Naruto: Clash of Ninja

"It's best to borrow this game or rent it"

Naruto Clash of Ninja: Not a vey good game if you must say. it's been in Japan ever since 2002, and it barely reached the shores of the U.S in 2006. The game is based on the hit cartoon Naruto, but only the first season. the game play is simple, all you need to do is mash on the A&B buttons. You really don't have to be a pro in video games to master this game, because the controls are simple to use. The fighting system is relatively fast since you can't recover health or do really fancy stuff. But they could of added more characters to make this game interesting.

Graphics:

The graphics are actually the only good stuff in this game. They actually kept their natural design, and don't look all polygon style. The graphics actually look like the anime, so like I said before the graphics are the only good stuff about it. The stages also look pretty cool, the brackground also blend in with the characters, and actually look alike in the manga.

Gameplay:

I think this is one of the easiest fighting game I played, right next to super smash bros. The controls are easy to remember, since what you most use is the A&B buttons. But this game is a 1 on 1 fighting system so you can't have 2 on 1's or teams, which kinda of takes away some of the feelings in the fighting. the fighting system is to simple and the game only has 8 characters.

Even if there's only 8 playable characters, all the characters have their fighting combo. Good in one way and bad in another. Good way, everybody has their own unique fighting style so that all the characters won't have the same moves making it seem you're using the same character. Bad thing, and also in good way is that you can master all the characters very quickly, but you can just smash on the A button to defeat the opponent.

Like most fighting games everybody has their own finishing move. But in some fighting games you can usually do your finishing move very far, but here you have to be very close. The finishing moves are from the manga, so don't worry if you think they messed up the finishing moves . Bad thing about this finishing moves is that they're easy to counter, all you need to do is side step or puch him/her, or throw a kunai at him/her. The worst thing that I didn't like was that in the anime they have a bundle of jutsus, and here TOMY only gives like one or two per character.

The unlockables aren't that great, because most of the unlockables are just pictures. I think TOMY just put those unlockables just to keep us busy, and make us play the game over and over.

Story:

This the only part of the game where it made me mad. The story is absolutely nothing related to the manga so might as well skip it. It's just like the classic arcade battles, but there's only 7 rounds and you basically fight everybody in order. You can only play as Naruto which can get boring after time, and there's no cutscenes or cool features, it's just pictures of the characters talking.

Sound and Music:

What can I say, I really didn't pay attention to the music, because it was just soft music. It didn't have cool soundtracks, so I just ignored the music. It had the characters voices from the cartoon, but like aways they don't know how to make a good voices for the characters.

Playtime: I passed this game like in 3 hours because I just kept on playing 1 player mode, and the story only once. They added alot of unlockables to keep the player busy but you can get them right away.

Is it Worth It?

I recommend to buy it used or when it's 20 dollars. I also recommend to borrow it from a friend or rent it, because you can pass it like in one day. The last recommendation is to buy clash of ninja 2, or get the Japanese version of these games.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/06