Microsoft has hosted a pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference in Japan in which it has confirmed
Ninja Gaiden II as an Xbox 360 exclusive and announced a number of cult Japanese and indie titles for Xbox Live Arcade, including
Rez HD, Ikaruga and Number None's
Braid.
Although
Ninja Gaiden II was technically the only newly announced game at the media briefing (despite accidently being revealed on the Japanese Microsoft website a day earlier), Microsoft was able to unveil a much wider range of Japanese developed titles than ever before.
Considerable speculation had arisen over whether
Ninja Gaiden II would be a multiformat title or not, following the release of
Ninja Gaiden Sigma on PlayStation 3. However, Tecmo’s Tomonobu Itagaki was on hand to confirm the game as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Although visually similar to the recent PlayStation 3 remake the new game is notably more gory than its predecessor, which is likely to see it experience considerable problems in territories such as Germany and Australia.
Other prominent titles demonstrated at the event include an almost complete version of Mistwalker’s
Lost Odyssey, from
Blue Dragon and
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The game was given a release date of December 6th in Japan and February for North America and Europe.
Western exclusives
Halo 3,
Project Gotham Racing 4 and
Viva Piñata: Party Animals were also confirmed for release this year, along with
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and
Beautiful Katamari. The latter two titles were both reconfirmed as Xbox 360 exclusives, despite Namco Bandai’s U.S. website listing
Beautiful Katamari as also on PlayStation 3 and Wii and continued rumors concerning
Ace Combat 6’s multiformat status.
Koei’s
Dynasty Warrior 6 was confirmed as a multiformat PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title, alongside
Winning Eleven/
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 from Konami,
Assassin’s Creed from Ubisoft and Capcom’s
Devil May Cry 4.
Particular emphasis was also given to multiformat Square Enix title
The Last Remnant, with a new trailer demonstrating the Unreal 3 Engine powered role-playing game due next year. Although announced at last year’s Tokyo Game Show there was also a new trailer for the tri-Ace developed and Square Enix published
Infinite Undiscovery – now the Xbox 360’s most significant role-playing game exclusive not from Mistwalker.
Aside from standard retail products Microsoft was also able to make a number of prominent Xbox Live Arcade announcements, including a new version of Sega cult classic
Rez overseen by original producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
Every Extend Extra Extreme, a new version of Mizuguchi’s PSP shoot ‘em-up, will also be released for Xbox Live Arcade.
Other titles confirmed for the download service include a version of Taito’s PSP action puzzle title
Exit, Treasure’s fan favourite 2D shoot ‘em-up
Ikaruga, Dreamcast shoot ‘em-up
Trigger Heart Exelica from Warashi/Sega and new title
Omega 5 from Natsume/Hudson.
Finally, Microsoft noted that Jonathan Blow's time-shifting platformer/puzzle game
Braid (
recently featured on Gamasutra) would also be coming to Xbox Live Arcade in early 2008. The company also confirmed The Behemoth's
Castlecrashers for early 2008 and Torpex's
Schizoid for later this year.
