Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

Metachronos overall score = 8.3 / 10

Positive
- City of Konoha is awesomely fun to explore
- Nice contrast between cartoony characters and more-realistic environments
- Jutsu abilities make standard fighting-game action more interesting
- Great special attacks
- Outstanding visuals designs
- Original sound and music makes it more friendly

Negative
- Jarring transitions between 2D cutscenes and 3D gameplay
- Story feels short and doesn't quite convey the scope of the events
- Lots of interesting gameplay ideas, few of which are fleshed out enough

For the number of games based on the wildly popular Naruto anime and manga series over the past few years, none have made much of a concerted effort to appeal to players outside of the admittedly large and well-established fan base, particularly to potential fans in the US. Given that most Naruto games rely on somewhat threadbare genre staples such as one-on-one fighters and beat-'em-ups, there has been for the most part little appeal outside of the license. Ubisoft's Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the Xbox 360 distinguishes itself from its predecessors in a number of ways. It's the first Naruto game developed outside of Japan, and it attempts to approach the source material in a way that would make it digestible for Naruto neophytes. Rise of a Ninja also aims for a much larger scope, with a detailed realization of Naruto's hometown of Konoha and a number of distinct gameplay elements. As much fun as it is to use Naruto's developing ninja abilities to explore the city, the game spreads itself a little thin in parts.

Most of the game plays from a standard third-person perspective, but whenever the situation calls for you to fight an opponent, Rise of a Ninja cuts away to a straight-up fighting game. The action here tends to favor familiarity and simplicity, though the way your jutsu abilities can be used during a fight creates a unique dynamic. It takes time to charge up your jutsu, and your enemy can cancel out the process with an attack, which makes it all but necessary for you to knock your opponent to the ground to buy the time you need to trigger your jutsu. Although you can use all three types of jutsu in combat, the shadow clone jutsu is the only one that's directly offensive, a fact that makes it a fixture of virtually every fight. Once activated, the shadow clone jutsu turns into a kind of minigame where you hit a series of face buttons at the start of the attack, and then repeat that sequence at specific points during its execution. It's a pretty awesome process to watch, with multiple power levels that produce lengthier, more damaging attacks, though you'll do it so often that you'll end up seeing the same animation sequences repeatedly.



You'll do plenty of fighting in Rise of a Ninja, occasionally against significant characters from the show. However, more often than not you'll be fighting the same handful of nameless bandits and ninjas that occupy the areas outside Konoha, which isn't nearly as much fun. This fighting-game core is the basis for the multiplayer modes in Rise of a Ninja, and the combat is more engaging in this context. You can play as 10 other major characters, each with unique fighting styles and jutsu abilities, which in turn come with their own unique minigame processes. You can play against the game or another live opponent locally, and there's also Xbox Live support. In addition to a standard quick match, the online mode features an interesting ranked-match tournament called the Forest of Death Exam. Here, you have to fight your way through a series of live opponents, and you complete the exam when you're able to win six fights in a row. Just about everything you do in Rise of a Ninja is pretty cool for a while, and the game's rendition of Konoha is downright impressive, but many of the secondary gameplay elements could've stood to be more fleshed-out. Still, Rise of a Ninja is a no-brainer for fans, and its relatively unique blend of open-world exploration, platforming, and fighting-game mechanics will lend it a certain appeal to Naruto first-timers as well.















BOXSHOT: http://www.tothegame.com/boxshot.asp?picnum=us&id=5252

looks good for a naruto game

it's the best yet. too bad it's not a ps2 game. the best aren't released on the ps2

looks awsome!

i know

i know that you know!

and i know that you know and you think that i know cause i know that you know.

and i know that you suck lol

i''l see you monday. at school. if i remember

lol ;p

Wow an naruto game

there are most on the ps2

Corza wrote:

Wow an naruto game

their are tons

too bad the good ones are in japanise

yeah and same of the worst are on the ps2 and gba

god of destiny wrote:

yeah and same of the worst are on the ps2 and gba

gba lol!

i don't know why they bother creating hand helds

psp is hand held

god of destiny wrote:

psp is hand held

yeah whats the point of making a hand held?

the psp is hand held, that's was i was telling you. good games and crisis core is only on the psp. i'm gonna .........

god of destiny wrote:

the psp is hand held, that's was i was telling you. good games and crisis core is only on the psp. i'm gonna .........

lolz

but not a lot...most good games are on consels(ps2,xbox etc) psp is very good for a hand held but why bother even creating a hand held? i mean where else would you play exept at home?

when on a holiday

god of destiny wrote:

when on a holiday

you can take your ps2 unless your going to a hotel

or on a long journey

god of destiny wrote:

or on a long journey

and that happens like once a year?

ok then, everyday on the school bus. whatever, ask somebody that has a psp

god of destiny wrote:

ok then, everyday on the school bus. whatever, ask somebody that has a psp

most people who have a psp play it at home

whats the point?

eh o well