Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

7.5
Good

Gameplay	7.0	"Naruto: Greatest Ninja? No, Ultimate Ninja."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	5.0
Value	7.0

By Morgan Bates

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Naruto is the latest anime series to introduce an audience of screaming 9 to 14 year olds to the culture of ninjas and schoolgirls. Just like in the last anime to do this - Dragonball Z - the simple ‘good guys’ vs ‘bad guys’ story lines are abundant and, well, that’s it. Fortunately, despite the shallow anime, Naruto as a license – just like Dragon Ball – was destined to be turned into a 2nd rate fighting game. Fortunately, this title is better.

Fans of the series will be pleased to know that most of the central characters of the series, such as Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and Rock Lee are fully playable, with more to unlock. Each character has their unique storyline, with animated characters on manga-style interludes with full voice over between battles.

Players can switch between the English and Japanese character voices, and judging by the awful English dubbing, many fans will likely opt for the latter. On top of this, some of the characters have annoying quotes. For example; Naruto’s “Believe it!” after every sentence gets old, fast. I took great pride in beating him repeatedly in VS CPU mode.

Battles are played out on multi-layered 2D stages using cell-shaded polygonal graphics. The difference between this and a true 3D fighter like Tekken 5 is that, instead of fighting in free-roaming 3D, you’re switching between layers - similar to SNK’s Fatal Fury franchise, but with 3D graphics. Character animation is smooth and the combos look great. There are a number of power-ups to pick up in battle; some will turn you invisible, while others give you extra health, and even dish out more damage in long range attacks.

The fighting is fast, and switching between layers is as easy as pushing up or down and jump. When the opponent is on another layer, you can attack with ranged weapons such as kunai. In melee combat, you can do double jumps combined with an attack to unleash a short mid-air combo. This is a good way for newbies to get into the game, because otherwise characters take seemingly forever to beat – those quick mid-air combos don’t deal much damage.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is a nice licensed game that will please fans of the anime; however, as a fighting game it lacks the depth of Tekken or smooth play of Street Fighter. Fans of the anime will “believe it” is the ultimate Naruto game. That said, it’s the only Naruto game out here so far.

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