Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
Verdict: loved it . . . mostly . . .
In a Nutshell: Two games for the price of one, Naruto takes one player through the adventure of a ninja-in-training or allows two players to go head to head in a fighting system as the major characters of the Naruto story.
“In a game exclusively developed from the ground up for the Xbox360 video game and entertainment system, and for the first time ever, gamers will experience Naruto starting from the series’ beginning. Relive the hit anime and manga and experience Naruto’s transformation from noisy ninja-academy dropout to respected ninja.”
- Fun Rating: Fun
- ESRB: T
- Players/Mode: Single-player/Campaign, Two-player/Fighting
- Game Duration: 20+ hours for the main story line, many many more hours if you’re going for the achievements through all of the side “quests”
- System: Xbox 360
- Developer: Ubisoft
- Website: http://narutoxbox360game.us.ubi.com/riseofaninja/
- Cost: $29.99 at Amazon
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Would I play this again? | X | |
| Would I recommend this game? | X | |
| Was the story good? | X | |
| Was the music good? | X | |
| Were the graphics good? | X | |
| Was this game difficult? | X | |
| Was this game frustrating? | X | |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | X |
Playing the game
Naruto:Rise of a Ninja is an adventure game with all of the standard item gathering elements but with a fighting game approach to the encounters. Play as Naruto through his training and missions to become a ninja for Leaf Village and attempt to win the hearts (or smiley faces) of the village populace with side quests that include races, hide-and-seek with the kids, and the ever popular ramen delivery.
What the game gets right
The story for this game was top-notch. As a fan of cartoons, anime, manga, and Japanese culture in general, I was hooked from the opening scenes and looked forward to every new bit of the story.
The scenery of the village and landscapes was really rich and detailed. Oh, to be able to run about wherever! Fortunately, there’s plenty to run about in already.
As a button masher, I really appreciated the ability to attempt fights over and over without losing progress in the story or in some other way being made to start the game over.
What the game gets wrong
Naruto doesn’t have a very large vocabulary. This limited sound bite pool makes Naruto really annoying to listen to after a while.
It’s a Japanese story . . .but why do none of the voice actors have at least a Japanese accent? (However, I did see recently that you can download the Japanese voices for the game.)
There were also too many side “quests” (read: chores). Now, I appreciate needing to earn the money to gather items for your missions. But I was able to finish the story portion of the game without completing more than about half of the side quests. And once I finished the story, the credits rolled, and then the game picked up where it left off as if to say “Wasn’t that fun? Now, back to work, ninja boy. You think this ramen is going to deliver itself?”
Sum it up
I ate more ramen in the time span of playing this game than I think I ate during my time at college.
And though the side chores quests get monotonous, they’re still fun to play with a few spare moments.
Hopefully, Naruto: The Broken Bond will keep the fun coming.
Other games you might like to read about:
Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God
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