Last week, I was fortunate enough to sit in on a conference call with Glenn Stotz, a product manager with TOMY regarding their upcoming Naruto title, Clash of the Ninja Revolution 2 on the Wii. He covered a few new pieces of interesting information on the title, and spoke about a few new features of interest.

First off, Glenn mentioned that they've based this sequel off an original plot, based around the television series with new characters and stages. The game will take place entierly in the Naruto universe, and the development team has placed a lot of emphasis on making the story original while retaining the style of the show through collaberation with Naruto's artists. We've put together a few other interesting points of note from the call.

• The game will utilize "hand signs" with the Wiimotes to activate transformations and other boosts. While I haven't seen it in action, it'll be interesting how it translates on-screen.
• The sequel contains all of the modes of the first, as well as a new Kumite mode which is a variation on the traditional survival mode.
• The development team has focused on original content, rather then past naruto games which have typically revolved around the franchise content.
• Clash 2 will support play with various control schemes, including the classic controller (obviously without the hand signs).
• It's the first four player Naruto fighting game, but unfortunately, no online play this time around.
• Given the original story, Glenn continued with a note that the voice acting will be done with the American voices (sorry hardcore fans).

Thanks to Glenn for sitting through the barrage of questions and providing these interesting tidbits of information. Naruto: Clash of the Ninja 2 is set to ship later this fall.