A few days after a Japanese television network attempted to link Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword with the deadly rampage of 24-year-old Masahiro Kanagawa, Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi has criticized the Japanese media for "making assumptions" about the game's involvement in the tragedy. A copy of the title was found in Kanagawa's bag when he was arrested.Speaking through a translator, Hayashi argued that the media "should not be the ones answering the questions or defining the reasons why this incident happened," yet was keen to point out that he wasn't defending either Team Ninja or Ninja Gaiden. "That's just my message from me to the media," he said, adding, "The media can report on these tragedies but they shouldn't just assume or lead into a question that doesn't have a definitive answer."
Entirely wise sentiments, of course, but we fear that they'll have little impact, at least while idle sensationalism sells newspapers and bumps ratings. This one could run and run, folks.
Metanet Software officially consists of two people: Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns. Together they created the original PC game 
Team Ninja's latest release is quite uncharacteristic: they've always been interested in pushing the capabilities of the hardware they work on, but this usually manifests as high-end graphics on high-end consoles. For the newest Ninja Gaiden game, they strayed from this tactic and made an original DS game instead. It still aims to innovate with the use of stylus controls for fast action.
