Holy cow, what's the deal with all the Naruto news? First Ninja Council 3 hits the DS, then a new DS RPG is announced days later and today we've got the first screens and a name change for Wii's introductory Naruto title. Perhaps next week we'll actually go a whole day without writing something about the orange-clad ninja and his melodramatic buddies.

As you can see below (or by clicking the Images tab up top), the first images from Clash of Ninja Revolution look a lot like the past two GameCube games. Don't expect a drastic visual overhaul with the new game, just a few extra bells and whistles like multi-layered battlegrounds that let you bash opponents from one stage to the next. It'll still be four players, just as the last was, and will feature more than 14 playable characters from the anime. This custom-built title also has new animations and special attacks that have never been seen before - that's good news for fans tired of getting years-old ports from Japan.

Still, Clash of Ninja Revolution is more or less a port of the new-in-Japan Clash of Ninja EX. The catch is that EX is way too far ahead in the storyline to bring over here just yet, so it's forcing publisher TOMY's hand to create something new. We went over EX quite thoroughly right here.

There will of course be minigames in the Wii version, but that kind of goes without saying. Look for more as the Naruto hype wagon chugs into full speed.

June 1, 2007