Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

"It's good, but not as good as it could have been"

Naruto is the an anime about a kid named Naruto. He has a demon called the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside him since he was a newborn. The anime covers him, along with his friends, growing up and fighting evil ninja while defending their hometown, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The anime is okay, but the games are less entertaining. As the game title says, Rise of a Ninja, this game covers the first 80 episodes of the anime, from the Ninja Academy to the world-changing battle against Gaara.

Story~7.5/10
As I stated earlier, the game covers the story of Naruto from episode 1 to episode 80. So why a 7/10? Well, they don't have many different feelings than the anime. Also, like most action shows out there, the shows are very cliche. Since that has carried over to this game, it has done nothing other than hurting the score.

Graphics~9/10
The graphics in this game are well-done. Since you have the ability to roam around the village, Ubisoft took it's time to make the village look decent, at the least. The high point for this section are the battling graphics. They're nothing short of amazing. The clear movement and amazing touch to moves, such as Chidori and 64 Palms, has definitely been one of the best graphics I've seen in a Naruto game. The drawbacks to this section are the enemies. The random enemies you encounter don't look like they took much work and time at all, thus costing this department a point.

Sound~8/10
The big negative for this department is that they used the themes and songs that they used in the anime in this game also. If you don't like the music, or are not a Naruto fan, you won't like the music. The rest is pretty okay. The battling hits sound pretty painful. The voice acting is done majorly by the American voices. Although some of the voices are just downright annoying.

Gameplay~4.5/10
I was entirely disapointed in this game's gameplay. To start off, there are several sidequests, and I mean SEVERAL. So many, in fact, that it's kinda distracting, since you want to earn the achievement medals for those mini-games. If it weren't for the mini-games, the actual game would be very short.

One of the two high points in this game was the ability to wander around the village and to be able to interact with the villagers. If you have all of the villagers trust Naruto, you'll earn an achievement medal.

The second high point in this game was the ability to use the control sticks to perform Jutsu, but that's about it.

As I repeatedly said, achievement medals can be earned by doing several in-game tasks, ranging from short and simple, to long and boring. Whether you want to earn them or not is entirely your choice, as they really are just game extenders.

Overall~7/10
The game in general is pretty good, but flawed several times. If you're the type of person who doesn't care about games as long as they're a title you love, this game is for you. If you have high standards for your video games, this game isn't your type.

Story----------------------------------------7.5/10
Graphics---------------------------------9/10
Sound--------------------------------------8/10
Gameplay----------------------------------4.5/10

Total------------------------------------------29/40
Rounded------------------------------------7.2/10
Final Score----------------------------------7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/05/07

Game Release: Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (US, 10/30/07)