“As you’re playing these tag team modes, all of the characters have assist attacks a la Marvel vs. Capcom or something like that where you can call in a buddy for a brief moment to attack your enemy, pressure them or set them up for a combo,” Mike Jones, Associate Producer at Tomy, explained on a conference call.
Unlike Capcom’s fighter, Tomy’s game doesn’t have a dedicated assist button. The Z button controls character swaps and assists on the Gamecube controller, the preferred way to play Clash of Ninja Revolution. Alone, the Z button does a defensive tag. Hold forward and press Z to do an offensive tag where a partner character will jump in with a kick or a punch. This costs a little more chakra than a regular tag. Assist moves are done with Z and down. Each character has a different assist attack and are invulnerable when they jump into battle. Unlike Marvel vs. Capcom 2 you can’t hit assist characters with a super move. Assists consume chakra to prevent spamming.
Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 also adds wake up moves to the system. If you think you’re opponent is going to strike with a jutsu move, you can counter with a wake up attack. This move grants a few frames of invulnerability which gives waking up players an edge even if an opponent is striking. If you want to retreat, you can use a wake up teleport by pressing strong attack while getting up. Teleporting drains half your chakra, but guarantees you’ll be out of harms way.
Eighting is also creating a Wi-Fi mode for Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3. Unfortunately, it will not support Wii Speak, but Tomy promises you won’t have to use friend codes to fight another player. Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 has two vs. two ranked matches, rival matches, and random matches where opponents will be selected depending on their rank (genin, jonin, etc.). Each online player also has a ninja card that records stats. In addition to an overall win/loss ratio, ninja cards have individual stats for matches against friends and rivals.
The complete 35+ fighter roster hasn’t been revealed yet, but here’s a quick rundown of confirmed characters.
Naruto
Sakura
Kakashi
Gaara
Temari
Kankuro
Baki
Chiyo
Rock Lee
Neji
Tenten
Guy
Asuma
Choji
Shikamaru
Hinata
Kiba
Shino
Kurenai
Deidara
Hiruko
Itachi
Kisame
Sasori
Anko
Jiraiya
Tsunade
Yugao (ANBU member from Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2)
