Written by Jeff Buckland, 7/3/2007
The anime show Naruto is really big right now, with lots of popularity with kids on TV as well as a slew of interesting games coming out on several platforms. I'll come right out and say I'm not much of a Naruto fan, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the games. And after I got a bit of time to play Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution on the Wii, I can say that the game certainly doesn't require any level of fandom to be enjoyable. This is a fighting game that will make use of the Wii's motion-sensing controls for some really high-energy action as you bust out huge attacks, send your enemies flying away (and maybe off a balcony onto a level below), and finish them off with a big super move.
D3 Publisher will be releasing this game and a recent press event had an early build on hand which we got to try. Apparently there were a couple of Clash of Ninja games released in Japan which didn't make it out in the States over the last year or two, so this version will try and incorporate new stuff from those games along with new content all together in this new "Revolution" title. While only a few characters out of the 14+ planned were playable in this press demo (I tried out Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara), each was unique with some cool fighting moves.
You control your character's moving and dodging abilities with the Nunchuk attachment, moving the stick around for precise character placement. Wiggling the Wiimote back and forth will fire out a quick succession of attacks, each of which is a little different for each character. The trigger on the Wiimote when combined with a direction on the stick allowed you to do some bigger special moves, some of which were projectiles, and many of these work or are modified when you do them in the air. Tomy also plans to allow players to still use a regular GameCube or Wii Classic Controller for everything so far in the game, so the Wiimote might not be the discerning player's control scheme in the end.
You can come in close for a throw or stay back and play a projectile game, and the 3-dimensional arenas allow you to dodge out of the way of stuff. Set up the right angle and use the right move, and you'll blast your opponent off of a ledge, down and onto another where he'll get hurt significantly from the landing. It takes a bit of practice for a hardened, button-pressing fighting game aficionado to get used to these wacky Wii controls, but it wasn't long before I was able to combo a few quick smacks with a jumping, fade-away projectile shot. After watching a couple of more seasoned Naruto players use their knowledge of the previous games in the series and adapt to the new moves in Clash, I can see that this one has quite a bit of depth as well. With super moves flying out complete with Wii-based motion controls to increase the damage (and Wii controls that the unfortunate victim can use to try to mitigate it), this one really looks to bring a unique take on what used to be a GameCube fighting series.
If D3 and Japanese developer Tomy can keep up the unique control scheme and make all of its fighters' attacks unique and fun, this could be one of the Wii games to look out for this Fall season.
