 Review By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | CyberConnect2 |
| Publisher: | Namco Bandai | |
| Genre: | Fighting | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Card | |
| Buy Now: |   |
“Ultimate Contest mode” is one of two places where series fans will be clocking in most of their game hours. Those storied few who don’t really care about or for the series plot and just want to spend their time beating up on opponents can do so in the “Vs. Duel mode”, but this gets tired awfully fast. So we’re back to “Ultimate Contest mode”. In effect, this mode presents the gamer with a very basic action RPG format. You travel around the Hokage Village and various other series locations in search of missions to perform, most of these missions involving a fight. Once a given battle (several of which may have a particular condition attached in order to win, i.e. “perform the Shadow Clone jutsu”) is won, you’re then given a pass to move to the subsequent task/battle. The plot, such as it is, adheres to what I’ve seen of the Naruto storyline fairly closely, so fans should be delighted. Non-fans will likely find themselves both bored and significantly annoyed by both the repetitive nature of the storyline and the execrable efforts of the voice dubbing team. As in the series itself, Naruto’s voice is worse than fingernails on a blackboard – to quote Christopher Lee in Terror of the Tongs, “have you ever had your bones scraped?” - that’s about the effect of it. You have to wonder how his classmates don’t strangle him in the course of each episode.
Another mode of play that should please Naruto geeks is the “Hero’s History mode”. Akin to how the Dragonball: Budokan games progress through various inane DBZ storylines in succession, this inaccurately named mode (“hero”? Please…) follows the series from the “Genin Training arc” through the “Sasuke Retrieval arc” (it really says something when even the names of the storylines sound stupid and boring). There is very little for the gamer to do in this mode. You’re forced to sit through a cutscene which leads into a battle. Once the battle is completed you’re led into another cutscene. This torture test drags on and on until the storyline arc is completed, where you get to move to the next storyline and do the same thing all over again. Woo-hoo. At this point in the game, I’m starting to wonder if Dubya has instituted marathon gameplay of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 for use at Guantanamo Bay. Should you be of the persuasion where your favorite piece of literature is Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, you can suffer away in expectancy, knowing that your subjecting yourself to this misery will unlock several characters, costumes and sundry items for use elsewhere in the game. And correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the nomenclature of “game” supposed to imply a fun, amusing, joyous leisure activity? I fail to see how Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 would fulfill those requirements to any but the most obsessed of fans.
Being yet another brain-dead “shonen” offering, the Naruto anime is based around a very simple, uncomplicated plot, padded to unnervingly extreme lengths by killing a lot of its running time with fights and preparations for fights. Think Dragonball Z without the humor, likeable characters or wry asides. The controls in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 are likewise disturbingly simple and basic. With no real effort or level of challenge, it is possible to win battle after battle merely by hitting the circle button over and over with a push on the directional button every now and then. If anyone needed proof to back up complaints that we’re becoming a dimwitted, overly sedentary, extremely obese, pushbutton society, they need look no further than Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3. We have indubitably and without any clear dissenting opinion seen the decline of Western Civilization over the last few decades. Now we’re clearly on the precipice, and headed for its fall. And the signs thereof are clearly written in the dots and pixels of videogames like this.
Bottom Line:
Legions of eight year old boys of the type described in the last “con” above will doubtless be delighted with the latest release of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. I guess, to look at this with my last shred of objectivity, that Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 could be a lot of fun if you are predisposed to appreciate the series and its rather toxic cast of characters. The rest of us are strongly advised to look elsewhere for some better way to occupy their time.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 5.0 |
Posted: 2008-05-26 11:17:10 PST