"It's not a great game, but it is not bad either."

This is my first review. I watch Naruto but I am not a big fan of it, so I may not know some informations about the anime. Here's my review about this game.


Gameplay:

This is a 3D naruto fighting game that handles like the other Naruto fighting games on the Nintendo Gamecube. At first you might be scratching your head thinking how to fight an AI who keeps bashing you constantly. After a few minutes of figuring out the controls and some combos as well, you start having your revenge against the AI. But even though you can throw some awesome combos and juggles against an enemy, it starts to get repititive. Most of the time, you'll be using the kawarimi technique (a technique you use to teleport behind the enemy.) to inflict damage because most of the time, the enemy keeps blocking, thus you must hit their defenseless area which is their back. You can sidestep, jump, run and use a character specific special abilities (Like Naruto's Rasengan).

About the controls. For me, the controls are solid and easy to pick up. You can learn to throw some good combos in a few hours or minutes.

Story:

The story mode starts from the finals of the chuunin exam (Naruto Vs. Neji) and ends with the part where Tsunade decides to become the Fifth Hokage after fighting Orochimaru.
The story mode skips a lot of part compared to the anime.

Graphics:

The character designs is good. They are detailed in 3D. Although there are times where you can see some graphical flaws like the awkward looking character hands and the black lines at the edge of each character model. The background also looks bland and pixelated. There's not much effects used either.

Sound:

This is what disappoints me the most. The sound clips are very limited and the music gets annoying after a while as the musics used is also limited. You can only hear each character's voices during the character select screen and after they won the battle. When compared to other fighting games for the DS, the sounds and musics used in this game is nowhere as good as other fighting games.

Playtime/Replayability:

If you're just like me that plays game in one sitting, you can unlock all characters in a day or two, which means you finished the game 100%. There are only three modes which is battle mode (which is similar to arcade mode.), story mode, and wireless battle mode. There are no other modes to increase replayability. There is not much characters here to play with also. Some characters are also hard to unlock which might be a reason to increase replayability.

Final Recomendations:

I suggest you to rent it from a friend or from a shop. If you are a fan of naruto, then you might think about buying it. Spend your money on other great games on the nintendo ds because in my opinion, it is not worth your money.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/08

Game Release: Naruto: Ninja Destiny (US, 02/26/08)