Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

"Didn't quite pass the test again"

Naruto is a hit anime/manga series and what best way to make money by making games based off the huge cash cow? Naruto has had many series of fighting games and a couple of action games on a couple of consoles. For the first time ever, Xbox 360 finally gets a Naruto exclusive, Naruto: Rise of A Ninja, developed by Ubisoft which makes this the first Naruto game developed outside of Japan. The game does "look" good but will it really be the best Naruto game, better yet, will it be a good game? Hence "look," folks.

The story in the game basically follows the anime and since the series has not ended yet, it'll end at the latest arc. You play as Naruto throughout the game and follow the event that happened in the anime and take on some extra missions. If watch the show, you'll know what happened. If you don't, you'd probably have trouble keeping up with the story because of its horrible pace. The story moves so fast and conversations end so quickly, it becomes confusing. Perhaps the developers believed that all who purchased the game already watch Naruto.

Hidden behind the gorgeous graphics ever seen on a Naruto game, lies many technical flaws, glitches, and broken gameplay. The game packs two genres, action and fighting. The action portion is basically a platformer. You run around the village of Konoha (Ubisoft has done a great job capturing the village) helping people in debt and take on missions. Most missions are side quests that don't affect the story but accomplishing them will upgrade Naruto to become stronger. As you do more, the main story missions will open up for you. There are variety in missions. They are basically to beat up some bandits, race to the finish, and find items. The controls are a bit stiff and the camera moves slowly. There are common glitches that you might encounter such as the floating Iruka, 1-hit-kill clone, and stuck situations.

Most of the missions are accomplished outside of the village and that's where you encounter bandits. You fight the same generic looking bandits at the same spots all the time. You will also face off against key characters from the series. Engaging them will bring you to the fighting portion of the game. The fighting game is basically like Naruto: Ultimate Ninja except you've got another attack button, special jutsus are executed differently, and a rage mode that makes you temporarily invincible and deal extra damage. Aside from those it's an awful button masher. You can also take the fighting online and choose between 10 characters. A few characters are imbalanced and way more powerful than everyone like Kakashi and Orochimaru.

Story: 6/10. Story in this game moves awfully fast but the anime/manga is interesting. Why else would it be one of the best anime/manga out there?

Design: 6/10. Good graphics but has several technical issues to be fixed.

Gameplay: 5/10. Broken fighting game, stiff controls, and little missions variety makes repetitive gameplay.

Ubisoft has tried their best but couldn't pull it off. It had potential and hopefully Ubisoft will fix it and make the next game better. I admit I was drawn into the game by it's trailers and screenshots since I am a fan of Naruto but now I can see truthfully, animes cannot become good games.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/07

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