Ninja Blade unsheathed for PCs
Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009
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From Software's over-the-top Xbox 360 action game arrives for computers in October, courtesy of ND Games.
Ninja Gaiden II isn't the only Xbox 360-exclusive ninja game finding its way to a new system. While Tecmo's action game arrives on the PlayStation 3 next week as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, ND Games and From Software today announced that a PC version of the latter's Ninja Blade will launch next month.
Ninja Blade follows hero Ken Ogawa and a shinobi support team as they try to save humanity from an epidemic. Rather than spend their time in lab coats looking for vaccines, Ken and company use their talents to clean up the streets of Tokyo, which are choked with victims of the disease who have been turned into monsters.
Released in April, Ninja Blade represented a departure for From Software. While the developer has created a number of installments in the Tenchu series of ninja games, that franchise's stealth focus is a far cry from Ninja Blade's absurdly over-the-top, quick-time event-driven action sequences (see video below).
Microsoft, Square Enix tout XBLA lineup
Gyromancer, Toy Soldiers, Snoopy Flying Ace all slated to arrive for the Xbox 360's online platform.
Wednesday was a busy one for Xbox Live, as three new titles were added to the Xbox 360's online distribution and networking service. Namely, Konami's Zombie Apocalypse joined Paramount Digital Entertainment's The Warriors: Street Brawl and Black Inc.'s Ion Assault, with all three games carrying an 800 MSP ($10) price tag. As part of the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft today unveiled a handful of titles coming to its online platform in the near future.
Two of the games will be published by Microsoft. An Xbox 360 exclusive, Signal Studios' Toy Soldiers is a strategy game in which players command an army of miniatures on a World War I stage. Microsoft notes that the title will integrate "multiple game genres," though it did not expound upon this point further. Smart Bomb Interactive's Snoopy Flying Ace is also coming to Xbox Live, giving gamers a chance to take to the unfriendly skies with Charles Schulz's Peanuts crew.
In other XBLA news, Square Enix today announced that Gyromancer will be available for Microsoft's online platform as well as Steam. Reminiscent of Vicious Cycle's acclaimed Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Gyromancer combines Bejeweled-style gem matching with a role-playing game storyline, item collection, and exploration. Gyromancer features 10 different stages, as well as 50 different beasts that can be mastered and used in the field of gem swapping.
Neither Microsoft nor Square Enix provided firm dates or pricing information for any of the aforementioned upcoming releases.