I-Ninja due on Xbox

Namco has announced that its cute little action-adventure I-Ninja will be appearing on Xbox alongside previously announced PS2 and Cube versions later this year.

I-Ninja is being developed by UK-based Argonaut and it sounds... odd. Players control the weirdly named little ninja "with extreme attitude" (yes, thank you Namco) from the third-person perspective as he masters weapons, runs on walls, grinds his way along rails, swings from chains, throws explosives and even flies thanks to a sword-copter move.

We had a quick go at during E3, and it played pretty well. Graphically it's no more advanced than most PS2 games, but it doesn't look as grainy or jagged as some of the lesser ones, and it handles like a platformer should - responsively and precisely.

Also on the plus side, there seems to be a huge variety of activities within the game world - for example, one of the bosses we fought in LA was a giant mechanical boxer, and instead of bouncing on his head innumerable times we had to actually box.

If it wasn't for the Soul Calibur II tournament going on several feet away and the porn-stars-in-a-wrestling-ring at Eidos' stand behind us, we might well have stayed longer.