Is it any surprise that there is yet another Naruto videogame coming out? I mean, it's arguably the most popular anime series currently airing, and cosplayers everywhere gobble up every volume of the manga whenever it's released. So why should you care about another Naruto game on the DS? Oh, I don't know, how about the first ever 3D Naruto fighter available for Nintendo's portable system. Yeah, I thought you'd perk up at that. Killer Betties was lucky enough to be involved with a conference call recently, where the game's associate producer at Tomy – Nobby Matsuo – answered our questions and shed some light on Naruto's next big game.

Some fans may already be familiar with the game as it originally appeared in Japan, where many complained that the framerate was unbearable and chugged at a very sluggish speed. If you think the North American markets are getting the exact same product, however, you'd be sadly mistaken. "Naruto: Ninja Destiny is the very first DS 3D fighter for the Naruto series, and it was released in Japan, and when we brought it over here to the US the developers had more time to work on it so the frame-rate has been improved since the Japanese release and I think that is the biggest part of the game, as the feelings of sluggishness, slowdown and unresponsiveness have all been covered due to the frame-rate and improved performance." Though the framerate was the biggest improvement, the developers also decided to tweak and fix another thing while they were at it. "Another thing is the story mode is completely different from the Japanese one, because as I recall the Japanese one was original but kind of lame, so we went ahead and took out that version and adapted it for the game."

When it comes to Naruto games, players generally always want to know the exact same two questions: 1) What characters am I going to get to play as, and 2) How far into the series does the story go?" First up, regarding the characters, Nobby Matsuo told us, "The Japanese version had about 13 characters and we went ahead and added more characters to it, so we added three additional characters so we're at about 16 right now. Most people have already figured it out, but it's essentially the Sanin from the TV series – Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya." However, as he soon added, not every character is going to come easy for the player. "Primarily the unlockables are all characters. You start with the default seven available characters, so you have nine characters you have to try and figure out how to unlock."

When it comes to the newly implemented story, fans should be quite familiar with what to expect, at least as long as you don't go expecting anything you have seen yet. "Unfortunately for us the game is releasing next month, so we aren't permitted by the license to go ahead of the story, so we will only be going as far as to when we are releasing the game. We are probably going up to about episode 100, but content wise you'll see stuff from around episode 140." But what about players new to the franchise who aren't familiar with the story already of Naruto? Will they be able to get in and enjoy the game? "The story mode may be a bit difficult for people just jumping in, as it takes place from the Chunin Exams and up from them, but for those unfamiliar they can jump into the versus battle mode, pick a character you like and think is cool, and jump in with your friends, so you don't need any Naruto knowledge to really get into the game."

Given the DS' unique touchscreen capabilities, one wonders just what the controls of the game will be and how the touchscreen will be used. "You'll have two different types of attacks: heavy attack and light attack. You have a button for jump and another for special attack. In addition to that you'll use the touchscreen, which has an additional six slots that will contain the powerups you are dealt. And also you have the shoulder buttons to block and use the substitution jutsu like you do in Ninja Revolution. There are a total of about 15 items you can choose from, which range from giving you more health or chakra – there is a different meter there that lets you do special attacks – and you can reload on your chakra, increase your defense so you don't take as much damage, another one that allows you to do more damage, so those are the general ones." A few extra facts for good measure is the fact that each character will have approximately eight to ten combos, and just like regular console 3D fighters, players will be able to move into and out of the foreground and background with sidesteps. Also, if you're familiar with the Ninja Revolution series of Naruto games, you should feel right at home with Ninja Destiny as the game has a similar feel and takes inspiration from that series.

With Naruto games constantly hitting the system as popular 2D fighters and the 3D installments sticking to the consoles, the question was brought up why it was decided to break the norm and come out with a 3D Naruto fighter for the DS. "Why not? We've done 2D games and I think later on we're going to run into a question where we're going to be asked were there any difficulties in doing a 3D game for the DS. What I've discovered is – I'm not a huge technological genius or anything, it's not like I go in and program the games, I work as the producer for it – but what I've learned when it comes to the DS is that there are a lot of libraries to help the DS make a lot of polygons, a lot of existing libraries, so it's not that hard to work with 3D on the DS. It's a natural shift."

Though there is a hearty single-player mode to keep fans happy and unlocking new characters, there is also a multiplayer wireless mode to really excite fans, where two friends with two cartridges of the game and come together and battle it out. As Nobby put it to us, he thinks that is ultimately what's going to set Ninja Destiny apart from the rest of the crowd. "The biggest thing is that it's one of those 3D games you can take in your pocket and take it with you and get playing with another friend through wireless. The heart of the game is the single-player most of time, but honestly the heart of the game for me is the wireless battle mode; it's just incredibly fun connecting with your friends and playing on the go wherever you want, so that's probably the biggest draw for this game."