NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (Wii) - A Preview

Just in time for the Naruto wave!  By Jason Van Horn A big problem with some games based on the Naruto franchise is that the franchise often comes first instead of the actual gameplay and mechanics, which are somewhat an afterthought in extreme cases. When it comes to NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3, however, the developers aren't resting on their laurels, and have made a lot of tweaks and improvements between releases. The thing that got me most excited was the fact that the team behind the game want a solid fighting game first…not just a solid Naruto game. There's a big difference in those two philosophies and it sounds like that line of thinking is going to payoff big for the developers and fans. For those unfamiliar with the Clash of Ninja Revolution franchise, think of it as Super Smash Bros. meets Tekken, but with Naruto characters fighting it out hand-to-hand instead. You'll be using over 35 characters – to be precise – but it's yet unclear who all the mystery combatants will be. Players will start with a roster of approximately eight characters, while playing through different modes and achieving certain goals will unlock the others. The roster won't be a repeat using the younger characters, either, as all the characters will be based on the current Shippuden line. The Shippuden Naruto series – for those who might not know – takes place several years into the future, after all the characters have aged a bit, changed up their looks some, and beefed up when it comes to new strengths and abilities. Clash of Ninja Revolution 3's story mode will be focused strictly on the first arc after the post-time jump Shippuden series began, which details Naruto and the rest of the Hidden Leaf village trying to retrieve Gaara after he gets abducted by the mysterious Akatsuki organization. Will Naruto and the gang be able to save him? As Mike Jones – the Senior Producer of the game over at TOMY – continued to stress throughout the interview call, first and foremost they wanted Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 to be a solid fighting game before anything else. While the series has never had the level of tournament devotion as say the Street Fighter series, the game does have those diehard fans that take the game (and gameplay) very seriously. TOMY definitely wanted to address these player's concerns by fine-tuning and balancing a number of mechanics that were in play in the last game, while adding new mechanics also. One of the big new additions is the Latent Ninja Power that each character has. In the past, it's not been uncommon for a special jutsu or attack to open up once a character's health has dipped below a certain level, but in Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 the system is being overhauled and expanded, so that everyone will have a range of Latent Ninja Powers. Tenten, for example, won't drop her weapons when attacked, while someone like Gaara will now be able to block a move that isn't usually blockable. Not only do the new powers make the game more strategic based, but it has the chance to turn the tides when a battle is coming to a close. Another new system in play is the revamped wakeup system, which was included directly because of how cheap it was to constantly punish downed foes in the last game. Beyond being able to only standup or roll around, players can now perform either a wakeup attack move to try and catch their opponent sleeping (though watch out since they can be countered) or either perform a wakeup teleport to get them out of harm's way (it will cost you 50% of your chakra meter). The wakeup system was described somewhat as a Rock, Paper, Scissor mechanic. If an opponent is attacking, it might be best to teleport away. If an opponent isn't ready, a wakeup attack just might be the right move. Knowing when to press on the attack and play defense are key in the game's new wakeup system. Besides having upgraded moves to reflect their power level and skill in the new Shippuden timeline, many of the main characters will now even have character specific throws, which have been missing in past games. Besides being able to do a default throw or pop-up throw, character specific throws are now accessed by pressing down on the control stick and using the throw button. Each character specific throw doesn't perform the same function either, so while one character's specific throw might be used to take a big chunk of life out of an enemy, another character's throw might be less effective when it comes to initial damage, but paves the way for a follow-up combo. The game, as always, is filled with a number of both single-player and multiplayer modes. The Story mode is one of the most important modes, as it will be one of the ways in which you unlock some of the characters. As stated earlier, the story mode concerns itself with the first story arc of the Shippuden series – the Gaara Retrieval arc. Up next is the Vs mode, which allows for a number of computer or player based battles. Vs mode can have up to four players playing at one time, as you can have one-on-one matches, two-on-one, three-on-one, two-on-two, free-for-all, two player tag, etc. The Vs mode even allows for some tag team assist attacks, much like in Marvel Vs Capcom 2. There is also the requisite Survival, Time Attack, and Score Attack modes, as well as Kumite mode (fend off a multitude of rogue ninja while receiving health drops) and Mission mode. In Mission mode, each character will have ten different missions, with various goals needing to be reached in order to successfully complete the mission. Finally, Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is going to be Wi-Fi enabled for the first time. It's been requested for fans for a long time now, but it's finally happening with the upcoming installment. The game will come with a number of ways to connect and score players based on their skills, but given the limitations of the Wii, don't expect Street Fighter IV type stat tracking or rank keeping. What you will get, however, are ranked matches, random matches, rival matches, friend matches, and a leaderboard that should keep all the fans happy for a long time. While players won't be able to easily match-up with perfect competition every time based on their own skill level, TOMY feels that a bulk of the players will spend a lot of time battling with friends and rivals, based on past skirmishes with them and the sharing of friend codes. So, if there's a talented player you'd like to play with again, be sure to get their code. The game will store stats such as win/loss records, and players will advance in rank similar to that used in the Naruto universe (Jounin, Chunin, etc.) The game won't allow players to use Wii speak, but at least the performance of the game when online is solid, as the developers said the lag and latency is much better than the last online Wii fighter – Super Smash Bros. The Clash of Ninja Revolution games were always fun, but not always the deepest fighters out there. Given that, I was very impressed by all of the improvements that were described and how the developers went about fine-tuning and balancing Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 so that it was a solid fighter before anything else. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the final product and digging in – it seems like there's going to be a lot there to keep fans happy.