Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

"A treat for Naruto and fighter fans alike."

I don't watch the tv show, and I absolutely detest the character of Naruto. But I will admit this video game was pretty fun and I enjoyed. Believe it! Damn! Look what that idiot made me do! Anyhoo this is a fighter from Bandai Namco that features everyone's favourite anime ninjas.

STORY
The game doesn't have much of a story mode. Basically all you do is pick your fighter of choice, and he or she has fights with random characters. And they talk to justify why they're fighting. It's not interesting or well written, and it doesn't explain anything. So let's move on.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are exactly like you'd expect them to be. Naruto and friends all keep their anime style and show it off with pride. I love the special move every character has that makes them unique from all the others. Many have crazy over the top animations, like one character named Haku who steps on a puddle so hard that the water coming off of it turn into spikes and drive themselves into the opponent. I played as every character just to see all the wacky animations. In Naruto's special he disguises himself as a girl in a bikini. I found that a little creepy. The menu screens and such are all well made as well. Naruto fans will be pleased.

SOUND
All of the actors who lend their voices to these characters reprise their roles for the game. Including Naruto, who has the most annoying voice....ever! Other than Naruto and a girl named Hinata, the voices are all well acted. The music features music you'd expect from a game about ninjas. Very chinese influenced material in this game. And other than that punches and swords slashes sound good. That's all we really need to know.

GAMEPLAY
So is the game just another cartoon to game translation that fails miserably? Surprisingly it does a good job. It's a 2D fighter with 3D environments in which you pick a character, and battle another. It's as simple as that. There are all kinds of platforms to jump up on and go higher with in the stages. One awesome aspect I liked was the ability to climb and stay on walls. Being ninjas all they have to do is run up the wall, but you can actually stop during mid-run and hang there...I probably had too much fun with that but I really liked it.

Like I mentioned before I love the special moves each character has. Each character has 3 whole sets of special moves, and though each one requires a different amount of energy, they generally do the same amount of damage. When each special move is going on both characters must input this button combination to affect the result of the move. The one doing the attack must try to add more damage, while the other tries to reduce it. I wish the one being attacked could actually reverse the special moves much like the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai games, but oh well.

As sweet looking as the special moves are, you'll have to use them a lot to win all the battles, and that can get really old after awhile. The story mode is basic fight after fight and helps you unlock new characters. And then there's the mission mode which will help you collect money easily and gives you all kinds of quirky tasks to earn that money. And now we move onto my next problem which was the lack of tutorial in this game. I pretty much had to learn what all the items were by using them then and there. Mission mode only increases your frustration when it gives you stupid tasks you don't understand. Like one which has a requirement that you "possess the Weight of Gut when the match ends". I had no clue what a Weight of Gut was, so I took forever to do that mission.

They also have one mission that has the requirement that your health be under 10% when the match ends. There is nothing more frustrating than getting beaten down too much and dying because it's mandatory you be in pain. Great missions there guys! Using the money you can unlock trading cards, figurines, and music and video tracks to look and listen to for later use. And that's the game in a nutshell. There are a ton of characters in the game, and they're all superb. Except Naruto. He's a tool.

IN THE END...
It's pretty fun to play, and with all the unlockables in the game you'll be busy for awhile. If you're a Naruto fan you have to pick this one up immediately. And even if you aren't, you still might like this one. I know I did. Believe it! Oy...I'm gonna kill that kid.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/06