Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2

"Whether you are a fan or not, you will love this game!"

Its not to often you will find a good game based on a television series. Its even less likely to find one based on a series that's currently only being aired in Japan. Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen! 2 Is the newest in the Naruto series of titles for the gamecube. If you are reading this review, then you already know what Naruto is all about, but for the few who may not let me explain.

Naruto is an anime series set in a world where villages raise, and train Shinobi's to maintain and equilibrium of power and peace. Naruto is a young Ninja who happens to contain one of the most powerful demonic forces ever to grace the shinobi village, the Nine-Tails Fox demon. With the fox sealed in him by the previous village leader at birth, Naruto grows up an outcast of society and decides to turn everything around by becoming the next village leader. On his journey to becoming the strongest ninja in the village, he encounters many different ninja's of different talent and skills.

Graphics: (10/10)

This fighting game is among the prettiest i've ever scene, and the cell shading fits the style of the game perfectly. The backgrounds are very detailed with many events going on that fans of the series will recognized and appreciate. The characters are done very nicely and the animations is extremely fluid making you feel like you are actually part of the game. I'd almost prefer this look to the regular animated look of the series.

Sound(10/10)

This game is definetly true to the anime. Everything from the character voices to the background music for the stage is just perfect. One of the things that i enjoyed the most, is whenever you pause the game on a given stage, the music stops and all you hear are the natural noises of the areas that they are fighting in (such as the crackling of fire, or the sound of grasshoppers). Sound is a very important part of the atmosphere in the fighting game and this builds the atmosphere well.

Conrols(9/10)

I'm going to be honest, the controls at first are difficult to learn and hard to understand, but pretty soon, you will gain a feel for them and then it will become second nature. B is the all around hit button that utilizes both kicking and punching depending on how many times you press it. A is a specialize button where the character will do a different type of physical attack, or will throw their Kunai's/chinese stars. The X button executes a characters special moves while the Y button throws. The triggers are also very useful in that they utilize the body change techinques that help you get out of combo's.

Gameplay(10/10)

Despite the simplistic control scheme, this game is very deep. each characters specialize in different forms of fighting making your use of the A and B buttons different for every character. Also, some characters are best played defensively while others are good played offensively. the special moves are also easy to pull off as you only have to tap the X button to execute them. The nice part about naruto is that the timing of specials are everything. You can incorporate a special into your combo, or you can time a special to hit an enemy if they are in your given range to pull off that move. Before i go any further, i also need to point out some of the flaws that i have found with the game. First in for most is getting your character to face the right way. While the game is cell shaded, you have a 360% field to fight in like in Soul Calibur. One thing that i've found happening alot is an opponent would jump to my other side, and it would take a few seconds to turn around and face them, sometimes costing me the game. Another problem is the automatic camera when playing 4 player. becaus the camera tries to keep and follow everyone on the screen, it some times has the tendency to go crazy and just start rotating alot in the heat of battle. Outside of these minor problems however, the game is probably one of the funnest games i've everplayed. The 4 player is on par with smash bro's and the two player is just as good. there are a ton of characters,stages, and story mode to unlock, and the best part is that its true to the series.

Overall (10/10)

if you like naruto, get it. this game will set you back about 80$ if you don't already have the freeloader disk, 60$ if you do. This fighter is amazingly deep and so true to the anime that you will feel like a young shinobi of the leaf village. the menus are easy to navigate and understand even with out a translation guide because there are icons and somemtimes english dialogue in navigating through the menus. This game is fun whether you want to duel it out with 3 other friends, or learn the ways of the ninja by yourself!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/03