Score one for the PS3 by the looks of it, I can't think of the last time I was so impressed by how a game's graphics and animation come together, it actually looks better than the majority of the actual series (which is frequently half-assed nowadays) It feels to me like all previous cell-shaded graphics were just little steps towards this, the real goal of a 3D game that actually looks consistently like 2D cell animation, even whilst moving. It isn't just a single effect over the 3D animation either, motion blur and superbly detailed facial animations are coming into play here, along with plently of wonderfully done visual effects.

I have only owned the second iteration of the series, which was not without it's charms but has been very much superseded by the later PS2 titles only available on Japanese import. Though this may be a continuation of the Ultimate Ninja series in the fact that it is on a Sony system, as from the video it seems that full three-dimensional movement is permitted, rather than the novel 2.5D fights across a fore- and background plain of the previous games. No sign of pick-up items either, though that's not to say they won't be there later.

One of the factors in my agonising over if I should get a 360 or PS3 is the well-received Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the MS machine, but this looks like it could blow it out of the water if the fluid graphics we see here actually translate into the real gameplay.

Of course, I still won't be getting a PS3 if I'm still going to be lumbered with an obsolete SixAxis. Not whilst knowing that once enough suckers pick them up there will be lovely DualShock 3 bundles around the corner. Oh, and there's my poverty as well.