I trying to transmit any sort of information or philosophy to other game developers. I mean, I do this for the fans and the people out there who want to play my games. So, when you're talking about an event like GDC, which is really an event by game developers for game developers, then I don't really have a whole lotta interest in that event in and of itself... I won't say there's no point to it. GDC is a very important event, and I certainly respect and realize what they're trying to do here. It's just a personal choice... Some day maybe when I've matured maybe, and when I become a little more well-rounded like Peter Molyneux, I may decide to come and give advice and give lectures on how to make games. But right now, I'm more focused on my own endeavors.

Like Halo 3 and Skate, Ninja Gaiden II owners will be able to record their ninjitsu performances directly to the Xbox 360 hard drive, then upload them for the community to watch. We simply can't wait to watch expert level performances and the obligatory upskirts that will soon follow.

They [the enemy characters] can basically keep fighting until they're in pieces. Even a one-armed enemy can still fight.

Offensively Gory [CVG] [Pic]

WII-KLY UPDATE: THREE NEW CLASSIC GAMES ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL

Oct. 15, 2007

This week marks the first appearance of a CD-ROM game for the TurboGrafx16 on Virtual Console. Take control of the Hunting Dog ship and battle deadly Obbellon fighters in the classic horizontal sci-fi shooter, Gate of Thunder. If shooting's not your thing, you can go out and save the world from evil demons or a power-hungry general in this week's other offerings that bolster the Wii Shop Channel's catalog of action-adventure and real-time strategy games.

Three new classic games go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (NES, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): In Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, a new villain, Ashtar, is revealed. Take on the role of Ryu Hayabusa and rescue Irene Lew, a former CIA agent, from Ashtar. Destroy the Sword of Chaos, a weapon of great power forged from the bone of a demon. Use techniques such as the Fire Wheel or the Windmill Throwing Star and attack while holding on to walls and ladders. Use the most innovative technique of all - the ability to create Shadow Clones, orange shadow versions of Ryu that will constantly follow him, repeating previous actions (moving or attacking) in a delayed cycle. Once again defeat henchmen, creatures and bosses with new fighting techniques and even more weapons as you progress through multiple stages on your way to destroying Ashtar, Jaquio and the Realm of Chaos.

Metal Marines (Super NES, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Set in the near future, most of Earth's land has been disintegrated in the chaos of the Anti-matter War. This real-time strategy game portrays the Colonies' Allied Force - the Metal Marines - in their epic struggle against General Zorgeuf and the Imperial Federation, who are bent on world domination. Commanding the Metal Marines across a series of battles, the player must strategically allocate resources, ready supplies, manage funds and move troops in an effort to outwit and outmove the opponent. The real-time battle system rewards split-second decisions and adaptability in the struggle for military superiority. Unlike most turn-based strategy games, Metal Marines engrosses the player in a fast-paced and frantic battle in which both sides advance simultaneously. A constant eye must be kept on enemy movements to maintain a formidable defense and not miss the perfect chance to strike. Strategic foresight and quick judgment hold the key to victory.

Gate of Thunder (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, rated E for Everyone - Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): The legendary sci-fi shooter is back! Gate of Thunder is a horizontal side-scrolling shooter that places you in control of special undercover agent Hawk, whose mission is to stop the deadly army of Obbellon fighters. Jump into the action as Hawk gets aboard his ship, the Hunting Dog, and heads out toward the enemy. Blast through stages while effectively using all three of the weapons at your disposal and receiving support from ally Wild Cat ships. Switch through equippable power-up options on the fly to change the direction of your attack. You'll have to blast in front of and behind you to survive all seven stages. Hard-core shooting-game fans looking for a challenge can select HARD or DEVIL mode to experience even more intense action!