Last Ninja: PS3 Launch Title?

[j^aws]

It's better than Ninja Gaiden, honest…
25th Jun 2004

Related Links  Companies Studio 3

Titles Last Ninja, The
Last Ninja: The Return

Link to This Article http://news.spong.com/x?art=7010

As regular readers will be aware, SPOnG has been looking forward to the release of Last Ninja for current platforms for some time, being as we are ardent fans of the 8-bit series.
However, we can reveal today that the chances of the game seeing a release are slight at best, with Studio 3 chief Mark Cale making some of the most absurd claims about the state of the code, its future and possible release platform the industry will ever see.
Speaking exclusively to SPOnG, Cale tried to explain why the game still isn't in any serious state for release. "You see, the game looks amazing, better than any ninja game ever made," he bullishly claimed. "Ninja Gaiden simply doesn't compare, Last Ninja is far superior." This seemed strange to us, given that the Itagaki masterwork from Tecmo is widely believed to be one of the best-looking console games of all time.
However, Cale had more to say on the future of Last Ninja, trumping even his own Ninja Gaiden claim: "The game is simply too advanced technically for a release on current systems," he said. "So, we are going to release it on PlayStation 3 instead. This isn't any reflection on any delays, it's just that we want the game to be shown off in all its glory, and current systems simply couldn't handle it."
As you may be aware, the new Last Ninja game has been linked to a string of publishers - including Electronic Arts and Simon and Schuster - and was originally intended to hit retail mid last year. This date was pushed back to autumn and then it simply fell from view.
To date, four screenshots - said to be Xbox code - as well as a piece of (god awful) box art have been seen. There is also, according to the game's rap sheet, a GameCube version underway, though this is now likely to have been replaced with a Nintendo 'Revolution' SKU.
Understand that SPOnG brings this to your attention without any pleasure - we had been longing for a return to glory of Last Ninja, one of the most innovative UK game franchises of all time.

I lost track of this franchise since the C64 days... 8)

Source

 

[AlNom]

gee....I wonder why it's technically more advanced than NG.
OMG! doom 3 looks better than doom2! OMG!!!!!!!


I still want to see it though

 

[thop]

Even if the game turns out to be just good they will cash in big on it! Last Ninja is a huge name among 20+ year old gamers.

 

[Guden Oden]

They f'n well better not screw it up, or I'm buying an airplane ticket to go rip their balls off.

 

[AlNom]

seconded

 

[Farid]

"Ninja Gaiden simply doesn't compare, Last Ninja is far superior."

Yeah Mark, it simply doesn't compare...

Last pics availables (I have to admit, they're from mid 2002)

PC version

The pics are quite old, the game has a long dev time and since its changing platform for a better one, it will have better graphs... just like Galleon...

* *

 

[AlNom]

.....that looks terrible....

they better have like 4x the polygons with perpixel lighting

 

[cthellis42]

Ah lahks mah ninjas STUMPY!

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Heh, Team Ninja will kill this game when they jump on the next gen train.

 

[AlNom]

Heh, Team Ninja will kill this game when they jump on the next gen train.

 

[Sonic]

I never even knew the game was in development. To me it sounds like the case of very lazy programming. The current consoles aren't capable of handling the code the programmers set forth in the way of bad code. It must be sloppy to some extent and thus they make it for a PS3 release instead. The perfect scapegoat.

I must say the blue ninja doesn't look bad, but it does pale in comparison to Kage in new arenas. The detail on Kage is just astounding.

 

[PC-Engine]

It looks ok not too bad for 2002, but what about gameplay?

 

[j^aws]

It looks ok not too bad for 2002, but what about gameplay?

Here's a nice review circa 1987 from ZZAP64... Source

Hopefully the next gen version/gameplay will have as big an impact as it did on the C64...At least the original designer, Mark Cale is still on board...

Last Ninja was the most successful original game ever on the Commodore C64. In Europe the sales for the C64 version alone were in excess of 750,000 units and international multi-format sales exceeded 2,000,000 units. It won almost every award available and was critically acclaimed everywhere as an original, ground-breaking game. There is no C64 gamer that has not heard of Last Ninja. Even today, people still talk about the impact it had on the gaming world.
(taken from the Studio 3 (formerly System 3) website)

I never even knew the game was in development. To me it sounds like the case of very lazy programming. The current consoles aren't capable of handling the code the programmers set forth in the way of bad code. It must be sloppy to some extent and thus they make it for a PS3 release instead. The perfect scapegoat.

I hope not! But then it could be refreshingly honest!
Where's *Cough* Perferct Dark Zero *Cough* etc. etc.