Team NINJA's Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (NDS), the studio's portable take on the adventures of famed video game ninja Ryu Hayabusa, will slash its way to North American retailers this March.

Much like Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (NDS), Ninja Gaiden DS is controlled almost entirely through the touch screen. A downloadable demo of the third-person action game is currently available through the DS Download Stations scattered throughout retailers such as GameStop, Target, and Wal-Mart. Read more »

Tecmo-owned developer Team NINJA has provided four more images of Ninja Gaiden II, the Xbox 360-exclusive sequel to one of the more frustratingly challenging Xbox, and later PlayStation 3, titles ever released.

Included in the bloody barrage are glimpses of severed arms and legs, along with a few decapitations. The game itself is due out at some point in 2008. Read more »

Tecmo has provided three new screenshots of Team NINJA's upcoming Xbox 360-exclusive slash 'em up, Ninja Gaiden II. Depicted in the images are evil dudes, ninja weapons, and a monster.

Also released was a 45-second gameplay trailer, which you can grab on Fileshack in HD or view below. Or both! Read more »

In an unusual week of Japanese hardware sales, Microsoft's slow-selling Xbox 360 saw 475% week-over-week growth in unit sales to edge out Sony's PlayStation 3 by mere hundreds of units--17,637 to 17,434, according to tracking firm Media Create. Microsoft's console was buoyed by Namco's exclusive Ace Combat 6, which slotted in at #2 on the hardware charts with 76,708 units. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo's marquee title Super Mario Galaxy topped the weekly list with 250,585 units. The debut was lower than some expected given the higher first-week sales of Super Mario Sunshine (GCN) and other flagship games from the Big N, but still outsold any other game by more than three to one during the week of October 29 to November 4. Despite the bitter battle between the two high-powered consoles, both machines were outsold by the Wii, which topped Xbox 360 by about 20,000 units. Still, the release of Mario's latest outing didn't significantly bump Wii sales, and PSP came in #2 with 59,714 despite having no software in the top ten. In the least surprising news of the week, Nintendo DS trumped all by besting PSP by about 20,000 units. Nintendo platforms dominated software, with two Wii titles and six DS titles. The other slots were occupied by Ace Combat 6 and a Banpresto-developed Super Robot Wars title for PlayStation 2 that slotted in at #4. Read on for the full list. Hardware Sales for 10/29-11/4/07

1. Nintendo DS - 78,597
2. PSP - 59,714
3. Wii - 37,617
4. Xbox 360 - 17,673
5. PlayStation 3 - 17,434
6. PlayStation 2 - 10,209
7. Game Boy Advance - 319
8. Nintendo GameCube - 155

1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii; Nintendo) - 250,585
2. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (X360; Namco Bandai) - 76,708
3. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (NDS; Square Enix) - 50,514
4. Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd (PS2; Banpresto) - 20,525
5. DS Literature Collection (NDS; Nintendo) - 18,254
6. DS Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent (NDS; Tecmo) - 17,624
7. Wii Sports (Wii; Nintendo) - 16,371
8. Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (NDS; Nintendo) - 15,277
9. World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal (NDS; Konami) - 14,998
10. Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon: TEP (NDS; The Pokemon Company) - 14,479

The Wii Virtual Console's first CD-based TubroGrafx-16 offering, Gates of Thunder, will be available today via the download service. With the first Neo Geo titles arriving last week, the addition of games for the once-costly TurboGrafx-CD add-on marks the second platform to debut in the online store in just as many weeks. Developed by TurboGrafx extraordinaire Red Entertainment and system manufacturer Hudson Soft, Gates of Thunder is a side scrolling arcade shooter highly regarded for the top notch rocking tunes made possible through its use of the compact disc format. It sells for 800 Wii Points ($8), the standard price for TurboGrafx-CD titles. Another TurboGrafx-CD game, Red's Super Air Zonk, is scheduled to arrive this month. Along with Gates of Thunder, Virtual Console also sees the release of Tecmo's ninja-tastic side scrolling NES sequel, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, and Namco's obscure SNES strategy title, Metal Marines. Ryu Hayabusa's second appearance runs 500 Wii Points ($5), whereas humanity's metal-oriented struggle against the Imperial Federation goes for 800 Wii Points ($8).

Tecmo's freaky horror series Fatal Frame will make its next appearance on Nintendo's Wii, the company told 1up. Perhaps even more bizarre, Killer 7 developer Grasshopper Manufacture will produce the title as soon as the avant garde studio has finished worked on its first Wii title, the beam sword hitman-themed title No More Heroes. Fatal Frame series designer Keisuke Kikuchi will of course return for the Wii title, aided by Grasshopper Manufacture's eccentric Goichi Suda, known as Suda 51. The Shack recently previewed Grasshopper's own No More Heroes at the Tokyo Game Show and came away with fairly positive impressions, implying the developer will at least be able to aid Tecmo in its second Wii outing. Thus far, Super Swing Golf, which Kikuchi produced, marks the only Wii title Tecmo has released for Nintendo's platform. The previous three Fatal Frame titles have all retailed for PlayStation 2 or Xbox. Tecmo didn't give an estimate of when the Wii-specific survival horror title would hit shelves.

Capcom confirmed today its previously announced We Love Golf! from Mario Golf and Hot Shots Golf developer Camelot will be released in North America. The Wii-specific title will be available sometime in 2008. The title will retail in Japan this winter. The visuals from the project's Japanese website and the similar name indicate it is most likely an adaptation of Camelot's canceled PC project Golf Daisuki: I Love Golf. The PC title was supposed to be offered as part of an online entertainment service that never materialized. The announcement describes We Love Golf! as "a realistic golfing experience with a fresh new spin," and the game incorporates detection of fades or draws with wrist movements. Hopefully the title will bring more to the table than Tecmo's Super Swing Golf, released for the Wii last year.

Hot Shots Golf and Mario Golf creator Camelot is stepping up to the tee once again with the cleverly named Wii Love Golf. First revealed in the most recent edition of Japanese gaming publication Weekly Famtisu, it unsurprisingly has players swinging the Wii Remote like a golf club, a familiar convention after Nintendo's Wii Sports, Tecmo's Super Swing Golf, and two editions of EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Responsible for the initial entry in the Hot Shots Golf series on the original PlayStation, Camelot went on to create N64 and GBC editions of Mario Golf while Clap Hanz took over the Hot Shots Golf franchise. GameCube and Game Boy Advance editions of both Mario-based properties followed thereafter. Published by Capcom, Wii Love Golf arrives in Japan this winter. Shacknews has contacted Capcom regarding a North American release.

I hope you are all kind to Nick Breckon. He is joining us as my newest minion underling indentured servant valued writer and I plan to treat him as such.