Naruto rise of a ninja is a game that does a lot of things in a descent
and accessible for the mainstream audience. The gameplay follows along
with the series and switches from game graphics to actual clips and it
blends real well.
The game uses HD and blends it with anime in a way that you would want.
The City and environment looks colorful and vibrant and doesn't give
you a generic view of the place your, in and allows you to manuever
quite easily. The character models look good, with the story driven
characters carrying much more focus and the regular citizens looking
really generic and sometimes even identical. The in battle mini games
that occur during your special moves are also done real well and add
more excitement to the game.
Naruto's sound is done well. It captures every action in a fun way. A
big problem is the music is limited to only a few tracks that you'll
remember for the mere fact that you have to hear them over and over
everytime something important happens.
Gameplay is done with platforming elements which will have you running
around jumping and using chakra to go through traps and get to
objectives. You also can deliver ramen, race, and more importantly
fight. The bulk of the main story gameplay consists of old school
arcade style fighting in which you use combos and jutsus to defeat your
oppenent. The combat doesn't fell like you have much control and if you
are playing on a hard difficulty your jutsus are about useless as you
gain hardly time the your buttons right to get good scores on the mini
games. There are also online battles and arcade style single player
tournaments, but the fighting isn't so in depth as to keep you
entertained without wanting to take a break in between battles for
something else as you would do with the story mode.
Nartuto is a good step in the direction that the series needs to go.
The game seems to be made toward the less hardcore gamers that watch
naruto, but it has just enough depth to keep you going through the very
short story mode, and may even tempt you to fight some battles. After
you'll go through the story you'll probably get your fill and want
something with more depth.
