Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 starts off at the beginning of the new
Shippuden series that takes place several years after Naruto has left the village to go training. Upon returning to the Hidden Leaf, he briefly catches up with his old friends and then goes off to the Village Hidden in the Sand to rescue Gaara (who has risen to the rank of kazekage in the intervening years). It seems Naruto's old rival has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki because he possesses the One-Tailed Beast, Shikaku. Joining Naruto on his mission is Kakashi and Sakura, but before the brief Story Mode wraps up, characters like Grandma Chiyo and Kanakuro will join the fight against Akatsuki members Deidara and Sasori. While the game's story does end at the conclusion of the Rescue Gaara arc, there are a few other fights thrown in to help appease fans. These include fights with Sakura, Hidan and Kakuzu, Sai, Yamato and let's not forget to mention the four exclusive characters created for
Clash of Ninja Revolution 2.
Unfortunately, or fortunately when you consider the difficulty of the mode, the game's Story Mode doesn't last all that long. If you can get past the few very difficult fights without taking up too much time, you should find yourself through each of this mode's events in an hour or so. Just because you've run through it once though doesn't mean you are really done with this mode since it is the quickest way to unlock all of the other characters (a total of 40) in the game. What is a pain though are the tough conditions you have to meet in order to have these characters available for purchase, and then the tough task of saving up enough paltry winnings in order to actually buy them.
Outside of the Story Mode, the main draw of Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is the series' new online capabilities. Using the Wi-Fi network, you can take your fights online in ranked or unranked matches against either random people or members of your friends and rival lists. The main problem here, and it's one that the few online Wii games come across, is the laggy and painful nature of online gaming over a wireless connection, and when you are talking about a fighting game that requires the kind of precision CONR3 does, only those who have been able to work through the lag are going to be able to stand on their own two feet in this mode.
