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With the Gamecube slowly turning into a giant paperweight, no time could be better for Nintendo to start releasing some last grade A titles for its little cubic wonder. And if they have no time or energy to develop some new games, then at least localizing some old ones could soften the blow of a console's quiet death. The Naruto universe has been growing increasingly popular in North America over the past few years. So much, that it's almost reached pop culture status alongside other anime greats such as Dragon Ball Z or the more prehistoric Sailor Moon. Animated chronicles so popular, that even people who have never entered the anime scene have heard of. And it's in moments like these, that give fighting game Naruto: Clash of Ninja a shoe-in chance at success.
Before anything, it must be taken into consideration that this is a fighting game, so regardless of how many Naruto DVD boxsets or collector gashapon you may or may not own, the principles of knocking the lights out of your opponent are universal. So thankfully, the Naruto franchise was introduced to the Nintendo Gamecube with something simple like fighting, instead of a text-based adventure.
For a title that came out over three years ago, it sure does look impressive. Character models are in 3D, and cel-shaded to recapture their 2D essence from the anime. Fighting arenas as well as locations are cel-shaded and though limited, look really nice. There's nothing more welcoming than a good game that also looks very nice, so thankfully, it's a visually solid game.
Each of the underdozen characters at your disposal have a slew of melee attacks and each own a personlized combo list to keep things interesting for a little longer. When a character's special meter is full and glows gold, a special may be pulled off, locking an opponents fate to take in a bunch of damage. It's fun to try and pull a special on your friends the first few times, but since you can regain your special meter quick enough to re-use it before the battle's over, it gets old fast. The same applies to the entire combat system. While fun, it is immensely shallow and gets old very quickly. Regarding optional and unlockables, Rock Lee is the only unlockable character and that can take under 20 minutes to achieve. Also the lack of any remotely interesting modes outside the cookie-cutter Story, Time Attack, Versus and Training modes leave a lot more to be desired and give the player the feeling the game is missing some content.
Naruto: Clash of Ninja is a game that looks and sounds great, but gets old fast. In many ways, it feels like a spin-off of the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai games, only shorter. Granted, if there were some more extras to be unlocked, it would feel like a much more complete game. Unfortunately, CoN is so shallow that you can do just about everything in the game in one afternoon. And while playing with a friend may stretch things a bit, the inevitable remains that there isn't much different to do after 10 minutes of play. Thankfully, there is an alternative to Clash of Ninja and that is his fourth iteration in Japan; Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4. The fourth game offers a lot more to the tablein terms of content, replayability and challenge and will undoubtedly keep fans hooked for much longer. If you're a huge Naruto fan or considering collecting the entire series for the Gamecube, then Naruto: Clash of Ninja is definitely worth a shot, but if that's not the case, you might as well just fast forward to the fourth game to have a better time. |
