Hands on Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution

By Spencer . June 25, 2007 . 5:31pm

D3 publisher has a predicament with the Naruto license. Since retailers are cutting back on Gamecube shelf space and the Naruto episodes in Japan are years ahead of the rest of the world, they can no longer rely on localizing Eighting’s Japanese games. Instead Tomy, D3 and Eighting have to work together to develop Naruto games specific to the North America’s timeline. Enter Naruto Clash of Ninja: Revolution, an amalgamation of Naruto: Geiktou Ninja Taisen 3 and Naruto Shippuden: Geiktou Ninja Taisen EX. Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution uses a modified version of Eighting’s recent Naruto Wii game. That means you can hide behind crates and shake the remote to do light attacks. The “twist” is you’re doing all of it with the pre-time skip Naruto cast and the story from Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3.

Most of the moves in Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution are borrowed from Naruto: Geiktou Ninja Taisen 3, which gives Naruto three ougis and makes Sakura a shuriken throwing kunoichi. Since the game is in development for the Wii, Eighting went back to the drawing board to make new character models and improve the visual effects for Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution. Sauske’s new fireball jutsu looks fantastic and it has a spherical look, sort of like Itachi’s fireball attack in EX. Since Sasuke did not appear in Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX, Eighting had to make new motion movements for the lion combo. After pressing the down button on the d-pad to start the ougi players have to swing the remote left and right timed with Sasuke’s mid-air kicks.

During a chat with Yoshinobu ‘Nobby’ Matsuo, the producer of Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution, it’s clear that there are going to be more characters in the USA Naruto Wii game than the fourteen characters found in Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX. Fifteen-plus is being touted as the magic number as the development team scrambles to add in additional fighters. So far the following characters have been confirmed to be in Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution:

Naruto

Sakura

Gaara

Sasuke

Rock Lee

Guy

Kakashi

Shikamaru

Orochimaru

That leaves at least six unannounced characters, maybe more. It's a fair bet that the development team is going to include characters important to the current arc and the Attack on Konoha story arc. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Jiraiya, Neji and Temari are added to the list in the near future. On top of new characters Tomy is also adding in extra missions not found in Naruto: Geiktou Ninja Taisen 3. For example there is a filler episode in the anime where Team 7 tries to uncover Kakashi’s face behind his mask. In Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution players will get a chance to play a fight inspired by that episode as a bonus mission. I was also told Eighting was working on is cleaning up the four player mode to make it a smother experience. However, the demo was restricted to two players, which means I couldn’t test how far along Eighting was on upping the speed.

Check out how the four playable characters turned out on the next page.

Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution III Price $6.39

Naruto: Clash Of Ninja Revolution 2 Price $5.47

Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special Price N/A

Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles Price $30.40