Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus cuts its way into PS Vita US launch line-up

The PS Vita’s list of international launch games already looked strong (we had a good time with its Japanese launch titles), and today the list of games out on the first day grew by one. Tecmo Koei officially announced that its Ninja Gaiden remake, once thought to be a launch window game, will be ready in time for the Vita’s US debut. The company sent a bevy of new screenshots to boot.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus has a very strange lineage, as it’s a remake of a PS3 remake of an Xbox update to the original Xbox title Ninja Gaiden, which was a rebirth of the NES/Arcade series by the same name. Team Ninja’s punishing Xbox original has been further updated for the handheld, with new solo missions, uses for all the Vita’s touch and gyro features, and a “Hero” (aka Easy) difficulty that might finally make the game playable to those that the original was too hardcore for. If you’ve yet to play the modern classic it should be a great introduction, and a good warm-up for early March’s Ninja Gaiden 3.