EXCLUSIVE: Team Ninja's Itagaki on the future of Ninja Gaiden, the PSP, and the Wii

GP: I noticed there's only one button used [pressing down on the D-Pad to block], at least in the demo. Is that something you did deliberately, to play to the DS' strengths?

Itagaki: To be honest, I didn't want to use any buttons. I wanted to completely use the stylus. I thought this would be the best way to balance it out. You can understand after hearing why I chose the DS over the PSP why I would do it that way.

GP: If you were to develop a game for the Wii, would you take the same approach of playing to the system's motion-sensing strengths and not using the buttons as much?

Itagaki: If I were to develop an original game for the Wii, yes. I would definitely do it that way.

GP: Do think this is a game you'll still be refining down the line as you've been doing for Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox with Black and Sigma? Do you think this game will have a long life span like that one?

Itagaki: Since this is a completely different title, I haven't really been thinking about sequels as we've been making. If after it's been released, we've found there's a lot of people out there loving this game then we might think about something like that.

I have so many games on my plate that it's hard to commit to sequels so far in advance. The first priority is to get this done and see how people like it.

GP: Before this game and Sigma, your last seven titles were for Xbox platforms. How has it been adapting to different systems?

Itagaki: It's been more than ten years since I worked on a Nintendo platform so it's interesting getting back into the fold with them. There's a lot of nostalgia there but they've also grown a lot as a company during that time. It's been very interesting working on this platform.

Nintendo is very strict about the quality of gameplay on their consoles but at the same time, they understand Team Ninja's philosophy on development, so it's been very rewarding working with them.The DS, unlike the PSP, is a portable that was designed to be a portable. As a piece of hardware it's very interesting to work with and look at from a developer's perspective.

The DS, unlike the PSP, is a portable that was designed to be a portable.

The layers of software used to run the DS are very slim, so it's easy for programmers to write code for the hardware to get the best performance out of it. I think it's a really good machine.

GP: Do you think you'll return to Microsoft platforms soon?

Itagaki: I wouldn't say return because I've never left. It's only what's visible to you, because we've been developing Team Ninja's core title for the 360 for quite a while now. That's something I've mentioned previously that I've been committed to for over a year. People tend to forget that I'm committed to the 360 so I'll say it again here: we are currently developing a title and we are committed to the 360 as our key gaming platform.

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