Ninja Gaiden dev fears "strange and bizzare" violence focus

Team Ninja boss Yosuke Hayashi is in charge of a franchise noted for its violence and gore, but worries too many games fail to give violence the proper treatment.

"Since a few years ago I felt the lack of potential in meaningless expressions of violence that were dominating games," Hayashi told GamesIndustry.

"If games just continued on the path of having more blood and more body parts flying everywhere then this would just lead to some strange and bizarre direction in gaming.

"If you are to have violence in a game there needs to be some meaning behind this. After all, the gaming industry has matured to a level which can accommodate this."

Hayashi said it was this philosophy which drove Team Ninja to put a narrative emphasis on consequence in Ninja Gaiden 3, so that players would feel the impact and results of violence rather than just watching the ketchup splatters.

Ninja Gaiden 3 does not include the famous dismembered limbs of previous entries in the series, although there's plenty of violence otherwise. It's due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 20 in the US and March 23 in Europe. A Wii U version will follow.