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Reviewed by David Rasmussen Year: 2002 OK, show of hands, who remembers that long ago bygone day when BANDAI was a serious company that put out some serious Anime…. Yeah… it's been that long hasn't it. These days BANDAI has lost their way, now teamed up with downtrodden video game company Namco (they who have a few bright spots in their arsenal like the Katamari Damacy series but not much to be proud of) and are putting out mostly substandard games with some exceptions here and there. This is, believe it or not, one of those exceptions. Now now, this is indeed one of the early first gen Naruto games, but if you look at it in the right context this game actually has a place in your collection (believe it)! One of the Naruto games that start off from the beginning of the series (I have no idea where the present games are set but I take it they're a bit of the way into the series story mode wise by now), and featuring the voice cast of the Anime series (so let's just say if you didn't like the early days of the voice acting you might not be a total fan of Ultimate Ninja) this game features several modes of gameplay which, actually, can bring some sort of fulfilling gameplay if only for the many many Naruto collectibles you can unlock in this game. First off is story mode, and you are given a set of characters to complete (each with their own story and set of fights to go through). There are supposed to be unlockable characters but I haven't gotten far enough into the game to see if that includes story mode additions… I wonder. Anyway this is one of the twin meat and potatoes of the gameplay (if you are a solo gamer), where you'll be doing a lot of your gaming with this game. The fighting is alright, but with so few options for fighting (a jump/quick move button, attack, throw (which is more for delaying or setting up button mashing moves) and the trigger for special attack (you have to nail an attack while you're glowing to initiate the special move of which there are three depending on how much energy you stored for the attack) you obviously don't have much options in combat. In fact you can basically boil down combat to mastering your timing of when you button mash and when you throw (sometimes you can actually knock some health off an opponent by using your throwing weapon to knock them off the combat area in some of the battle arenas -- timing and knowing when to do what helps a lot-- though it's not much of a strategy just to know when to tap what). Also while in some instances you do seem to land a good visually impressive move (or sometimes counter a move pulled against you or vice versa), these seems completely random (especially counters) since I don't seem to have the knack yet to figuring out how to counter one of these little cinematic moves. Maybe I'm just a slow learner. There are multiple levels to the battle fields, and two fields per level (sometimes you can move from field to field after the battle went on for so long) but even that can't stop this game from being a simple button tapper, especially when it comes to special moves. While they are most visually exciting and thrilling, they are also watered down to simply tapping the right sequence of buttons within a set amount of time (and doing it right at the same time without fail). Also, taking a page from DragonBall Z Budokai 3, if you can out button tap your opponent you can reduce the damage his/her attack can cause... oh, and these are usually 2-3 levels of button tapping, with the level of button tapping growing longer with each successive phase. So the combat is fair but not overly deep, what else is there to do? There is Mission mode where you are given a set of missions (with a rising rank for the difficulty of the missions) to earn money for the "shop" (which you also do in story mode though in a greater amount than you can earn in story mode). These are fights, yes, but the twin goals set to complete the missions does give you a bit to chew on (which grow progressively harder to finish the higher in rank you go, and the more experience you earn). Two modes exist to help you practice. One is Practice mode, of course (just like in DragonBall Z games which as I remember also come from BANDAI/Namco) and the other is Free Play (which you can use to either play with another human or get in more practice against an AI controlled opponent). Finally there's Naruto's room (where you can hear Naruto say endlessly BELIEVE IT while you admire all the many things you can unlock (or have unlocked) and the shop… which is, in fact, evil. Stealing a page from Ape Escape 2, the shop is nothing more than a wicked evil vending machine that demands you put in your hard-earned money in order to earn your many bonuses (character figures, cards, audio and visual content, and so on)… now that in and of itself isn't the problem, it's that the more you spend per pull the better your odds are of getting stuff instead of the evil "BLANK" cards from the vending machine. I am presently dropping 500 a pull on the machine and only getting a 50% success ratio from the machine for my troubles-- man, what a ripoff!! Thing is sure, while this game was new and cost a bit of money to get then I wouldn't have recommended it to you (too much for a game with only so much appeal). However now that you can pull this one off the better stocked bargain bin shelves of your local GameStop or so forth now it's suddenly an investment I can believe in. Yes, believe it! I dropped 10 on this, and that is about a decent price for this game off the bargain bin if I do say so myself. The gameplay is tight, though not too intense as present day Next Gen games since it is a bit light on combat possibilities past well timed button tapping. Still with its massive amount of collectibles you can unlock through gameplay, and fair gameplay that can pass a few hours between playing of your better Naruto games (if only to quest for the perfect 100% unlocked collectibles list) it's not bad at its low low price… of course if you find it being sold for a higher than 20 tag then I wouldn't recommend it again. This is a fair game for Naruto fans, but something you'd feel a lot better owning if you pulled it from the bargain bin. Believe it… oh no, now I'm saying BELIEVE IT over and over again!! Sure, there are a lot more Naruto games out there. Much more, and when I find them I'll review them for you, believ-- I mean you can bet on it. Yeah. Until then this game isn't going to give any of the major fighting franchises a run for their corner of the fighting game market but it's the little fighter that could be fairly interesting if only on a Naruto fandom level. B-, though it drops to a D if you're expected to drop more than 20 or less dollars on it. It's a good bargain bin game, but it's just that... a bargain bin game. I wouldn't go anywhere past that with this. Comment on this review of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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