July 11, 2008

Pre-E3: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 Q&A + New Screens
By Louis Bedigian

“I think there's a lot of depth to the game, a lot of depth that people don't realize. There's a lot of different technical expertise in the game. ”

We are just a few short days from the start of this year's E3 Media & Business Summit, and game publishers are gearing up with their usual dose of early trailer and screenshot releases. D3Publisher confirmed its E3 lineup this week, which includes Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 for Wii. Before getting a glimpse (and hopefully going hands on) of the game next week, Glenn Stotz, Product Specialist at Tomy Corporation, answered several of our key questions.

"We’re taking a whole new, original approach to the game," said Glenn Stotz. "It features many of the mainstays from the television series and brings in a lot of new characters, as well as incorporating new stages, brand-new gameplay features and a handful of new gameplay modes on top of the tried and true fighting game.”

The character roster, while not yet revealed in its entirety, is one of the driving forces behind the game. “The roster is very important to us," Stotz continued. "We have four original characters that we created just for our game. We also have three characters that are new to the Clash of Ninja series, two of which we believe have never been in a Naruto game prior.” Which they 'believe,' hmm? Very sneaky.

“We have all the gameplay modes that were available [in the first Clash of Ninja game]," he noted. "Time Attack, Score Attack, Survival Mode, Team Survival. Then we also have the brand-new mode called Kumite Mode, this is sort of a play on the survival mode. We also have versus mode, the bread and butter of the series. You of course can play up to four players. You can play anyway you like – four-player free-for-all, three-on-one, etc. And then we have a couple other modes we plan to announce a little bit later."

Stotz also spoke about the hand sign system, which utilizes the Wii's motion controls. "The hand sign system works like this: If you're playing with the Wii remote and Nunchuk attached, you have two triggers – Z and C. If you hold both of those down you'll go into a stance. It leaves you completely vulnerable but it gives you the opportunity to move the Wii remote in a few different series of directions that give their characters a temporary boost. All characters can do a Chakra boost, which increases their Chakra for a little bit. All the characters can do a temporary attack power boost which increases the amount of damage they do for a short time."

As a Wii exclusive, Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will have the famous (sometimes infamous) motion controls. Tell us about these – how they work, what they allow the player to do, etc.

Glenn Stotz: A shake of the Wii remote sort of functions as a button, as an attack. What's more, when you're in a cinematic Jutsu sequence, you can follow the on-screen commands and make gestures in order to make the Jutsu do a little more damage. We've also taken advantage of the motion control with hand signs, which you can do in battle by moving the Wii remote around. There's also a gameplay feature that we haven't revealed yet that uses the motion controls.

Do you play with the Wii remote and Nunchuk or just the Wii remote?

GS: You can play the game however you like – with just the Wii remote, with the remote and Nunchuk, you can play with the Classic Controller or GameCube controller.

How will the Wii remote controls differ from those with a GameCube or Classic controller?

GS: With the GameCube and Classic Controller, you're not going to be able to do those on-screen gestures with the Jutsu, or the new gameplay elements that we talked about, such as hand signs.

Is the game more expansive when playing with the Nunchuk?

GS: Well, when you're using the Wii remote by itself, you don't shake it and it doesn't rely on the motion controls. Only when you plug in the Nunchuk are you going to be using the motion controls.

Does the Nunchuk have a motion aspect to it?

GS: Yeah. You can deflect Kunai. If people throw Kunai at you, shake your Nunchuk and it deflects back at them. You also use it for the gestures in the cinematics.

What are the "never-before-seen" game modes? Are they never-before-seen in a Naruto game, or brand-new to the genre as well?

GS: I can't say exactly what they are, but they are brand-new to the Clash of the Ninja series.

Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 will feature full widescreen support and run in 480p. Does this mean we won't see thin black bars on the sides of the screen, regardless of the type of HDTV we have? (I ask because I've played several Wii games that were widescreen yet had half-inch or quarter-inch black bars on the sides of the screen).

GS: As far as we know it's widescreen. Of course, there are many different TVs and settings, so we can't say for certain with all the diversity out there.

Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is being touted as the only four-player fighting game in the Naruto series. In a game like Smash Bros., this creates a mishmash of button-mashing goodness. But what kind of an experience will be derived from Clash of Ninja Revolution 2?

GS: I think there's a lot of depth to the game, a lot of depth that people don't realize. There's a lot of different technical expertise in the game. A person might be good in a one-on-one match, but when they get in a four-player game like free-for-all, it becomes a whole different ballgame. What I think is really fun about Revolution 2 and the Clash of the Ninja series in general is that there's really a whole [bunch] of different experiences you can have in one game.

As one of the "key features" forwarded to the press, it says, "Brand-new storyline specifically created for North American audience – The story will expand on the episodes of the popular television series." This sounds good on paper, but it seems to be the norm for all anime games. In what ways, if any, is Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 different?

GS: I think Clash of Ninja Revolution 2's story is really exciting because it's not like nothing that happens in the story matters to the main characters. The characters that you'll meet, the original characters and such, they actually go into the history with some of the mainstays on the show. They have a unique way that they've effected how the characters [enter the story] and become the characters we know now.

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