Destiny's Calling – Naruto: Ninja Destiny Brings 3D Fighting to Nintendo DS
By Louis Bedigian

"It's an arena, up close, one-on-one fighting game."

Naruto is a rarity in the world of licensed games. Not only have its games received critical acclaim, but it is also one of the few licenses that span multiple publishers. Naruto: Ninja Destiny, the newest chapter from Tomy, hopes to capture the thrill and excitement of what every fighting fan craves: a stellar multiplayer experience. "The heart of the game is the wireless battle mode," said Nobby Matsuo, Associate Producer. "It's an arena, up close, one-on-one fighting game."

"You start out with seven characters," Nobby revealed, noting that you'll have another nine characters to unlock. Three of them are brand-new to the North American version of the game: Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. Other playable characters include Naruto (obviously), Nine-Tailed Naruto, Sakura, Gaara, Sasuke, Kakashi Hatake, Neji, Might Guy, Shikamaru, Rock, and Itachi. Each fighter is expected to have 8 - 10 different combos.

Local wireless play is supported, and like most third-party releases, both players will need their own game card to participate. Solo players can take on the Story Mode, which has been revised since the game was released in Japan. "The story mode is completely different from the Japanese version," Nobby informed us. "As I recall the Japanese story was original but kind of lame. We went and took the story from the series and adapted it for the game." Expect the story to "transition from each mission to the next" and contain "a lot of frames and narrative to connect [each mission]."

Aside from the story, one of the complaints about the Japanese version was the frame rate. Nobby says that's no longer an issue. "Since its release in Japan, they've had more time to work on the game, so the frame rate [has been heavily] improved."

Contrary to a recent press release sent out by Nintendo, Naruto: Ninja Destiny is still locked in for a late February release.
 

Naruto games have come from two other publishers – Ubisoft and Namco Bandai. How do yours fit into the mold? Same cast? Same themes? Same style of gameplay?

Nobby Matsuo: In terms of fitting into the mold, yeah – same cast, same theme. The biggest difference [with us] is the style of gameplay. I think that's great for the consumer. They have a lot of sources to play a Naruto game. There have been adventure games, fighting [games]... Obviously Namco Bandai has their great game out, Ultimate Ninja, [and] we have our fighting series. They're both fighting games but the gameplay style is significantly different.

On the DS, Naruto: Ninja Destiny is the first to shift into 3D. Tell us why.

NM: Why not? We've done 2D games. What I've discovered is, and I'm not a technological genius, that [for the DS] there are a lot of libraries that help you create a lot of polygons. There are a lot pre-existing libraries, so it's actually not that difficult to do 3D on the DS. It's a natural shift.

"In terms of environments or stages, there will be a total of eight different environments. One of them is unique to the [North American version]."—Nobby Matsuo

Will there be any side-step or evasive maneuvers that could only be done now that the game is in 3D?

NM: You'll be able to step into the plane and out of the plane. You're looking from a three-quarters perspective, so all the moves that you can see can be represented on your DS.

What are some of the items (power-ups) being featured?

NM: There are a total of about 15 different items. They may give you more health, or Chakra, an additional meter that allows you to do special attacks. You can reload your Chakra. Other items will increase your defense, so you won't take as much damage.

"Most of the characters have one major Jutsu they can use. That's the cinematic one. Some of the characters have smaller Jutsu that aren't cinematic that use Chakra."--Nobby Matsuo

Can you tell us about the button layout? The attack commands, character movement, etc.

NM: We have two different types of attacks. We have the heavy attack and light attack, a button for jump and one for special attack. In addition to that you'll be using the touch screen that has an additional six blocks, which work like buttons. You can tap on them and those contain your power-ups. You also have the shoulder buttons to block and to unleash your substitutions.

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