Official: Ninja Gaiden Censored in Europe

We've got the official line on how and why Ninja Gaiden will be censored for its Euro release.

Don't expect to lose your head in PAL Ninja Gaiden.

Following speculation earlier this week that the European version of Ninja Gaiden would be censored, we asked the chaps at Microsoft UK for clarification, who kindly explained:

"The European version of Ninja Gaiden may differ very slightly from the version released in the US. The game will be identical in terms of graphical excellence, gameplay, and all the other features that have made gamers in the US excited about Ninja Gaiden. Minor changes may be made to ensure that the game satisfies ratings requirements in Europe."

This still isn't too meaningful in terms of details, but it's said that decapitations will be among those items on the no-no list.

We've been slicing our way through the surprisingly tough game since the start of the month, and we'll be letting you know our opinion hopefully at the end of the week in our full review.

More to the point, we also expect to take delivery of the PAL version later this week, so if the censors have taken their own sword to this version we'll let you know what's been chopped.

Stay tuned, and in the meantime click here for all our Ninja Gaiden coverage.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com

Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Ninja Gaiden Direct feed gameplay videos - boss fight [480x360, 1104kbps]	1.33min	11.7MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden Direct feed gameplay videos - gameplay 1 [480x360, 1104kbps]	1.27min	10.7MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden Direct feed gameplay videos - gameplay 2 [480x360, 1104kbps]	1.15min	9.69MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden Direct feed gameplay videos - gameplay 3 [480x360, 1104kbps]	1.13min	9.28MB	WMV
Old Ninja Gaiden Videos
Ninja Gaiden Fantastic new trailer - shaky cam from TGS.	3.24min	29.35MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden Shaky cam gameplay footage from TGS, as played by Itagaki-san.	0.57min	7.60MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden The drop-dead awesome Ninja Gaiden E3 2003 trailer in direct-feed.	3.24m	27.84 MB	WMV
Ninja Gaiden The completely awesome Ninja Gaiden trailer from E3 2002.	2.20min	15.5MB	MPG