Kid Ninja escapes the Asylum

London-based developer Asylum Entertainment has built up a reputation over the last four years for its TV tie-ins, covering everything from Galidor and Cubix to Walking With Dinosaurs and Dr Who. Recently they've moved into developing original games as well though, with the Victorian horror adventure game Curse: The Eye Of Isis due out through Wanadoo towards the end of this year. And today the lid comes off their biggest project to date - Kid Ninja. By day Jet is just another boy, but by night he becomes Kid Ninja, using his Ninjitsu skills to save the world from the evil Raging Dragon spirits, aided only by his magical stuffed toy Kuma. Set for release on all three console systems, Kid Ninja features a mixture of colourful cartoon graphics and fast moving martial arts mayhem as you guide the eponymous masked hero in his battle against evil. The whole thing has a very angular, stylised look to it which is quite eye-catching, and if the gameplay is half as fun as the trailer Asylum could be on to a winner. The game is just part of the package though - Asylum are promising a "gripping storyline" which will cross over into TV, film and comic books, with music, action figures and toys all in the works as well. It's certainly an ambitious concept, reversing Asylum's normal habit of building games around existing TV series by creating an entire new franchise from scratch, stretching from game to cartoon to comic book. It's perhaps no surprise then that Kid Ninja isn't due to arrive until the spring of 2004, giving Asylum plenty of time to polish all the various components. While you're waiting though, we have the first in-game screenshots, renders and concept art from the Kid Ninja game for you, as well as a great two minute trailer in bandwidth-saving DivX format, which should give you some idea of what to expect. To view the trailer, simply right click on the link and download the file to your hard drive. Related Feature - Kid Ninja screenshots and art

Thanks to blueyonder for hosting the trailer