Game:

Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (2009)

Duration: 16:08

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7

The person who arrives at the opponent select screen first will obviously see an empty roster of seeking opponents. Then the other player will enter in search of opponents and thus get the game's matchmaking routines to do a check and update of the possible opponents available... in other words, the first player already seeking. The person who got there first will get a positive result later, either because of a regular-interval repeat check or in response to the first player having noticed them and thus sent them a challenge.

For the initial set of matches, you can clearly see that I was the one keeping my opponent waiting, and thus I was presented with the first refresh of the online statuses, so I was given first crack at pitching the invite. The other times, I got in place early... or at the very least, my game did its initial scan first and came up with nothing.

And now you have endured a brief exercise in analyzing the way the little gears beneath the uninteresting between-connections interfaces operate... which, of course, for lack of any means of actually testing my hypotheses, is completely pointless anyway. But I like that sort of thing, and if you didn't enjoy it or feel that somehow a portion of your valuable life's duration has been wasted... sorry? (I'm not, though.)

I do think that a little bit of critical analysis is for the best when it comes to THIS game's online menu interfaces, though... because... well, the feedback is entirely symbolic and not really logically indicative of what it's trying to tell you... or at least what I THINK it's trying to tell us. Everything I "know" has been from experience and (possibly mis)informed deduction, and even THAT could fill several descriptions.

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Anyway, we're here in Two Man Squad! I've finally put my finger on my feelings towards this mode after so long... and knowing me, I probably already had it there once and explained it, but I'm on a roll for wasting valuable description space on things NOT (directly) related to the action at hand, so here we go some more! (There's always NEXT description, right?!)

In a nutshell... you get twice as many characters doing their crazy awesome ninja stuff in half the time, since there's not multiple rounds to consider... okay, fine, you get longer than a normal singles round, because you'll have two characters and you can switch and conceivably hold out even longer... and TECHNICALLY the default time setting is 60 counts for Single and 120 for Two Man Squad... but you'll never have three "rounds" and all the incidental in-between aspects don't add up. So it IS shorter even on the theoretical level. Kinda. I guess. Deal with it!

The "problem" for me in this setting is that the singles action is already overwhelming as it is, what with the 40 incredibly diverse characters... now I've got to learn the suddenly even-more-important specifics of the mode arching well over even that.

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Match #1 -- Nine-Tailed Fox Room
Kisame Hoshigaki and Baki (Brett)
vs.
Kiba Inuzuka and Anko Mitarashi (Ms. Mutou)

So, to explain... basically I have to reinvent the wheel by remembering which directions coupled with the partner button (which is itself a direction on the control pad) does what variation of the actions I might want... when I already have trouble coming up with character-specific jutsu variations (and the jutsu button is in fact the direction button across from the partner button in this mode)...

For the record: it's no direction held for a simple tag, holding back while tagging to have the incoming character perform an attack while entering, holding down to have the standby character pop in for an assist attack, and holding forward to attempt a cinematic combination attack. Even having written it out now, I'm sure I won't remember it, though.

I rather like how Baki's wind effects persisted erroneously here.

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Match #2 -- Third Training Field
Gaara and Kabuto Yakushi (Brett)
vs.
Kankuro and Kabuto Yakushi (Ms. Mutou)

This battle was just kinda fun while I was feeling things out.

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Match #3 -- Final Valley
Jiraiya and Choji Akimichi (Brett)
vs.
ANBU Kakashi Hatake and Hidan (Ms. Mutou)

Brett's team is way more fun than mine... "fun" is a way better motivator than overpoweredness (on paper).

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Match #4 -- Akatsuki Hideout
Deidara and Shino Aburame (Brett)
vs.
Gaara and Sasuke Uchiha (Ms. Mutou)

I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything, it was all the considerable powers of my characters and Brett's (apparent?) relative discomfort with the two he drew.

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Match #5 -- Shirato Street
Yamato and Sakura Haruno (Brett)
vs.
Shino Aburame and Yugao Uzuki (Ms. Mutou)

I'm far more comfortable with Shino, though... but that means I should've taken better care of him so I didn't get "stuck" with Yugao instead, huh?

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Match #6 -- Intersection
Kagura and Hiruko (Brett)
vs.
Asuma Sarutobi and Naruto Uzumaki (Ms. Mutou)

Two Man Squad matches make it way too easy to get a full meter super mode activated.

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