"Naruto for the Wii: A clash of a good time."

Well a Naruto game for the Wii has finally made a North American release, but does this anime brawler hold up as a good fighting title?

Game play
If you've played the past two CoN installments on the Game Cube(or rather 5 if you count the unreleased Japanese versions both for the GC and Wii), the basics of fighting remains relatively unchanged. If you haven't, the learning curve is near non-existent. The basics are simple; chain together weak/strong attacks to wear down your opponents HP bar to knock them out before they knock you out. The staple abilities in CoN are what makes what appears to be a simple button smasher a more complex and tactical game. A chakra bar represents your ability to preform special abilities, which can include teleporting and counter attacking out of an opponent's combo, using techniques that will continue to damage opponents so long as you have chakra to sustain them, or devastating special techniques to inflict a generous amount of damage (and then some...).

What sets CoNR apart from its predecessors is the use of Wii remote. swinging the remote up and down or side to side initiates attacks, and super techniques can be enhanced by mimicking the actions with the Wiimote. For those that opt not to use the Wii mote, or past fans of previous CoN titles will be happy to know that both classic controller and Game Cube controller are also supported (though you will not be able to input motion commands for specials). While the wiimote+Nunchuck game play is wrist a wrist waggling good time, more competitive players will find the other options more precise and easier to execute more complex combos. Another great feature is the stage transitions. When a character is knocked into a certain boundary on the field, they get hurled into another section of the stage with a new look. The attacking player can then chose to attack the flying victim, fake him out, or do nothing. Attacking does some additional damage, faking him out won't do damage, but the opponent will land closer with you already prone to attack, while nothing simply sets you both at opposite ends of the field. the victim can also attempt to predict these actions and cause them to fail.

Though fans of the series might be disappointed with the character selection of twenty characters, players not familiar of the series will have little problem. All the characters have their own sense of fighting style, some have better defensive moves, some are better up from brawlers, while others will find it easier to attack from a distance. The diversity is good, but some characters seem to be more favourable, as some characters specials are either much easier to pull off, or have three or four specials while the rest only have two.

The fighting is very fluid and fast paced, making it a very great multilayer game. However, when playing those four player brawls the framerate tends to dip a bit, slowing down the relatively fast game play. Its not that its a painful dip... but it is noticeable.

Story
Being an Anime fighter, the Mission mode pits players in fights that parallel the events that occur in the manga/show. The story unfolds from the beginning of the Chunin finals, to the end of the Tsunade arc. Fans of the manga/show won't be in for any real surprises, in fact, they will probably be disappointed that some key events in the story were not made into missions (due to a absence of a key character in the roster for example). If you're new to Naruto, you'll probably be very lost, and no, the manual doesn't even give you any kind story recap or character descriptions either. Regardless, players will have fun as the missions place players in the story, giving them story based objectives to clear to the next stage. For example a showdown type battle may force you to finish off a character with a special technique. Missions can also be selected at different difficulties which not only increase the opponents AI but also may affect the objectives as well.

Graphics
The Cel-Shaded look fits well with anime fighters and makes this game looks really well polished. The brightly coloured crew of the Naruto cast shines spectacularly, as do the stages. Character movements and attacks not only flow nicely together but also are very fitting to the characters. One of few glaringly obvious flaws are the shadows... they are very noticeably pixilated and really take the game down a notch. Luckily you'll be too busy stringing combos, dodging and counter attacking to notice them while fighting, its mostly during the opening intros and victory poses before and after battle that these eyesores appear.

Sound
The sound is pretty much what you'd expect from a Naruto game. The battle music is limited by the number of stages, but the plethora of sound effects are what really hit the spot. You'll have plenty of "Clangs" "Swooshes" and various pummeling sounds to make you one happy ninja. All characters have their respective American style voice acting (sorry no Japanese voice option) to breathe life into the characters. Also a good note is that dialogue appearing in the mission mode story is fully voiced out, making it less of a bore to run through the story.

Extras
Aside from the multitude of characters you'll have to unlock, other single player modes and goodies will also need to be earned .Gameplay modes such as Survival, time attack, etc are a good way to train you to not only win matches, but to do so quickly and effectively. The Wii motion sensing is also used in the three other bonus games. Shuriken training uses the Wii pointer to target on-screen cut-outs of characters and knock -em down. Shadow Clone mini-game is a basic cup-and-ball game ninja style. Finally, Rasengan training gets you twirling and thrusting as you perfect one of Naruto's special techniques.

Lasting Appeal
As with all fighting games, all you have to do is get a group of buddies over, enough controllers, and a competitive spirit and you'll be good for hours on end. This game will always be a good party game, even a while so down the road. For a single player,there are plenty of unlockables. Eventually, the lack of Online play may make playing against the AI boring after a while. If you really love this game, you may spend quite a bit of time beating the top scores of the various modes, or simply try to best your own. Either way, there are many characters to master and playing them all is a great way to make the game go the extra mile.

Overall: 8/10
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution is a great addition to the Wii lineup. Game play is both fun and easy to play, while also allowing deep and tactical combo stringing for advanced players. If you're one of those die-hard Naruto fans that have already imported the other CoN titles, you may not be in for any major surprises. Casual and even players not into Naruto will have a great time. Very few and minor graphical and performance issues take away from the score, but not from the fun.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/07

Game Release: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution (US, 10/23/07)