Right up front, you should know something about Clash of Ninja Revolution: It is not a port of Gekitou

Ninja Taisen 3 on the GameCube. Nor is it quite Taisen EX; it's set in the future Naruto Shippuuden universe. The game engine is taken from EX, however, so if you've played that you should have an idea of what to expect. By sticking with the standard Naruto universe, D3 and Eighting are making it something that will presumably bridge the gap between Taisen 2 and 3.

The game will include at least 16 characters and six stages to duke it out in. The stages have a hint of interactivity to them, described by D3 representatives as similar to those found in Tecmo's Dead or Alive series: Crates and other objects in the middle of arenas can be used for cover or to vaulted over to initiate attacks or used, and although I didn't see it in my demo time with the game there will also be multi-tiered arenas to knock each other through.

I got to play a few matches against a tough computer opponent at E3, and the game looks good and plays well. It plays pretty much like the GameCube games did, but with the addition of some Wii motion controls for regular attacks and special moves. Wii remote flicks perform the basic kicks and punches. The A Button unleashes stronger attacks, and the D-Pad activates special jutsu moves. Pulling these off requires you to follow the prompt that appears on-screen, and if you're timing is good you'll boost the power of the move. The jutsu I tried out was Nartuo's Rasengan technique, which requires a rotation motion of the Wii remote. If you're at all familiar with the jutsu from the TV show, you'll know how much the motion makes sense in the game.

The rotation motion control worked quite well, as did the regular attacks. Though there will be a lot of waggling during gameplay, just waving the Wii remote around like a madman isn't going to do much to help you win. Just as in every other (respectable) fighting game, you'll need to make the most of your opportunities, get in your combos, and prevent your opponent from doing the same to you. The Naruto games have gotten better and better since the first one was released in Japan four years ago, and now that Eighting has a Wii game under its belt it can apply its experience to this new game for the North American market. Based on what I've seen it could very well be better than Clash of Ninja 2, but in case you're a stickler for traditional controllers, you can plug in a GameCube or Wii classic controller and play the game that way instead. Sweet.