No ill feelings here. Tomonobu Itagaki and his ex-team have moved on - he has a new team, Team Ninja has new projects - and he only has the best wishes for Team Ninja and its new leader, Yosuke Hayashi. It's a refreshing change to see the man behind the sunglasses be so positive for a change and he even had enough compliments to go around.

In an interview with former EGM editor-in-chief "Milkman" James Mielke for 1UP, Itagaki said that he was "very honored and pleased to be of service" when Ninja Blade was described to be somewhat of a Ninja Gaiden ripoff.

Talking about the sexed-up game ladies rep that was left behind with Team Ninja, he said was "pretty tired" of making games featuring women of exaggerated assets and scant clothing. " A lot of people are making those recently. I'll gladly let them take over for me," he added in jest. Apparently, so is Team Ninja, who didn't mess with Samus Aran's cup size and wardrobe.

Speaking of Team Ninja and Samus, Itagaki also gave praises for one of Team Ninja's current projects, Metroid: Other M, and the guys behind it. "Metroid is a fantastic game," he said. "I also know Mr. Sakamoto, the producer at Nintendo, very well. He fathered Samus Aran. He's been making games since I was a child, so he's a veteran I really respect. I think [Yosuke] Hayashi will learn a lot working with him. I hope Team Ninja works hard in making a good game."

He even had a few good things to say about Katsuhiro Harada, the man behind Dead or Alive's fighting rival, Tekken. "I really respect the fact that he's continuing to make something that will really please the fighting game fans. He is a real man," he said. Don't be fooled though, he has a lot of respect for the man, but not Tekken 6 (PS3 and Xbox 360), which he notes is "the sixth worst game I hate."

It's nice to see that Itagaki-san's doing well and he's not the least bitter about severing ties with his old mates at Tecmo . If he was, he'd have no problem telling us about it, and in detail. He's not one to mind his adjectives so it's almost creepy that he had lots of goodwill to toss around, kinda like when Gabe Newell spoke about gamers and publishers.

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