Naruto Ultimate Ninja makes the leap to the North America with great results!
With the release of Naruto Clash of Ninja for the Gamecube a few months ago, fans of the Shonen Jump series were able to get there hands on one of the many games inspired by this hit cartoon. Now on the PS2, Naruto Ultimate Ninja gives fans another fighting game with their favourite characters. Released by Bandai Namco, this is the first of three Ultimate Ninja games already released in Japan. The game allows players to choose between 14 different characters and battle through various stages found in the anime.
Unlike Clash of Ninja, Ultimate Ninja plays more like Nintendo's Smash Bros games then Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur and Tekken games. While Ultimate Ninja provides players with advanced level strategies, like the counter attack system, which will attract more serious gamers, however, the game tends to be geared more towards the casual fighting game fan with its easy to excute attacks and secret techniques. The graphics are a direct port of the first Ultimate Ninja game released a few years ago in Japan, but are still fairly decent by today's standards. As players complete objectives and quests within the game, they unlock new characters, artwork and 3-D models. Since their is literally over a thousand items to unlock, players will be spending hours not just in versus or story, which adds to the lasting appeal of the title. The colourful backgrounds and cel-shaded characters make Ultimate Ninja feel like a comic book, which helps make the gameplay experience much more enjoyable. This can also hurt the game as many players might prefer more life-like and detailed stages found in the Clash of Ninja series. The sound effect and voice acting would have to be the lowest point in Ultimate Ninja. For fans of the substitles and Japanese voice acting, this will come as a disappointment as all the characters have their English dubbing. This can be rather upsetting as the tones in voice and dialogue don't seem to match the artwork displayed in the game's story mode. It would have been nice if the player was able to choose between the Japanese and English voice acting in the game.
All in all, Naruto Ultimate Ninja is still one of the better and more enjoyable anime based games on the PS2. Hopefuly the second and third Ultimate Ninja games correct the few mistakes which hurt this title. For fans of the series and even casual gamers looking for an enjoyable and long last game, this title is definitely one to pick up.
Score: 7.5