GDC08: Ninja Gaiden II demon-stration

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Feb 20th 2008 6:30PM

We nearly missed the Gears of War 2 announcement at the end of Microsoft's GDC keynote because of this surprise Ninja Gaiden II demonstration. By the time it finished, we had completely lost consciousness due to an increasingly violent series of glee seizures -- or gleezures. If you plan on watching the direct-feed footage of Team Ninja's forthcoming kill-em-up, we'd advise you to sit well away from coworkers and small children should your delight suddenly begin manifesting in wild arm flailing and uncontrollable pelvic thrusts.

Protip: We find that thinking about the awful June 2008 release date has an immediate calming effect.

GDC08: Ninja Gaiden II

Tags: Action, Adventure, GDC, Itagaki, Microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, Ninja-Gaiden, Ninja-Gaiden-2, Team-Ninja, Tecmo, Tomonobu-Itagaki, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (34)

Im really looking forward to this. I loved the one for xbox although it was very difficult

Meh... I think Too Human and Fable 2 seem a lot better then this. This seems like a rehash... again.

Nope, I am still thrusting. This game is gonna be freaking bananas! No other franchise (read: DMC) can touch this combat.

Also, I keep reading this is unimpressive, as it is just more of the same. Cut the BS/hypocrisy, I suppose DMC is blowing the world away with it's innovative button mashing.

Year of the PS3 my ass - as a game machine, 360 is looking to dominate 2008.

Oh its on. Xbox 360 will be the GAME MACHINE of 2008. While the PS3 might be the Blu-Ray player with gaming functions this year.

Xbox 360 Team this year:
Ninja Gaiden 2
Gears of War 2
Fable 2
Too Human
Alan Wake (Maybe)

PS3 Team this Year:
Metal Gear Solid 4
Little Big Planet
Killzone 2
Final Fantasy 13 (maybe)

lol.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Those who thought (hoped) that MS blew their lode in 2007 are in for a suprise. This year is shaping up very nicely.

You guys are getting all worked up for ninja gayiden?
that game is sub-par at best. DMC is 100x better then that.

count your forgetting Haze & Resistance 2. just a couple games iam excited for on PS.

360 did blow its load in 07. the only thing i see here that has me excited is gow2. everything else is crap.

Live must be brain washing people. to pay the price of a game to be able to play online. good thing i have countless 30free trial membership cards. and to boast about their customer service.. the boxes are dying and their the (good guy) by fixing the problem.

MGS4 Pwns all.

Forgot halo wars on the 360 list

Lets condense things a bit: 2008 games that arnt shit.

360:
Gears of War 2 (PC 2009)
Ninja Gaiden 2 (PS3 2009)
MAYBE Too Human (PC/PS3 2009)

PS3:
Metal Gear Solid 4
Gran Turismo 5/Prologue
LittleBigPlanet
Killzone 2
Haze
Resistance 2
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Motorstorm 2
Tekken 6
Metal Gear Online
The Getaway
Socom
Infamous
Wipeout HD

Thats even discounting Home

Dont know about you but Alan Wake and Fable 2 look positively crap to the core.

EAT MY EXCLUSIVES

You forgot Afrika! ZZZZzzzzzzz....

I was talking about games that arnt shit :P

Well seeing how NG shows up on the 100 greatest games of all times list and DMC doesn't your argument isn't really there...u were better off sayin God Of War(Which is awesome) FF 13 wont be here until 2010 at the least cuz Japan doesn't even have it yet and we always get FF after them for some reason....Haze looks like a Halo knock off, Killzone 2(Enough said i.e. See killzone 1)...Motor Storm? Seriously?

Now MGS 4, GT5, Resistance 2, LBP, Tekken, and Socom are gonna be awesome! And Home should be discounted cuz its not a game!

But do not discount the 360 this year but ultimately this is Sony's year as long as NG2 doesn't win GOTY which I think it will!

love the part near the beggining where he gets chainsawed then shrugs it off.

@flameofdoom666

Just like Mass Effect. Too Human and Fable 2 will most likely be a Western developed borefest.

But.

Ninja Gaiden II looks delicious. Go Team Ninja!

true. a lot of western developed games have great production value but are lacking in excitement. And this really only applies to action titles. Western FPS titles have been so overdone that they're kinda hard to get wrong nowadays.

first I saw GREEN blood and was like, "Damn...that sucks". Then I saw the demons with a chainsaw arm and gun on the other and then the big demon guy at the end calling everyone monkeys and was like, "YYYYYESSSSSSSS!"

demon-castration?

I was a big fan of the original NG on the Xbox, then enjoyed the additional difficulty and missions in Black and now NG2 looks like it will not disappoint. Itagaki may be a bit wacky but he makes some bad-ass ninja games!

Am i the only one who isn't impressed.

ZZZZzzzzzz.

Didn't I have this game on Xbox (1) 3 years ago? I didn't even like it there.

There's a huge number of games like this, MGS and DMC that just blow by me without even leaving an impression.

Agreed - this seems like more of the same. Some positives though are the weapons seem to have some good feel to them except for the big ass staff with mace heads on the end. That handles like a dagger or something - I guess Ryu has the strength of Thor or Hercules.

My biggest gripe with this whole series is that our hero is silent and boring. I like the main character to have some personality and passion. Kratos, the chick in HS and others show pain, emotion and all the normal things that get people riled up. What the heck do we care if Ryu gets gutted or killed. He's just another another silent and flat ninja. Yawn! This has 2004/2005 written all over it.

Count me unimpressed.

@LS2
I finished DMC4 and can honestly say it doesnt even come close to Ninja Gaiden. The move list is shallow(yes even with the different styles), the enemies are easy, and the camera is extremely bad. Honestly the only thing I like about the game are the cut scenes, which always seem to treat you to Nero or Dante doing something bad ass.
Dont worry though, your jealousy will go away when they announce NG 2 Sigma(green, blue, black or what ever they want to call the ps3 port of this game). Just wait your turn.

You may have missed it, but I don't actually LIKE Ninja Gaiden. I've had 3 years to finish the first one and can't get more than about 30 minutes in without getting bored. It was pretty but still boring as Sigma on the PS3 (I played the demo).

There's a chance I'll turn around on MGS4, because everyone is so excited about it I might just get weak. But the chances I'll ever turn around on Ninja Gaiden or DMC are awfully low, they just don't appeal to me.

you wouldn't know a good game if it pulled down your pants and punched you in the nuts

Thanks. I'll be on the lookout for that.

All the green blood made me wonder if Team Ninja made some changes so the ESRB wouldn't have a heart attack.

Then I got to the 2:00 mark. :)

I saw this in the RSS feed and noticed it had a terrible pun in the title. I clicked just to see if Ludwig wrote it. Yup.

Seriously though, the puns are generally terribly corny, but that doesn't mean they're not entertaining :)

This game will be awesome, not a vigoorian fail(see what I did there?)

I played the DMC4 demo and, while nice, didn't have that zest that NG had. Also, no one owns this year...yet(GO, 360!)

Anyone who thinks DMC or God of War is better than Ninja Gaiden, please leave this website immediately, and please forfeit any and every bit of credibility you think you may have had, as a gamer, when you exit.

Thank you for you patronage.

God of War changes Ninja Gaiden's diapers and burps it after it has its dinner.

Ninja Gaiden is doing right what the Kingdom Under Fire hacknslash spinoff wasn't.

Multiple enemies attacking you at the same time.

You japanophiles and sony cock suckers need to shut the fuck up. First to the Japanophiles, Western devs 9/10 times owns Jap devs. Second to the sony cocksuckers, Ninja gaiden owns any action game you guys have and you all are just jealous.

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GDC08: Ninja Gaiden II demon-stration