 Review By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | TOSE |
| Publisher: | D3Publisher of America | |
| Genre: | RPG | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | N/A | |
| Buy Now: |   |
While I’ve sampled portions of both the uncut Japanese and dumbed down US dub version, I still can’t figure the appeal of Naruto. A reasonably competent, if awkward art style (which somehow still manages to feel “wrong” in comparison to just about any other anime you can name, from the late 1960s to present), a lame “boys manga” story (Fight! Oh, no, this opponent is stronger! Must get stronger to beat him! Fight! Oh, no...repeat ad nausaeum) with an easily predictable “plot twist” (what? He’s a fox spirit? NO, IT CAN’T BE!) and typically annoying lead character – move along, people, nothing to see here.
Nonetheless, the monstrous marketing machine marches on, and thus we come to the release of the game in question. Naruto: Path of the Ninja marks this strangely popular anime’s first North American RPG – all previous Naruto games have been fighters, which makes sense, given that we’re talking “shonen/boys anime” (think Dragonball – chock full of constipated grunts, inane and endless power charges, much “ugh…he’s too strong! Must train harder!” and precious little character or plot development). Naruto POTN covers the first 80 episodes of the anime. 80 episodes...one brief game...you get the picture.
For those who’ve never sampled this particular series’ somewhat unsophisticated style of sophistry, Naruto:POTN revolves around a particularly annoying, short, stocky, and rather large headed boy named Naruto Uzumaki (many of whose fans, strangely enough, appear to be of similar acromegalic tendency). As mentioned earlier, he had the spirit of the nine-tailed fox “sealed within him” at birth, in order to somehow save his village (woo-hoo, human sacrifice and ritual possession – bet this series runs high on the Moral Majority’s acceptable playlist), and surprisingly enough, there are still people who are afraid of him because of this (yeah, like Glen Benton makes it high on the Dale Carnegie influential persons list…DUH!). He was treated as an outcast by his own people, which is supposed to explain his loud, brash, and “mischievous” (read extremely annoying, very American-circa-2007) personality. Yet he aspires to earn the title of Hokage of Leaf Village. The Hokage, we’re to understand, is the leader and strongest of all ninjas in the village.
The game starts off with you controlling Naruto and two fellow members of the Ninja Academy (wasn’t that some crappy sub-Disney movie?), Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. The three of you are given a mission, the success of which will determine whether or not you get accepted to begin training under one Kakashi Hatake (lost yet?). Similarly to the DS-based Digimon series, Naruto:POTN ties together a string of unrelated “mini missions” into an ongoing storyline.
It’s weird, given my feelings on the character and series, that found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Naruto’s in-game complaints: I also had no desire to waste my time performing several small and seemingly pointless missions before being allowed to go on a “real”, substantive one. While the fan would doubtless defend this as being part of the characters' “kung fu movie style” training (“fix the roof! Wax on wax off! Surprise, you just learned kung fu!"), there are far too many RPGs popping up of late whose whole M.O. is to waste an inordinate amount of time working the player through “ground up” baby steps in a cheap bid to pad the game’s ostensible running time. It’d be a refreshing change for once to just jump in headfirst, immersion style, and take it from there, rather than having to dig your way through dozens of fights and dull “introductory” missions in order to build your character stats to any respectable level.
Graphically speaking, there’s not much to speak of – while respectable enough, we’re clearly talking GBA level graphics here. There are a few points where the graphics improve a bit (to match stills apparently swiped from the anime), but overall, you get the picture.
Fighting is a mix of both tactics and turn-based RPG. You can move your players around a limited grid to put them into position for a stronger attack, then choose between either a normal action or a “jutsu” attack, which requires the gamer to rub the screen with their stylus to “charge up” Dragonball-style.
Bottom Line:
Although I’m no fan of the Naruto anime or manga (no short-pants, giant head issues here), I found to my surprise that I actually didn’t mind playing Naruto: Path of the Ninja. It turned out to be halfway decent, if somewhat easier than the standard console RPG. Needless to say, anyone who is a fan of the anime will enjoy the game. Those of us who aren’t might also find something to enjoy – who knows, maybe I should give the anime a second chance. It might not be as bad as I remembered…but then again…
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.0 |
Posted: 2007-12-13 17:19:50 PST