Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

“Believe it!!!”

That’s the catch phrase of the main character Naruto, star of his own anime series now playing on Cartoon Network.  In the series, Ninjas wear hunter-orange colored jumpsuits and the latest sneakers or other non-black outfits.  They also don’t have to worry about being silent, use chakra for special abilities, and perform special hand movements called jutsu to enhance physical attacks.  Not to mention all the guys have spiky hair.

While the show only started airing last year in the States, its following is almost approaching the same kind of fandom as Dragon Ball Z.  While the series is relatively new, it’s been a staple for Japan since 2000.  Because of that, four Naruto games have already come out for the Gamecube while one has only been available on American shores without importing.  Now the PlayStation 2 is getting its own game Naruto: Ultimate Ninja.

It is a bit disappointing that the intro movie is the same as the intro for the current airings of Naruto.  A montage of the characters in action on the screen performing combo moves would have been a bit more exciting.

In between each match, you can see the characters talk to each other.  These scenes are almost like the old days of RPG games with talking heads on screen with a minimal amount of lip animation.  Occasionally you’ll see some expression other than the default one, but it doesn’t happen very often.

The three-dimensional characters are faithfully rendered to match their anime counterparts.  Their movements match those of the characters in the show and are animated very well.  When using a special chakra attack, the screen changes to a solid background with white lines moving behind them, just like you’d expect from an anime series.  The moves performed match those you’d find from the show.  Still the characters do have a bit of a boxy look to them which is especially evident during their special move animations.

The backgrounds while fighting recreate scenes familiar to those who have watched Naruto.  The developers paid a lot of attention to match the backgrounds of the show to the game.  There are also a lot of details within the game.  Wood has grain to it.  Grass has shades in it and floors are tiled.  Still there are some areas where the game doesn’t have the detail that it should, but it looks a lot better than you’d expect a licensed game to be.

The music has a mystic, ancient vibe to it.  A wood flute and stringed instrument play the main melody, while the deep drums keep the beat in the background.  While you might not feel as if that sounds like appropriate music for a fighting game, it actually has a zen-like quality to it, and the flute melody picks up when the fighting starts.  The music doesn’t overpower the action, but it adds a lot to the action.

The voice acting is done by the voice cast of the show.  That might be good or bad depending on your perspective.  The voice of Naruto is particularly annoying, especially if you haven’t caught the show before.  The voice acting is mostly spot on, but there are times when the intensity of the voice doesn’t match with the action on screen.  Also, each character has a partner during the fights to help them during the match.  It’s not uncommon to hear something coming from all four characters at the same time, making it hard to understand what each character is saying.

The control scheme is more akin to the Dragon Ball Z Budokai series than Street Fighter, which you’d expect from a game like this.  Movement is controlled with the left analog stick or D-pad.   X jumps, Circle attacks, Square uses items, and Triangle prepares secret techniques.  The L1 and R1 buttons toggles the items in your possession.  The L2 and R2 buttons guard against attacks.

Combos are performed using a combination of Circle button presses and the D-pad (or left analog stick).  This actually makes the moves simpler to perform and lets just about anyone have a fighting chance at the game.

Hitting the Triangle button once, twice, or three times causes your character to glow in different colors.  If you can get a clean shot against the enemy, you go to the secret technique screen.  Here you have a column on your side of the screen with different face buttons to hit in sequence.  Most of the time the response was good, but there were times when I felt that the button presses weren’t quite registered correctly.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja contains several modes to play.  Scenario lets you play as a single character and complete a storyline for that character.  Mission mode has several objectives for you to complete.  Practice mode lets you select a character to control and another to spar against.  Free Battle lets you play similar to an arcade game where you can play against the computer or another player.  You gain money while playing, and you can use that money in the Shop to buy items, and you can view those items at Naruto’s House.

At its heart, Naruto is a fighting game.  However, it includes some features that aren’t found in many other fighting games.  First you have two planes on each level on which you can fight.  You can change which plane you fight on at a moment’s notice.  Sometimes this is advantageous if you need to get away from an attack.

Support characters show up on the screen during the fights.  These characters show up and often give you items to help you in your fight.  These items can be weapons, items to replenish your health or scrolls that will turn you invisible or increase your speed, attack power, or defense.  You can also get items by breaking environmental objects.

Items can be used while fighting.  Every character some kind of throwing weapon by default.  Other items can be used to decrease your opponent’s speed, summon your support character to attack your opponent, upgrade your default weapon, or teleports you directly behind your opponent.

While you have a health gauge, underneath it on the screen is the chakra gauge.  This gauge determines which Secret Technique you can use.  Hitting Triangle once makes you glow red and activates Secret Technique 1.  Hitting Triangle twice makes you glow purple and activates Secret Technique 2.  Hitting Triangle three times makes you glow blue and activates Secret Technique 3.  The higher the technique, the more powerful it is.  To successfully pull off the Secret Technique, you need to hit your opponent cleanly.  Once that is done, you go to the Secret Techique animation.  A gauge on the side of the screen shows button presses to perform.  If you are the attacker, successfully completing the button presses lets your attack go to the next level.  Secret Techniques can have up to three possible levels.  On the last level of the attack, you can cause critical damage to your opponent.  If you are the defender, successfully completing the button presses will halve the damage you take.

To use your Secret Techniques you need to have enough chakra in your chakra gauge.  You gain chakra by picking up chakra balls that come from hard hits on your opponent and by getting chakra recovery items from your support character.

The scenario mode gives you several characters to play as.  Each battle has a small introduction with your character and your opponent.  After the battle they have another little interaction.  While it doesn’t do a whole lot to count as a “story,” it does give you a little more than two heads on the screen with the winner insulting the loser.  Every win gives you money depending on what you accomplished during the battle.

The Mission mode is more interesting in that it gives you limitations on how you can fight.  For instance, you might have a time limit, or you might need to have a specific item in your possession to complete the mission.  At first you can only do items in the Practice scroll.  Once you earn more experience, you can move to more challenging missions.  Unfortunately, you only have six characters you can choose from when you start out.  The other six can be unlocked eventually.

Naruto isn’t the deepest fighter, but it does have a pick-up and play feeling to it that fans of the show will appreciate.  It has enough twists to make it not feel like a cheap knock-off fighting game.  Still, at times it feels like the AI fights cheaply and can perform moves better than you can.  This has been something that has plagued fighting games for some time.

Naruto only has the Scenario and Mission Modes being the main modes for the game.  However, you can unlock items like video clips and artwork by going to the shop.  The issue with the shop is that you have to put money into a capsule machine.  One capsule machine is available right away while, while two others are available later into the game.  The more money you put into a capsule machine, the better your chance that you will actually win something.  I personally would rather have something where I have a specific price for items.  I ended up winning something about 30% of the time, and it wasn’t anything special usually.  This made me hate the unlocking system.

The most disappointing part of Naruto is the fact that only six characters are available at the start and that there are only six more that can be unlocked.  It would have been nice to see more characters that can be unlocked, and more to play as at the start of the game.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is a much better game than it probably has the right to be.  The fighting game is fairly solid with several elements that, while not completely unique to the fighting genre, mix together for a unique experience.  It takes the source material and does it justice.  Unfortunately, the unrewarding item shop and the lack of modes causes the final experience to be unrewarding.  Fans of Naruto will definitely enjoy the game, but it won’t likely appeal to those who have never heard of the Ramen-eating, orange-jumpsuit wearing, blonde spiky-haired ninja.

Gaming Trend Score

75

1. Graphics: 84
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 76
4. Gameplay: 70
5. Value/Replay: 65
6. OVERALL:75