Digital translations of time-tested older arcade games is a tricky thing. For those who were able to go to the arcades and drop quarters, the titles that were bought by the owners was a special thing. Pinball games are some of the oldest arcade games that still exist.

Though now they are more of a novelty than something special, Zen Studios released Zen Pinball for the PlayStation Network and have been releasing tribute tables for some of the bigger titles on the PlayStation 3. I was able to give the Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 table a try, and while Zen Studios can replicate the table, memories of the physical machine do outweigh the digital version. Though this is as close the digital version can get to the real thing.

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Ninjas evoke images of stealthy and agile assassins who kill in the shadows. Hired out to perform secret assassinations, fight Ninja Turtles, or bounce around with gravity-defying chest plates, ninjas function in all sections of society and, inadvertently, time periods. Of course, ninjas also have an increased amount of shame when it comes to the video game realm.

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In a span of days that has seen a jaw-dropping twist in the season finale of Lost, Stanley Cup heroics, and Obama getting dirty (despite the “Only Yo Momma Would Vote for Obama” t-shirt I saw yesterday), it is only fitting that the video game world receive its own bit of drama thanks to game designer-turned-derelict, Tomonobu Itagaki.
Itagaki, a man whose ego has grown to be as large as the games he and his team have produced—including the Ninja Gaiden and the Dead or Alive series—has become somewhat synonymous with his bold statements and overall brash behavior. It should come as no surprise to Japanese game developer Tecmo that Itagaki is suing them for 148 million yen (about $1.4M) in “unpaid completion bonuses.”
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