Confirmed: Ninja Gaiden censored for European release

Tecmo's critically acclaimed Ninja Gaiden has been altered to remove certain violent aspects such as decapitations ahead of its European release, investigation of PAL review code of the game today has confirmed.

The gory decapitation scenes from the game have been removed apparently at the request of European censors, and the final PAL code for the game has been granted a 16 rating by pan-European ratings body PEGI, which rates games for a wide range of European countries (including the notoriously censorious German market).

Last month Microsoft denied that any pre-emptive changes had been made to the game prior to its submission to European authorities, but admitted that "minor changes may be made to ensure that the game satisfies ratings requirements in Europe."

The actual impact of the change to the game is minor, according our colleagues on sister site Eurogamer.net, and does little to detract from the well-received game - which was the best selling single-platform title in the USA last month. It's also noted that although the decapitation scenes have been removed, the shuriken weapons - which were removed from European copies of Tenchu: Return from Darkness on Xbox recently - have been left in the game.

Ninja Gaiden is set to be released across Europe on May 14th.