Tecmo's "Nite Out" chock full of surprises

Although the release of Ninja Gaiden Sigma will no doubt bring more success to Tecmo, the company isn't content to rest on its laurels, and has made a few recent announcements regarding a pair of revitalized franchises that they hope will drop the jaws of gamers across the world.

By Eugene Huang

This weekend in Japanese gaming may belong to the high profile event Square Enix Party 2007, but another Japanese developer has been working hard to steal a little bit of their thunder. In an event titled Nite Out 07, Tecmo put on a press show of their own, showcasing some highlights in their upcoming lineup, as well as a revival of a few franchises thought to be long lost.

IGN recently covered the event with a timestamped report, and claims that the list of titles currently being developed contain quite a few surprises. But, Tecmo got one of their premiere titles out of the way first -- according to Tecmo director Yosuke Hayashi, development of Ninja Gaiden Sigma has just finished, and is expected to ship in Japan on June 14th. As for a North American release date, the company is projecting a release for July 3rd.

Moving on, Keisuke Kikuchi from Tecmo's development arm High Synergy Production revealed that his team has been working on an exclusive game for the Nintendo Wii that will be based on a fairly old-school Tecmo property. Yes, following up a brief reappearance on the PS2, the Rygar series will be making its long-awaited return to an NES platform. Although the developers have only released concept art so far, the character design for the main character and his diskarmor looks to be radically different from previous Rygar games.

The next surprise announcement was from John Inada, vice president of Tecmo, Inc, who told the crowd that Tecmo Bowl, quite possibly the most unlikely Tecmo property to make a comeback, would be returning to the modern console era. Inada admitted that it was a last minute announcement, and next to nothing could be revealed in regards to the game's release. Instead of information pertaining to platform availability, release date, gameplay footage, or even what type of teams will be available to gamers, the only data provided was a simple logo.

The game announcements for the evening then concluded with a few revelations about Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS. Tecmo veteran Tomonobu Itagaki was on hand to discuss the title with members of the media, and revealed that the game will be a continuation of the main story from the Ninja Gaiden series, and will take place six months after the end of Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Itagaki was also excited about creating the first Team Ninja title on a portable system, and claims that his game will break new visual barriers on the platform as if there was "an entirely new graphics board right there in the cartridge".

The evening's festivities then ended with an announcement from Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda, who proclaimed that the company plans to form a new development team called "Team Tachyon", which, like the particle it is named after, will help the company spread their reach further across the globe at the speed of light.

"As a new global development studio, we have established this team that will support the future of Tecmo," Yasuda stated in conclusion.

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