Hands-On: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja
Anime and ass kicking, together at last. We battle it out in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja on the PS2
Best Case Scenario: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja ends up being "the" Naruto game for series fanatics here in the US, with stylish visuals and series trademark attitude.
Worst Case Scenario: Repetitive gameplay reduce Naruto to little more than a button-mashing affair devoid of depth.
If the mere mention of the words "the nine-tailed fox" get you all hot and bothered, you've probably marked your calendar for the upcoming release of Bandai's PS2 brawler Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. One part Saturday morning cartoon and one part Super Smash Bros. homage, the game is shaping up to be one heck of a good time, especially if you're a huge fan of the anime and manga series.
The game features a variety of different modes, although the most fun is to be had in the "Saga" series of fights. You can pick from a number of sagas, each one of which focuses on a single Naruto series character. After picking a character, you'll then fight through a series of battles, while receiving some pretty entertaining comic book-styled cutscenes in between each bout. For rookies, there's also a Practice Mode, where you can learn each character's many attack moves, as well as a Mission mode that offers up challenging mini-game type battles with certain victory conditions. There are six different tiers in Mission mode, with each one more difficult than the last, giving the mode quite a bit of replay value.
While the various game modes are a blast to play through, the real draw to Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is the large cast of your favorite characters, complete with voice-over talent from the animated series. When the characters aren't yelling out insults on the battlefield, they're talking up a storm during the game's unique and well-executed cutscenes, which are stylized like a comic book. Complete with panels and page-turns, the cutscenes play out like an interactive piece of manga. This system is even implemented during the fighting itself. At certain times during a battle, a character may be given the chance to actually switch the level being played in. If you change the level, the entire game screen turns over as if it were a page in a book. It's a truly unique visual trick and one that never seems to grow stale.
The rest of the game's visuals are shaping up to be as equally as impressive. Character models are large and have a surprising amount of punch to them, thanks to their cel-shaded graphics. Animations are also quite impressive, whether you're flying through the air or laying down some multi-hit combos. The coolest visuals come in each character's special attack, which can be charged up to become more powerful. Once unleashed, you'll take part in a short button-pressing mini-game that determines not only how strong the attack is, but also gives your opponent the chance to reduce the damage they receive. If you successfully hit each button during each phase of the attack, your attack will be quite powerful. But, if you mess up the button presses, the power of the attack will be reduced. On your opponent's side, if they input their buttons correctly, they'll be able to shave off a bit of the sting of your attack, or actually increase its effectiveness if they mess up.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja seems to be doing what other anime-inspired games have failed to do -- successfully recreate the look and feel of the anime and manga. With some tweaking to the sometimes clunky controls, the game could be well on its way towards carving out a niche in the hearts of video game fighting fans.
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