Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

Naruto has a huge following in Japan, even bigger than DragonBall Z or Yu-Gi-Oh!  The series' popularity has followed to the States since Naruto’s arrival in 2005.  The orange-jumpsuit wearing Ninja and his cast of colorful characters has been a major success.

Naruto has had a huge success in the video game realm in Japan as well.  Numerous games for the Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, and Nintendo DS have been released in Japan.  A good portion of those have been localized for distribution here.  It only makes sense since it only takes some dialogue translation and new voice acting.  However, those that imported Naruto: Shinobi Retsuden were concerned with the amount of slowdown in the title.  Has the slowdown issue been corrected, and can this licensed Naruto game be good?

You wouldn’t expect 3D graphics from the Nintendo DS, but there have been a few 3D titles released for the handheld like Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam.  Ninja Destiny uses 3D graphics, but also uses cel shading to keep the style of anime intact.  The result is impressive, making your characters look like their animated counterparts.  While the textures don’t have a high level of detail, there is enough there to give them depth.  Occasionally there are a few times when the shading makes the characters look a bit off, like at the end of the finishing move of Tsunade, but the 3D cel shading was definitely the right style to go with.

When I first saw screenshots of Ninja Destiny, I was a bit concerned at how blocky the graphics looked.  However, after seeing the game in action I realized that the blown-up screen shots were just too big to show off the graphics of Ninja Destiny.  When you watch the action on the DS screen, the small screen helps make the graphics look better.  It also helps that the animations are smooth.  The developers mentioned that they did extra work on these, and it shows.  It feels like the animations could have almost come directly from the anime itself.  Each of the characters’ moves followed the moves of the character of the show instead of using the same canned animation for every punch and kick.  This shows me a lot of attention to detail went into the graphics of the game.  There are also nice particle effects popping up during attacks, especially the special attacks.  These add an extra punch to the already good graphics.

The menu option music in Ninja Destiny has an oriental flavor but still manages to be upbeat.  Once the matches start however, the music gets faster and louder, mimicking the action on the screen.  It still matches the feel of the series, having both an modern and ancient feel to it.

Ninja Destiny does contain a few voice acting samples, but these are only heard during the fighting matches.  While it’s nice to have the voice samples, they only are the sounds of fighting or being hit.  You don’t hear any kinds of words from the characters that give them personality.  You don’t even hear a single, “Believe it!” from Naruto.  The story mode doesn’t include any voice acting at all, where it could have been most beneficial.  The voices are soft and hard to understand most of the time, especially after the match is finished.

Fighting veterans shouldn’t have any problems with controlling their characters.  The D-pad controls movement, B does a weak attack, X does a strong attack, Y jumps, and R blocks.  The L button performs a move that transports your character behind the character you are fighting against.  Hitting A performs the character’s special move when you have enough Chakra stored up.  The controls are responsive and make movement simple.

The bottom screen contains six power ups that can be used during the match to give you power ups.  These power ups include more health, more Chakra, or increasing your attack strength.  These buttons are easy to push and react quickly to your touch.  This is important when the fighting is moving fast and you have to weigh the pros and cons of whether or not to move your thumb away from the face buttons to touch one of the touch-screen buttons.

Ninja Destiny includes three single player modes.  The Story mode lets you live out the battles from certain episodes of the series.  The Player vs. CPU mode lets you choose your character and the character you fight against.  The Single Player mode lets you choose a character and the computer randomly chooses a sequence of battles that gets tougher the further you advance.

The problem with all of these modes is that they are all very short.  During the Story mode you change off which character you play against, but it shortens the story arc of several episodes of the show to something that can last less than a half-hour if you have good fighting skills.  The Player vs. CPU mode lets you practice your skills against another opponent, but once you are done you have to go back and select your opponents again.  It’s good practice, but it feels kind of pointless.  The Single Player mode has you go through a sequence of one-on-one fights, but you could go all the way back to Street Fighter II for a similar experience.  There isn’t any kind of connection between the fights.

The lack of modes is disappointing because the fighting in Ninja Destiny is really good.  The main objective is to bring your opponent’s life gauge down to zero before your life gauge does.  Your standard punches and kicks are used to whittle down your life gauges.  Each hit and block also fills up your Chakra Meter.  To quickly move behind your opponent, you need to have enough Chakra to make that move.  When you are getting hit constantly by your opponent, moving behind and making a surprise attack can give you an easy shot at them.  Sometimes you’ll see this switching happen a couple of time and it almost feels as chaotic as the battles in DragonBall Z: Budokai 3.

The Special Attacks require your Chakra Meter to be completely full.  If you are able to perform the special attack, the reward is well worth it.  These special attacks are based on the moves of the characters in the anime.  These Special Attacks take at least a little over a quarter of the opponent’s life gauge, but certain characters have Special Attacks that can take away over half on an opponent’s life gauge.

The power up system that gives you extra Chakra or health or increases your attack power or defenses gives Ninja Destiny a bit more strategy than other fighting games.  Certain power ups increase your life points, from a quarter to a full life bar.  Other power ups increase your Chakra meter.  Some power ups increase both.  Certain power ups temporarily increase your attack power or defensive power.  Other power ups cause your opponent to be unable to block or use Chakra.  These can come in during the most opportune moments, but there are only six pwer ups available for the entire match.  Also, these power ups are given out randomly.  It would have been nice if Ninja Destiny used a similar deck system to Bleach: The Blade of Fate.

Two difficulty levels are available in Ninja Destiny.  The default Normal setting is pretty easy, especially for seasoned fighters.  While you might lose an occasional round, you won’t lose matches that often.  It also doesn’t feel like the AI uses the cards during the matches, making the game much easier.  The Hard difficulty is more of a challenge, but not overly so.

The three available single-player modes are short.  They story mode can be completed easily in a half-hour.  It would have been more interesting to be able to have multiple storylines for each of the characters.  This would have made the story line worth going through more than once.  This makes Ninja Destiny hard to recommend for the single-player modes alone.

There are seven characters available at the start of the game, but there are a total of sixteen characters available.  The other nine are unlocked as you play through the game.  It's a nice number to unlock, but the game isn't clear in how to unlock them.

Ninja Destiny includes a wireless multiplayer option.  While this mode requires each player to have the game, the multiplayer is seamless.  If you and a friend both have a Nintendo DS and are either fighting fans or fans of Naruto, Ninja Destiny will provide several hours of fun.

Playing Naruto: Ninja Destiny is fun and frustrating at the same time.  Ninja Destiny has a great fighting engine which is deep enough for seasoned fighters but still fun for newcomers.  The characters and animations look good, and the card system gives it some depth.  Multiplayer with others is a lot of fun.  Still, with the disappointing sound samples and the short single-player experience, it’s difficult to wholeheartedly recommend Ninja Destiny unless you have a friend who enjoys fighting games or you are a huge fan of Naruto.  I can’t wait for the sequel though, because I believe that a lot of these issues could be resolved and we could see one of the best games for the Nintendo DS come out.

Gaming Trend Score

76

1. Graphics: 82
2. Audio: 72
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 74
5. Value/Replay: 65
6. OVERALL:76