 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Dream Factory |
| Publisher: | D3Publisher of America | |
| Genre: | Fighting | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Wi-Fi (Local Multi-Card Play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Despite hardware power roughly equivalent to the original PlayStation (without the storage space), the Nintendo DS has seen a surprising lack of 2D or 3D fighting games. Perhaps it’s the fact that the stylus doesn’t lend itself well to the genre, but the best fighting game to date on the system is probably the decent retread Ultimate Mortal Kombat. Thus Naruto: Ninja Destiny arrives with little competition, but unfortunately doesn’t pack the punch necessary to be the system’s first great fighter.
The fighting engine is slick, but ultimately limited. Running at a fast frame rate with good animation and cel-shaded characters, Naruto: Ninja Destiny certainly packs a visual punch despite some bland backgrounds. The characters look nearly as good as they did in last gen’s Naruto console games, and the special jutsu moves are visually spectacular (but unfortunately non-interactive).
The gameplay itself however is disappointingly basic. The B and Y buttons execute weak and strong attacks respectively, while X jumps and A performs each character’s special jutsu move when his or her chakra meter is full. The L button executes a substitution jutsu move assuming enough chakra is available, which basically warps the character behind his or her opponent, while the mostly useless R button blocks.
Naruto: Ninja Destiny has three main game modes: Story, Battle and Wireless Battle. Story mode takes the first 100 episodes or so of the series and compresses them into roughly an hour of gameplay and some non-interactive cutscenes, so expect spoilers along the way and very few of the intimate details a casual fan would need to completely follow the storyline. Of course, a game like this is marketed towards the hardcore anyway, but it does hurt the game’s crossover appeal and the likelihood of it being a fighter all DS fans could enjoy. Honestly I’m not familiar enough with the anime to fully understand everything that takes place in the story mode (I’ve seen a few episodes and played several Naruto games), but Naruto fans can expect the usual assortment of platitudes, bitterness between the leaf and sand factions, etc. that they’re sure to enjoy.
On normal difficulty, the Story mode can essentially be beaten by repeatedly pressing the attack button and using a substitution jutsu when necessary. While performing a substitution jutsu does consume chakra, chakra refills so quickly with each successful attack that running out is never a concern. Of course, you’ll never get to see each character’s special jutsu move this way (and the game does do a good job of rotating major characters from the series), but it doesn’t present much challenge regardless. Playing on difficult level is of course a bit trickier, but even then experienced fighters should have little trouble. The Battle mode is simply this game's free battle mode, allowing the player to pick his or her favorite fighter and compete in one match or a series of ten matches against the CPU.
The game’s only use of the touch screen comes in the form of power-ups. There are six random power-ups awarded at the start of each battle, granting extra chakra, refilling life, increasing damage, etc. Again, the simplicity of the game itself makes these pretty unnecessary in single-player, although they do add an extra element of strategy to multiplayer battles. Or I assume anyway, because sadly multiplayer is limited to multi-card local play only (which seems odd considering a contained stage and a couple of characters should be pretty easy to share between systems). As a result I wasn't able to test it out, but I’m sure there are groups of Naruto fans that will get several hours of fun out of it and the gameplay lends itself to quick battles on the go.
Bottom Line:
One only needs to look at the history of the franchise to know that D3 will no doubt publish sequels, and those sequels will no doubt expand upon the ideas presented here. So when the inevitable Naruto: Ninja Destiny 2 arrives, it will likely make a great purchase for Naruto and fighting game fans as long as it builds upon the solid foundation here. Unfortunately, this game is a little too thin to deserve a full recommendation at $30, even though the system’s weak lineup of fighting games makes it a little more palatable.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 6.0 |
Posted: 2008-04-01 20:17:08 PST