During a press event that preceded the opening of this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of the first Ninja Gainden for the original Xbox, confirmed that a sequel is to be launched in 2008.

Ryu Hayabusa will be making a triumphant return next year on Xbox 360, with improved graphics and realistic physics, plus a lot of carnage. Yes, you read right: the carnage will continue and it’ll be more obvious than before, with enemies’ bodies being literally chopped off and with Ryu’s foes’ blood abundantly dripping from the our favorite ninja’s swords in rivers.

The announcement about the game debuted, as it usually happens in these occasions, with a teaser-trailer, during which the much-more-polished hero is depicted kneeling in front of a sword- probably one belonging to one of the fallen ninja-comrades. Shiny daggers, huge Predator-like claws attached to the right hand, and a halberd from which blood is dripping complete the scene. The trailer ends with Ryu’s sky-high jump and the Xbox 360 logo.

Before the presentation of the trailer, Itagaki held a short speech in front of the X60-fanboys filled audience, which cheered at almost every word:

“Our goal with Ninja Gaiden 2 is to create the world's premier action game, just as DOA4 was the premier fighting game when it was released at the 360's launch and remains the premier fighting game today. I know that a lot of our fans played the first NG as being a masterpiece and being flawless. However, as a team, we don't necessarily agree all the time.”

He continued: “When we were creating the original NG for the Xbox, we used all of our power to use the hardware to its fullest, to extract every drop of power from that hardware. As a result, we weren't able to implement every feature we wanted to. As I look back, there were maybe 10 or 20 features we weren't able to implement. Now we're able to present Ninja Gaiden 2 on Xbox 360 next-gen hardware. What this means is we're able to implement features that we couldn't do before. As you can imagine, there's no greater thrill for a developer. Please enjoy the world's best action game running on the world's most powerful machine, Xbox 360.”

A live demonstration of one level of the game followed (Aqua Castle), but it was the director of the game who played, not Itagaki, the latter confessing that it would have been difficult for him to play and talk at the same time.

The presentation of Aqua Castle level, in which Ryu chops off scores of enemies and makes other explode, seems to have been determined by the leaked screens from yesterday, with the Japanese Castle level (which was initially scheduled for the presentation).

There will be a lot of blood, that’s for sure, although it’s hard to imagine how this game will get a rating lower than M (mature), considering the intense and explicit violence we’ve witnessed.

However, since it’s the Big Brother from Redmond that’s publishing the game (which automatically transforms it into an Xbox 360 exclusive) one can never be sure of something…