Naruto: Ninja Destiny Interview
By: Eric M. Martin |
Sunday January 27, 2008 |
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The minds at Tomy present us with the first 3-D Naruto fighting game for the Nintendo DS |
| Konichiwa, gamers! This one’s for all the Naruto fans, as well as those who really dig fighting games. We were given a special treat from Tomy. Naruto: Ninja Destiny will come charging onto the Nintendo DS, making it the first 3-D Naruto title to ever appear on Nintendo’s beloved portable console. According to some of the staff at Tomy, that is part of the reason. They want to give players a Naruto title that they can take with them wherever they go. Amongst the other various parties invited to the conference call, Static Multimedia got to share some time with Laura Yoshioka, director of Tomy consumer software, associate producer Nobby Matsuo, and production specialist Glenn Stotz. Together, they expanded our knowledge of Tomy’s latest Naruto adventure that is scheduled for release in late February of 2008. The story of Naruto: Ninja Destiny starts in Japan with its initial release. Over one year has been spent on localization and improvement of the title before releasing it onto North American shores. In that time, Tomy promises first and foremost a noticeable difference in the framerate between both titles. Reaction times and button controls have also increased, thus allowing for a more intense pacing that many people in North America have come to expect in fighting games. Naruto: Ninja Destiny has three modes, one of which is local multiplayer. The Story Mode has been changed for the North American release in order to fit in with the current timeline of the Naruto series. According to Tomy, the Japanese release had an original storyline for Story Mode. However, the original story did not seem to captivate audiences as well as intended. So, Tomy has taken a step to incorporate Story mode into the existing Naruto canon, and has not advanced beyond existing plot according to the license. During the conversation, several of the questions posed by Static Multimedia were answered both directly and indirectly during conversation. For your reading pleasure, here are the answers to the main questions posed by Static Multimedia in regards to this title: Static Multimedia: What was the largest programming hurdle in designing a 3-D fighter for the Nintendo DS? Tomy: What we’ve learned with a lot of the DS software is that there are a lot of pre-exisiting libraries to help represent a lot of polygons, so it’s not that hard to re-create a three dimensional environment for the DS. Static Multimedia: What exactly will be displayed on both screens during actual gameplay? Tomy: The top screen shows the action, while the bottom screen is for power-ups. Static Multimedia: Are actual combat maneuvers going to be executed using primarily the touch screen, or will it be a combination of touch screen and button controls? Tomy: There are separate buttons for heavy attack, light attack, jump and special attack. The shoulder buttons will be used to block. The touch screen will have six slots that you can use to store powerups and tap to activate. The touch screen will be used strictly for the power-up slots. Static Multimedia: Sometimes, players complain that the DS touch screen controls on certain games are either too sensitive or not accurate enough. If you can describe them, what steps have been taken to maximize touch screen efficiency? Tomy: The buttons are very, very big. There’s a lot of space on the touch screen to fit six big buttons for the aforementioned power-up storage and use. Hopefully, this is enough of a glance to warrant a severe interest in Naruto: Ninja Destiny. One thing is for certain: Tomy has promised that the future for Naruto, as far as they are concerned, is more, more, more! This is not the beginning, and it does not appear to be anywhere near the end. Tomy proposes the improvement of a unique fighting experience instead of a mere adaptation of a pre-existing North American release. Don’t go into this title with pre-conceived notions just because you have played an Ubisoft or Namco Bandai title from the same license. Naruto: Ninja Destiny, available only for the Nintendo DS, is planned for a release in late February. |
