The gaming blogs today are aswirl with the news that Tomonobu Itagaki is leaving Tecmo, and suing his former employers for unpaid bonuses to boot.

It’s hard to use the phrase “rock star” in conjunction with “video game developer” with a straight face, but Itagaki at least is the most known for acting like one with his signature look of sunglasses, a leather jacket and long hair. The rock star ego comes into play too. As the lead on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games, his disparaging comments on rival franchises like Tekken and Devil May Cry are always good gossip fodder.

Itagaki had previously announced that Ninja Gaiden 2 would be his final work on the series, and that he would like to do a game set in World War II, something that makes a little more sense now.

Around the house, we’re trying to decide if we want to spend the game budget on Ninja Gaiden 2, which launches tomorrow, or the Lego Indiana Jones game. Right now we’re leaning towards Indy. Like all Itagaki games, Ninja Gaiden 2 may have lovingly rendered jubblies, but the Indiana Jones game has been getting better reviews, so…

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