Koei Tecmo recently filed a new Ninja Gaiden trademark, but this likely isn’t what many were expecting. The trademark is for Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z and was filed in the United States on January 2, 2019. There’s no word yet from Koei Tecmo on this development, but we’ll see if anything comes of this.
In case you’ve never heard of Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, it’s a zombie-themed spin-off of the normal Ninja Gaiden series. It released back in 2014 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. It was far from well-received at the time of it’s release, and its current score on Metacritic is 43. It’s also not a generally fondly-remembered game, making a potential revival somewhat curious.
Still, it’s worth noting that trademark filings aren’t indicative of anything. However, as Gematsu notes, Koei Tecmo very rarely files trademarks it has no intention of following through on. With that being said, we could see a Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z remaster announced at some point in the future.
Keji Inafune, who was a producer on the title, later blamed its poor reception on the then-current console transition. By the time Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z released, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had been out for about four months. With those comments in mind, maybe a Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z remaster isn’t too far-fetched?
Many were hoping the Koei Tecmo’s announcement at The Game Awards 2018 would be a new Ninja Gaiden game. However, it turned out to be a new Team Ninja-developed Marvel Ultimate Alliance game, though exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. If this turns out to be real, we could be seeing a new Ninja Gaiden game after all. Just probably not the one anyone was expecting.
