NEWS - Thursday, February 26, 2004
Master Ninja Tournament Details Revealed
TORRANCE, Calif., February 26th‹Tecmo® and Xbox® revealed today more details surrounding the Master Ninja Tournament, the Xbox Live feature within its much anticipated action title, Ninja Gaiden. The Master Ninja Tournament, the new Xbox Live feature developed specifically for Ninja Gaiden, will allow players to participate in a global competition. Here, they will test their honed ninja skills to find out who is the top Ninja Gaiden player in the world. Practicing for the worldwide competition begins when Ninja Gaiden hits stores the first week of March. Tecmo and Xbox, cosponsoring the worldwide Xbox Live event, proudly announced today that the tournament will kick off at E3 with a three-round regional competition that will last through the summer. Xbox Live owners, who have beat the game once, will be eligible to register for any and/or all three rounds of the tournament where they will test their ninja skills by competing in trial missions only available through Xbox Live. Players will be able to go online ahead of time to begin practicing for the tournament in the first month after the game comes out. Once the tournament begins participants will compete against other players within their regions and then will be ranked on their overall scores from these trial missions. A leader board demonstrating the player¹s overall ranking will be available through Xbox Live so that players can see how they stack up against the competition during each round. Winners are determined by the top rankings in their region for each round. From there the three top players from each region will advance to the regional playoffs where they will compete against each other¹s scores on all three trial missions through Xbox Live. The player with the combined best score for all three levels will be flown to the World Master Ninja Finals held in September at X04 in Europe. More information on the trial missions, finals and prizes will be revealed in the upcoming weeks. About Ninja Gaiden One of Tecmo¹s most treasured franchises will be given new life this March when a whole new action-packed Ninja Gaiden hits store shelvesŠwith a vengeance. The player takes on the role of the powerful and mysterious ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, who seeks revenge after his clan is massacred by the Vigor Empire. Boasting 100% action, Ninja Gaiden will allow the player to unleash their inner ninja with smooth game play, speedy battle sequences, and a variety of advanced acrobatic ninja moves from running and flipping off walls to hanging and swinging on rails. The player will also have a variety of primary and secondary weapons at their disposal that when used in a combination, create advanced weapon attacks such as damaging wall-based assaults and all-powerful ultimate attacks. Xbox Live Compatibility, a host of challenging levels and visually exquisite environments are just a few more reasons why Ninja Gaiden plans to raise the bar in the action gaming genre. Ninja Gaiden is scheduled to launch onto store shelves on March 2, 2004 with a suggested retail price of $49.99 with an ESRB rating of Mature. Gamers can pre-order Ninja Gaiden at Tecmo¹s website (http://www.tecmoinc.com). For additional information on the game, visit the official Ninja Gaiden website (www.ninjagaidengame.com)Source: http://www.tecmoinc.com/
