Naruto Clash of Ninja: Two Shadow Clones Up!

Got a copy of Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution for the Wii yesterday. Although I have a scheduled trip to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta tomorrow, I’ve forgotten the time: been too busy unlocking characters from the Story Mode.

Who ISN’T a fan of Naruto? Was able to grab a copy of the English version of Clash of Ninja Revolution (Gekitou Ninja Taisen in Japan which was released in 2003 for the GameCube) a few days ago and have been enjoying the experience of performing the Naruto’s Rasengan, Kakashi’s thousand years of pain, Sasuke’s Sharingan, and the other popular jutsu we’ve come to love in the animated series and comics. Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution can be enjoyed in two ways – using the classic / GameCube controller or the WiiMote + nunchuck combination. As an old school gamer, I’ve always had a hard time adjusting to the WiiMote for these street fighter genres.

Similarly, in other fighting games like Mortal Kombat Armageddon for the Wii, developers have said that it would be much easier to do certain moves and fatalities using hand motions – but I say nay! The same experience can be handed down to Clash of Ninja. Thankfully, devs have allowed the use of the classic controller, unlike in other anime-based games like Bleach: Shattered Blade where using the WiiMote + nunchuck is the only way to perform moves – and hand motions can get tiring fast compared to good old button mashing.

The controls are fairly simple: you have your weak and strong attack (some characters throw projectiles when you press this button), grab + throw, two sidestep buttons, and the special jutsu button that performs all the great signature moves from the television series. Combos and special attacks are performed in the same way one would enjoy Super Smash Brothers – by pressing a direction + attack and combining these with button mashing to execute a chain of moves. Speaking of Smash Brothers, CON can be enjoyed in two ways – there’s the regular VS mode as well as the 4-way battle where you can brawl it in teams or as individuals. The latter mode of play is best reserved for Wii parties! Here’s a look into the four player mode:

The only qualm I would have with this version is that around half of the other characters are locked at the beginning. You’d have to complete missions, single player arcade mode with different characters to unlock everyone. I’m not saying this is bad – it’s just that why do so many characters have to be locked?

All in all, Clash of Ninja Revolution brings a good 2003 game to English speaking gamers. I’m not too sure about this, but the cell shading and other effects have been worked on to bring a smoother gaming experience. There are some anomalies with the character shadows, but that’s all the bad I can say about the eye candy. A lot of the humor from the series is incorporated into the game. A fine example is Guy’s special jutsu which we see at the end of this video:

Oh what fun! Anybody want to play? 🙂

Image courtesy of GameSpot