The producer of Ninja Gaiden isn't resting on his laurels after a very public departure from Tecmo, the company he helped define in recent years. 1UP caught up with the outspoken designer, who said he's hard at work on a brand new game with his "Tokyo Assassins" development team (it's just a temporary name) and while he's not willing to divulge what the game is yet, he's confirmed it's not a new fighter.

"It'd be more fun if we made something new, right?" said Itagaki.

"Yeah, we did all what we can do for a fighting game," added Katsunori Ehara, one of Itagaki's principle designers at the new company. "We have no more reasons to make another fighting game."

Itagaki seemed uncomfortable committing to a single platform for his new game. In the past, Itagaki has produced Tecmo games exclusively -- though sometimes only timed exclusives -- for Xbox 360. He said he's "trying to be flexible in that respect," but he does have "many good friends [at Microsoft's Xbox team] too, and being in a comfortable environment is best."

As someone who's never been able to get into the Ninja Gaiden games -- fighters aren't my thing and Ninja Gaiden may as well be a fighting game disguised as an action game -- I'm curious to see what Itagaki does next. Another hardcore action game would certainly please his fans, but I'd probably never play it.

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