Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

"Rise of a great game series"

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is the first Naruto game that was made outside of Japan. It was released in 2007 and licensed by Ubisoft.

Gameplay (8/10): Naruto: Rise of a Ninja boasts an excellent story mode. Given that it is fairly short (6-7 hours, tops), it is still unbelievably fun. You can play the RPG mode and walk up walls, walk on water, summon clones, etc. You can also go to meet your senseis to level up techniques. Jutsu can be leveled up to level three, and the combos can be leveled up only once. The strength stat can be upgraded four more times. If you run into an enemy, then you will enter “battle” mode. This is very similar to the Naruto: Clash of Ninja series. One of the differences are that you need to make the handsigns to do the Jutsus you want to do. To do this, you need to hold the left trigger and use the analog sticks to form the seals. Although, you probably won't play this game for too awfully long, considering a short story mode and lack of characters. That is, unless, you have a friend to play against. Don't bother with online because there is a lot of lag and not many people.

Story (9/10): The game is extremely like the story from the anime/manga. You start off in the first episode, where you steal the Sacred Scroll, and go all the way up to the final battle with Gaara. Although, you can not play in a lot of battles because the game wants you to know what it was like to be Naruto. This means that no, you can not fight Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, can't fight Gaara with Rock Lee in the Chunin Exam Preliminaries, or any of those other battles. You can still fight in pretty much any major fight that Naruto was in.

Graphics (9/10): The game captures the feel that you are actually playing an anime game. The character icons used are directly from the show, and it even shows some of the scenes from the English anime. You can see ripples in the water, trees blowing, and the like. Just what you'd expect for a 360 game.

Sound (6/10): This is where the game the game is slightly behind. They had many of the voice actors replaced, the worst being Jiraiya and Ebisu, and the Third Hokage. You probably couldn't even tell that Iruka and Gaara got new voice actors. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Haku, Zabuza, and most of the rest of the characters maintain their original voice actors from the show. The music in this game would get a 10/10 in it's own category, but I'm not making a category for that. The music is some of the best you'll find. From the goofy music when you are delivering ramen to the intense battle music, you'll never get enough.

Overall score: 8/10. This game is a definite must buy for any true Naruto fan. If you are a fan of fighting games in general, then you would probably like this too. Even if you hate Naruto.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/10/09

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