Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki probably decided life was just too damn boring and recently criticized some of the big titles today, in an interview with Gaming Monthly, as I found via Eurogamer.biz. Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword got the worst from Itagaki, calling it "half-a*sed," as far as the game's on-screen button pressing sequences were concerned:

"I've never played a good game where the developers put a big icon of the button you're supposed to press onscreen," Itagaki told Electronic Gaming Monthly. "I look at Heavenly Sword and it seems really half-assed, because it's asking you to do all these button-timing sequences but you are not getting much pay-off from it."

The statement begs the question: "then what about God of War 2? The game's practically based on button icons..." Really now, is it that awful? I have to admit though: when I played my first game of the sort (meaning the ones that show button icons) I myself thought, "what the heck is going on here? Are we getting this stupid that we can't remember doing the same combo later on during the game?" But then I realized, it's all in the gameplay experience. It gives that unique sense of action (I'm thinking God of War of course) and quite frankly, it's very exciting not knowing what the game is going to ask you to do next.

But yes, having played the demo of Heavenly Sword as well, I have to say the button-timing sequences within the game are quite easy to follow, but I don't agree that they don't pay off. If Tomonobu Itagaki is talking about how spectacular the "pay-offs" are, then I cannot agree. If I'm not getting the right idea and the man's talking about a different matter all together, then I'll shut up.

When asked about the Tekken series, Itagaki boasted: "Tekken sucks. I don't know what you're talking about." OK then...!

What Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja are currently working on are "two mysterious titles," as Eurogamer writes, for Microsoft's Xbox 360 (Project Progressive and Project Impact), as well as a DS title going by the name of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.