Exposed! Ninja Gaiden 1.1 Screen Frenzy

Team Ninja's astonishing Xbox Live upgrade to Ninja Gaiden revealed in new screenshot frenzy. Key details included.

It doesn't take a ninja to work out that we're utterly obsessed with Ninja Gaiden here at Kikizo. In our eyes easily one of the best games of 2004 so far, the massive Xbox title is famous for its vast scale, senses-shattering bosses and gloriously absurd difficulty level.

Team Ninja recently announced that it has decided to offer all Xbox Live subscribers a special upgrade to the game - Ninja Gaiden 1.1 - which adds even more characters, new weapons, more ferocious enemies, and - wait for it - even more challenge.

Ninja Gaiden 1.1 is scheduled to arrive through your Xbox Live connection in August, in conjunction with the awesome Master Ninja Tournament that will see the world's best Ninja Gaiden players battle for ultimate supremacy.

The brand new roster of enemies and bosses is largely cosmetic in difference - the structure and story of the regular Ninja Gaiden doesn't change - so these new beasts are essentially replacements to older ones, although Itagaki-san is promising that they'll all be even tougher than their standard Ninja Gaiden cousins, boasting all-new, improved AI.

However in some situations - as you can see from these screens - you'll fight multiple bosses at once, whereas before there was mercifully just one boss at a time!

In addition to all this extra material, Itagaki-san has tweaked the enemy AI to make opponents even tougher, and refined the camera system based on feedback from users; this time you'll have a smarter camera, with full 360 degree control to boot. And on top of all that, the overall speed of the game is improved to make things even more frantic.

Phew. Look out for more news on this ultimate Xbox Live content download, which is offered free to all Live subscribers in a couple of month's time. Worth playing through all over again? You bet. Totally awesome.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com