Naruto: Clash of Ninja

"A Good Tech Demo, and a Good Fan Reference, But Not a Good Game"

The first of four Naruto GameCube games has finally made it to US shores. Fans of the series will, of course, eat it up like candy, and in terms of faithfulness to its source it does not disappoint.

However, is it a good game? Sadly, the answer is no. Although later games in the series have vastly improved upon the concepts pioneered in this game, this game is perhaps best seen as a technology demo of the engine. As a taste of things to come it is great, but it is far too weak to stand on its own as a game.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in this game are excellent. Cel-shading is still an imperfect science when trying to capture the feel of an actual anime, but it works well enough to be convincing. For a game that was originally programmed in 2002, the graphics still manage to not seem dated.

However, while the characters are good, the stages are where the graphics really shine: massive attention has been paid to detail. Fans of the series can expect to spend hours examining the stages, scouring them for cameos of characters and concepts which play an important role later in the series (anime-wise or game-wise). They will not be disappointed.

Sound: 8/10
The game's music and sounds are reminiscent of the anime. Given that the anime had very good music and sound effects, this is a Very Good Thing.

An option to include the Japanese voices, rather than the English ones, would have been nice. Although the English voices are actually pretty good (especially by dub standards), there are still some problems which can grate on fans which have gotten past the dub and been watching the subtitled versions for some time. Hearing Sasuke mangle his own family name, especially when everyone else (with the notable exception of Rock Lee) gets it right, is particularly galling.

Gameplay: 2/10
This is not a fighting game. It's a technology demo for a theoretically-decent fighting game engine. As a tech demo it's actually pretty good, but as a game it's not very good at all.

The controls, while intuitive, amount to button-mashing: a serious crime for a fighting game. All characters have at least one very effective combo that can be performed simply by mashing B, and at least one that can be performed simply by mashing A. Dodges -accomplished by pressing L or R- can be useful in limited circumstances but are rarely needed. Special moves are a single button press away, and again they're not really necessary in most situations.

There are only seven playable characters at the start, which is dismal for just about any fighting game: even Street Fighter II, the game which defined this genre more than ten years ago, had more than this. An eighth character is unlockable, plus variants of two existing characters, but this clearly falls into the "artificially inflate the game's play time by introducing BS 'unlockable' quests" category. Speaking of artificially-inflated playtime, this game has little to no replay value. After you've unlocked everything, you won't find yourself driven to play the game again.

The challenge in the game is nearly nonexistent: only the final boss provides any real difficulty to a moderately skilled gamer. Most of his difficulty comes from game mechanics rather than actual effectiveness at fighting: because players do not automatically face each other, he exploits opportunities when you miss him and your back is momentarily turned.

Overall: 5/10
Don't get this expecting a good game. Get it expecting a good commentary and expansion on the Naruto story. You will be well rewarded if you follow this advice, but bitterly disappointed if you are not careful. If you want a good fighting game, skip ahead to later games in the series.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/06