I’ve always been vastly impressed with the AI in his Ninja Gaiden games. Comparatively to similar action bloodfests, there is a rhythm and flow to the behavior of the enemies that gives a more believable and aggressive quality to them. Most of the time even the most basic foes have an unpredictable quality in how they will respond to the player’s offensive and defensive choices. Taking on the doppelganger in Black felt as close to a duel between a human opponent that is rarely achieved in a genre usually built around pattern-recognition and exploitation.
I’m still not sure what to think about him, having never met the guy. I loved Ninja Gaiden Black and consider it one of the best action titles I’ve played, but his actions haven’t been positive (the sexual harassment suit for example.) I’m interested to see what his next move is going to be, and I hope he finds work creating more action titles, but I do wonder if another company is going to put up with his ego or not.
He was demoted for his personal shenanigans interfering with his job responsibilities, not for sexual harassment. It’s not like Tecmo just said that to cover the whole thing up. An actual court of law found him innocent.
“Can I borrow a copy of this[unfinished game] so I can play it a little?” Itagaki remembers the manager saying. “it was taken into a factory for production on that day without me knowing it.”
“I thought I would quit making games,” he said. He started saying home, drinking from morning until night. He’d cry as he watched the movie Armageddon over and over again with his then three-year-old daughter, listening to Aerosmith’s theme song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.”
“No matter what anyone says, Aerosmith and Armageddon were the ones who saved my life, my company, my friends and my family,” Itagaki concluded.
