Itagaki on single-player experiences, his wife beating Ninja Gaiden 2

Ninja Gaiden 2 probably won’t be out until later this year, but we’re still excited enough to grab any new details Tomonobu Itagaki and his Team Ninja are willing to reveal. This time, what you’ll find at the full article is the bad-ass video game maker’s thoughts on his latest big project as a single-player title, the possibility of video replay features in it, and the difficulty mode that even his wife can beat. Make that jump!

Just recently, Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki made it clear that the Path of the Acolyte mode in the Microsoft Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2 is not like the first Ninja Gaiden‘s Ninja Dog difficulty. According to what he said in another interview, he actually planned to make the easiest difficulty something his wife could beat.

Itagaki did say he feels proud when someone can’t beat his creation, but speaking as a producer leading Team Ninja, he stated, “it’s important we allow people to see as much of the game as they possibly can.”

Itagaki also ensured that Path of the Acolyte isn’t just about making the game silly enough for newbies to play. If an enemy ninja is moving slowly, it’s not because of the difficulty setting, but most likely due to a missing arm which inflicts pain that can render even the greatest warriors unable to act as if in perfect condition.

On the other hand, Team Ninja’s head honcho also talked about Ninja Gaiden 2 as a fulfilling single-player experience than something that relies on online play for gaming time. “I had entertained notions of creating ‘Ninja FPS,’ for all of those people who want to play online,” he said. “But this is still Ninja Gaiden, so we’re still following that [single-player] framework.”

Co-op play is apparently out of the picture. To further explain, Itagaki said:

One important point: You look at a game like Gears of War, where basically the entire game is structured around co-op play–the story, the characters, even how the levels are organized are designed around co-op play. But we have a concept in our game where we have a single ninja whoÂ’s out on a journey of revenge.

What I don’t want to do is spoil the key concept and story of the game by artificially tacking on co-op elements. So I won’t be doing it for this game, but it’s certainly something I’ve put a lot of thought into.

Speaking of a replay feature in Ryu Hayabusa‘s latest appearance, Itagaki made mention of Team Ninja’s expertise in fighting games which often involve post-fight replays, and said he’s considering to allow players save videos and take screenshots as Halo 3 did.

For the full interview with GameTap, click on the via link below.