A couple of pieces of top chop-socky news to chew on…

First up a free demo of Ninja Gaiden 2, which releases this weekend, will be posted on Xbox LIVE this morning. In fact it’s probably there now if you care to take a look. Better late than never, eh? Indeed, better late than not at all – the demo won’t be launching at all in Canada, the USA, India or Germany. Oh dear.

So that’s the silver lining, here’s the cloud – according to Team Ninja’s enigmatic boss, Tomonobu Itagaki, Ninja Gaiden 2 only comprises around 15 hours of actual gameplay, which, er, isn’t very much. However: “…I think that we’ve got enough in there with enough incentive to make you want to replay at least one more time,” he tells Kikizo.

Well, we’ll be the judge of that, right? Not that what we think will bother Itagaki much any more as he’s just resigned from Team Ninja and is suing his former employers for 148 million yen, citing unpaid bonuses and emotional distress. Oo-err!