The young'ns among you probably don't remember when the Tenchu series was good and for you, our choice to continue reporting on the series probably seems a little bizarre. But you weren't there! We still hold a little ember in our heart for our good old roof-running, grapple-hooking days on the PSone. It's that tiny flicker of hope that gets fanned when we see something like the first trailer for Wii-exclusive Tenchu 4.
You can check out the official site here (it's all in Japanese, though) where you can watch a higher-res version. Or, like us, just watch the above video and pine for better days.
So, what? Is PS1 retro now? What young'ns do you speak of? Is there actually anyone here who wasn't playing video games in the mid 90's, or am I just being too optimistic?
It'd be pretty naive to assume we don't have any 13-16 year olds on here, specially if you go off comments. I doubt many of them were playing tenchu 1 10 years ago.
@tmacairjordan87: I guess so. Tenchu 1 just seems so incredibly recent to me in the grand scale of my gaming life. I'm only 23, but I started on the 2600. I can't imagine someone getting into gaming prior to the PS1 generation.
Why is it so hard to imagine someone getting into gaming prior to PS1? There's the Atari, Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, SNES and even the Macintosh had some cool games.
In fact, when the PS1 came out, I found it hard to get into most of the games on it.
With any luck, sony will put the first 2 tenchus on PSN which were the only good tenchus in the series really. This one doesn't look that impressive to me so far even though not much was shown.
This is assuming sony is even putting anymore ps1 games on psn in the US.... :(
true! it will be back to the same style of the first 2 since it is the original team
as i say later down the post, K2LLC are the one who made the tenchu game after tenchu 2....and azure then made the way of the samurai serie.....mmmm why not made a way of the samurai for the wii after this then :P
As a Nintendo fanboy, I feel obligated to be excited for this, even though I know how it will turn out. God, is it really that hard to make a good ninja game?
I'm old old first system being Mattel Intellivision but the graphics on this Wii version doesn't look any better than the PS1 game and then how do you really think the controls will be? None of the games I've played with sword play for the Wii worked very well for a whole game to be done that way.
If you think what you saw in the trailer doesn't look better than a PS1 game, I suggest you reboot a PS1 game to remind yourself how a 3D PS1 game looks in all of its low-poly, pixalated, texture-warping, jagged, pre skin-mapping glory.
This series probably has more potential than any other game out there, but they never deliver. I always keep my eye on the new Tenchu games, hoping that they will finally be good, but they are always mediocre at best. Tenchu needs a big budget and a lot of time, it could be huge.
{ Jun 6th 2008 at 4:15PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Naota @ Jun 6th 2008 4:28PM
I never did get into tenchu
Arttemis @ Jun 6th 2008 4:35PM
I'd love to see the series return to the peek of assassination games, but with some beautiful PS360 graphics.
As for this Wii title, I just hope they *utilize* the controller instead of *exploit* it. There's definitely potential.
Mozgus @ Jun 6th 2008 4:40PM
So, what? Is PS1 retro now? What young'ns do you speak of? Is there actually anyone here who wasn't playing video games in the mid 90's, or am I just being too optimistic?
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 6th 2008 4:44PM
It'd be pretty naive to assume we don't have any 13-16 year olds on here, specially if you go off comments. I doubt many of them were playing tenchu 1 10 years ago.
Mozgus @ Jun 6th 2008 4:48PM
@tmacairjordan87: I guess so. Tenchu 1 just seems so incredibly recent to me in the grand scale of my gaming life. I'm only 23, but I started on the 2600. I can't imagine someone getting into gaming prior to the PS1 generation.
fraxyl @ Jun 8th 2008 12:20PM
Why is it so hard to imagine someone getting into gaming prior to PS1? There's the Atari, Commodore 64, Amiga, NES, SNES and even the Macintosh had some cool games.
In fact, when the PS1 came out, I found it hard to get into most of the games on it.
Mozgus @ Jun 8th 2008 1:56PM
fraxyl clearly can't read.
Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Jun 6th 2008 4:43PM
Wii exclusive? Aww......
tmacairjordan87 @ Jun 6th 2008 4:48PM
With any luck, sony will put the first 2 tenchus on PSN which were the only good tenchus in the series really. This one doesn't look that impressive to me so far even though not much was shown.
This is assuming sony is even putting anymore ps1 games on psn in the US.... :(
LuckyD @ Jun 6th 2008 10:57PM
true! it will be back to the same style of the first 2 since it is the original team
as i say later down the post, K2LLC are the one who made the tenchu game after tenchu 2....and azure then made the way of the samurai serie.....mmmm why not made a way of the samurai for the wii after this then :P
the potential is here!
CJLopez @ Jun 6th 2008 4:56PM
Seems.... good, gotta look forward to this one, cuz I did liked the first 3 tenchus, need some ingame video
DBuck_Eye @ Jun 6th 2008 5:04PM
As a Nintendo fanboy, I feel obligated to be excited for this, even though I know how it will turn out. God, is it really that hard to make a good ninja game?
BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ Jun 6th 2008 5:24PM
As far as Nintendo and ninjas go... Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword was pretty good.
And, apparently, the developer of the original Tenchu (Acquire) is behind the Wii game, so there's a chance it will be good.
bigd7387 @ Jun 6th 2008 5:23PM
I'm old old first system being Mattel Intellivision but the graphics on this Wii version doesn't look any better than the PS1 game and then how do you really think the controls will be? None of the games I've played with sword play for the Wii worked very well for a whole game to be done that way.
Slayer @ Jun 6th 2008 5:41PM
Maybe you should look at the ps1 version again.
Kenology @ Jun 6th 2008 5:42PM
If you think what you saw in the trailer doesn't look better than a PS1 game, I suggest you reboot a PS1 game to remind yourself how a 3D PS1 game looks in all of its low-poly, pixalated, texture-warping, jagged, pre skin-mapping glory.
Jhongerkong @ Jun 6th 2008 5:28PM
Wii exclusive?
EPIC WIN
StarFoxA @ Jun 6th 2008 5:57PM
Wii exclusive, eww.
bm @ Jun 6th 2008 6:11PM
for (int bla=0; bla
bm @ Jun 6th 2008 6:12PM
Ok, that didn't work. Basically I was saying: enough with the Yay/Boo for Wii exclusive comments already.
James @ Jun 6th 2008 6:15PM
The first Tenchu game was the best. Everything else that came after it was bad. IMO
ALLoGISTIC1 @ Jun 6th 2008 8:55PM
U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi.
Pedobear @ Jun 6th 2008 10:11PM
Well I really liked the first two back in the day, and according to the trailer it says its the original staff, but then who made Tenchu 3?
LuckyD @ Jun 6th 2008 10:55PM
it is made by K2 LLC who created the following tenchu game:
Tenchu Z
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows
Tenchu: Return from Darkness
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven
which explain why the tenchu game wasnt as good as the first 2 one in the serie
this time the 4rd one is made by the original team Acquire who then create the Way of The samurai series
so yes we should be hype for this tenchu since it will be the best one since tenchu2
Mr Khan @ Jun 7th 2008 2:10PM
Looks alright to me, but Tenchu Z makes me wary
More solid action games are needed on Wii, though. So this would help fill that gap
GCNH87 @ Jun 7th 2008 7:13PM
Tenchu had the coolest debug button code I've ever seen. Even let you activate a second player. Totally sweet.
Eh @ Jun 8th 2008 1:16AM
This series probably has more potential than any other game out there, but they never deliver. I always keep my eye on the new Tenchu games, hoping that they will finally be good, but they are always mediocre at best. Tenchu needs a big budget and a lot of time, it could be huge.