Naruto Uzamaki dreams of becoming the best ninja in his land, he wants to be the “Hokage”. Naruto has been hated by everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village since the day he was born, this is because a 9 tailed Demon Fox that attacked the Village 12 years ago and killed many people, was sealed inside of Naruto. This means that Naruto grew up with no friends and he has no family. He spent his younger years rampaging around the village causing destruction, just so people would notice him. But it is now time for him to graduate and become a real Ninja. The purpose of this game is to help Naruto gain the trust and make friends with people so he can become the greatest Hokage that ever lived!

This game has been about for a while and to anyone who knows this anime series will be very familiar with the plot and what the game will have in the way of a story. If you have never heard of Naruto before, then you are in for a nice little treat with this one. It is a nice mix of an adventure game with a detailed fighting game behind it. You start off as a basic ninja who runs around the Leaf Village doing small tasks for people and gaining popularity. You have higher up Ninja teach you new skills and techniques that you can use all the time. Like running up walls, or breaking through doors. While this kind of game play is not new by any means, it is a huge leap for a Naruto game which has always been a basic beat em up style game.

A good story, with a great new mix of game play means you will be playing this game for ages. Working your way through all the little missions, helping people recover items and finding gold coins, just so you can level Naruto up and be the best you can! If you are a fan of Naruto then this game will mean a lot more to you than anyone else who has never heard the name before. While I could write for many paragraphs about the story and where it is right and where it went wrong. I won’t bother I’ll focus on the game.

Graphically the game is great, it resembles the anime and the cut scenes are taken straight from the programme, making the whole story slow even better than you could wish for. The controls work well, with nothing over the top, even when you are fighting the controls are simple enough for people to enjoy, but with enough depth so practise really pays off. Especially when you want to go on Xbox Live and challenge all the Ninja around the world.

The amount of characters is pretty poor, about 10 are at your disposal. With a few as downloadable content to increase the number. I felt that it was the games downfall, in a beat em up, you like having a good choice. The characters that are available are generally well designed, their move set, animations and looks are pretty much spot on. Each character is also very different from another, meaning finding the best one for you is key if you want to do well online or against your friends. Some are slow and powerful, while others are nimble and deal less damage. Each character has at least two “ultimate” moves and these are fairly easy to pull off – if you can find the time in a match to do them. Like I mentioned earlier, anyone can play this game, but it really is one where the people who practise and play for longer will do a lot better than the button bashers.

There are a couple of various game modes that you can play through, the main story, Vs or some nice little tournament style scenarios. While you can only play as Naruto in the main story, you can utilize the other characters strengths in the other game modes.

This game has finally managed to do Naruto justice, a great adventure game that has had me playing for ages with a great fighting game built in that I am unable to put down. For me it is one of them games that makes playing games such a great experience. I played solidly for hours and am eager to get online with this and hopefully kick some butt! There are 100’s of coins and other collectables to get and loads of side quests like delivering ramen to complete. All this mixed in with the achievements you can obtain, make this an excellent purchase at about £20 now and will keep you playing for ages.

If you like Naruto then you will love this and find it hard to do much else than play it, if you are new to the anime then it is still worth having a look at, it plays well and the story has been simplified enough to make even new people seem like they know everything.

A great game that you should pick up!
9/10