Tomonobu Itagaki has died at the age of 58 following a serious illness. Itagaki was an absolutely transformative figure in contemporary action games thanks to his work at Tecmo, the company he joined in 1992: he led Team Ninja and spearheaded the revival of Ninja Gaiden, as well as creating the Dead or Alive series. He would leave Tecmo under a cloud in 2008, before founding Valhalla Game Studios and releasing Devil's Third on Wii U.
Itagaki was known for his sunglasses, pockmarked skin and outspoken interviews, but it was the fact that he and Team Ninja could back up the bluster that made him one of the great creators of the early 2000s. The first 3D Ninja Gaiden, released in 2004, took on Capcom and DMC at its own game and, by my reckoning anyway, beat it handily. That and Ninja Gaiden 2 remain two of the finest hack-and-slash games ever made.
