NewsSpots: Ninja Gaiden II, Joust, EndWar

ESRB rates Ninja Gaiden II for Wii
The Entertainment Software Rating Board has updated its site with another batch of verdicts on new games, and as has happened before, included in the update is a rating for a previously unannounced title. Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden recently arrived on the Virtual Console, and it appears to be getting some company soon, because the ESRB has issued an E for Everyone rating to Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. Originally released in 1990, the second part of the NES trilogy refined Ryu's ability to scale walls and introduced shadow ninja backups to the array of power-ups.

PS3 set to Joust tomorrow
The eternal struggle between ostrich-like creatures and vulture-like creatures began with the arcade version of Joust in 1982 and has raged for decades on a variety of platforms. Sony Online Entertainment will add one more to the list tomorrow. It has confirmed the Thursday release of Joust for the PlayStation 3. The game features online multiplayer action as well as leaderboards, and it will sell for $4.99.

EndWar gets Paris Burning theme
The first promotional bullets are flying in Tom Clancy's EndWar, because a new theme for the recently announced game is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Titled "Paris Burning," the theme predictably depicts The City of Light all lit up with the glow of armed conflict. The theme is now available worldwide for 150 Microsoft points ($1.87).