E3 Impressions: TOMY Corporation

At the TOMY booth I was shown two Naruto games and Pangya for the PSP.  Unfortunately due to exhaustion I was falling asleep during the Pangya section so I don’t have any real notes on it.  If you’re interested in that game I suggest visiting an outlet that covers the PSP.

NARUTO Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (Wii)

If you’re a Naruto fan as I’ve become over the last few months, you’ve been waiting patiently for a Naruto game that finally begins to touch on the second series of the anime, Naruto Shippuden.  This game in particular however only covers the Gaara recovery arc of the story, meaning other villians from the antagonist organization Akatsuki won’t be in the game more than likely.  I wasn’t able to get a straight answer from the demonstrator on that which means they could be hidden characters.

The game itself is pretty much what Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 was except it’s set a few years later.  Naruto and company are older and their skills have improved with training.  In the game you’ll notice the characters are older and have different attacks.  Everything else seems to be intact, handicap settings, controls, and co-op.  Even the length of time in story mode is approximately the same.

One thing that has bothered me with these games however is the lack of the original Japanese voice tracks.  CONR 3 also suffers from this unfortunately and is in English only.  Aside from that however, those who did enjoy the last version as a fighting game will most likely want to check out the updated roster and newer story in this one.

NARUTO Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2 (DS)

This sequel to Ninja Destiny also on the Nintendo DS is a fighter that shares a bit with the first.  It’s a 3-D fighter that allows you to take the role of any one of 30 characters in the game.  Battles you fight allow you to gain experience while going through Story Mode will not yield this.  The length of Story Mode is approxiatemly 6-8 hours while Quest Mode, which does allow XP gains, is quite long with no specific clock time given.

The items are the same according to the demonstrator, though I wasn’t able to see for myself as time was short.  Items aren’t character specific so if you gain a few and decide you want to switch to another character, you’ll be able to use them with that selection.  Also the touch screen will allow you to use said items.

I’m interested to see how the RPG elements pan out in this game.  Usually I don’t care for random encounters, but perhaps this is where I can enjoy them with a franchise I can get into.