Custom Ninja Gaiden controller

With Ninja Gaiden due out in the States on March 2nd following another slight delay, the hype machine is steamrollering everything else and conjuring a sort of mania we haven't seen since the first shots of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball trickled out of Tecmo many moons ago. And this time the game's bound to be good! Bonus.

Tecmo's latest spot of promotional activity has been to announce that it is collaborating with Japanese firm Nuby Technology to create a custom Ninja Gaiden peripheral. Created "to embody the look and feel of the action" according to the press bumf, it should be available shortly after the game's launch.

Although the idea of a custom Ninja Gaiden controller probably brings to mind Capcom and Hori's ambitious attempt at a motion sensing katana peripheral, comments from Nuby marketing manager Birute Tursa talking about "an added macro programmable function" for a custom-designed Xbox controller suggest otherwise.

Although there are some amusing Photoshop efforts doing the rounds, we've yet to see an actual picture of the Tecmo sanctioned peripheral, and the press release is pretty low-key. If it does turn out to be something interesting, we'll let you know. Really the point of this item is really to emphasise that it probably isn't...

Ninja Gaiden is due out in Europe... this year. (Your guess is as good as mine.)