Wanted: Dead announced, by developers Ex-Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden

Publisher 110 Industries and Sun, a game development studio made up of Team Ninja veterans who have worked on both the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, announced Wanted: Dead, a new fast-paced action game at the third person for PS5, Xbox Series X | S and PC in a low-tech sci-fi version of Hong Kong that will let you master combat with guns and melee weapons. The team cites Bayonetta and Devil May Cry as inspirations. Wanted: Dead also includes “a deep investigation side where players must analyze the evidence and dive into the real police work.”

Key team members include former Team Ninja employees who left Tecmo with Team Ninja boss Tomonobu Itagaki in 2008. All senior developers who worked on Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II, DOA, DOA2 and Xtreme Beach Volleyball, including producer Yoshifuru Okamoto, director Hiroaki Matsui, and lead planner Natsuki Tsurugai. See the uncensored Wanted: Dead trailer above and the first screenshots below.

As Lieutenant Hannah Stone, leader of the “Zombie Squad” which operates outside the normal police jurisdiction, players will have the choice of whether or not to engage enemies up close with melee attacks (including “a Limb severing mechanism that changes enemy attack patterns “) or shoot them down from afar with guns. As you can see in the uncensored trailer above, Wanted: Dead definitely shows off its Ninja Gaiden roots in addition to its Bayonetta and Devil May Cry influences.

There is no release date from just “2022” just yet, but stay tuned to IGN for more on Wanted: Dead in the coming months.

Ryan McCaffrey is the executive editor of IGN Previews and the host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Unblocked Podcast, as well as our monthly interview show (-ish), IGN unfiltered. He’s a guy from North Jersey, so it’s “Taylor ham”, not “pok roll”. Chat with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.