Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Review

By Rob Fahey Published 25 November, 2007

Fall of a preconception.

Version tested: Xbox 360

This would normally be the bit of the review where I explain what Naruto is - but frankly, if you don't already know, you're reading the wrong review. All licensed titles rely on knowledge of their source material to some extent, of course - but with many of them, you can enjoy the game without really knowing much about the media it's based on. Fans of the original media just get an extra layer of enjoyment, that's all.

That's not the case with Naruto: Rise of a Ninja. Unless you're familiar with the spiky-blond youngster's shenanigans, you're going to spend most of this game wondering what in the name of all that's holy is going on. That's fine, of course; it just restricts the target audience to people who know about Naruto, and given that it's pretty much the most popular cultural export from Japan of the last five years, that's not a restriction anyone is likely to sweat too much about.

Grand Theft Ninja

This is not, of course, the first time that Naruto has had a console outing. The series' extensive cast of teen ninja weirdos has been the subject of a large number of beat 'em up titles, several of which have even made it past Japan's rocky shores - but none of which really stuck their heads above the parapet as being particularly great games.

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is peculiar, though, because it wasn't developed in Japan at all. For the young ninja's first outing on a next-gen console, the rights were handed to Ubisoft, with the game being developed in Canada. Cue predictable groaning from fans of the series; a Japanese anime and manga franchise, being translated into a console game by a North American studio? A recipe for disaster, surely?

'Naruto: Rise of a Ninja' Screenshot 1

If you can see it, you can go there - assuming the number of villagers who'll shout rude things at you on the way doesn't make you go off for a big emo sob session in the corner first.

Well, no. From the outset it's clear that Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is by far the best game in this franchise - and, in fact, it raises the quality bar for anime adaptations in general by quite a few notches.

Loosely following the plot of the first eighty episodes of the TV series (up to the end of the invasion of Konoha village, in effect - look, if you don't know what that means, you probably shouldn't be playing the game anyway), Rise of a Ninja is really two very distinct games in one. It's a platform adventure title, featuring dozens of mini-quests and missions in a free-roaming version of Konoha village and its environs, and it's a beat 'em up game where you fight enemies from the series (and random bandits) using the powers you've acquired in the adventure mode.

Both aspects work remarkably well. Ubisoft has done a superb job of bringing Konoha to life, mixing the cluttered nature of Japanese urban environments with the series' unique, colourful visuals. The town is relatively easy to navigate at street level, and features all of the famous locations from the series; as you progress, however, Naruto will gain abilities like sprinting and double-jumping, which allow him to access rooftops and jump across wide gaps, which opens up new areas and secret items.

'Naruto: Rise of a Ninja' Screenshot 2

Jutsu - such as Naruto's Shadow Clone attack - are the key to dealing heavy damage in battle. They also open up new areas in the adventure game.

Within Konoha's environs, there's plenty to do - with loads of tiny missions such as delivering Ramen for the local shop, collecting hidden coins to unlock combat items, or playing hide and seek with snot-nosed brat Konohamaru. One of your overall objectives is to change Naruto's status from being despised by everyone in the town to being widely liked, and each mission you undertake converts some villagers to your side - signified by an angry face floating above their head changing to a happy one. Happy villagers will help you with quests - and, in a nice touch, will say pleasant things to you as you run past, rather than shouting insults at you.

The New Hokage

The beat 'em up game is closer to what we've come to expect from Japanese-developed Naruto titles, and of course, you can play this mode in multiplayer. It's far from being the most deep or involving beat 'em up we've ever played, though. The basic strategy of the game involves using heavy attacks to drive a character away from you and knock them over, giving you room to set up one of the game's "jutsu" moves - non-interruptable button press sequences which take off vast damage if you get them right.

'Naruto: Rise of a Ninja' Screenshot 3

The Konoha environment looks great - it's hugely authentic to the anime, and manages to balance realism with colourful cartoon looks perfectly.

The balance, however, is a bit odd; jutsus are so powerful that the developers had to add in long-range attacks that easily interrupt them, which means that against a remotely decent opponent (either human or AI) you generally end up opting for straight-forward combos and blocking. It ends up feeling a bit like a beat 'em up lite - there's not a lot of complexity, but there are some nice ideas in there.

We like the concept of levelling up a beat 'em up character as you progress, for a start. We also liked the game's "memo clips", good memories that Naruto has collected on his journey which allow you to refill your health to a certain degree if you're defeated in combat during the story mode. However, after a while, this feature basically felt like a sop to the incredibly uneven difficulty of the game.

Rise of a Ninja, you see, is a game which is designed for kids to a large extent - young teenagers, at least. That's fair enough, and with that in mind even cynical old beards like ourselves were still enjoying the game to large extent. Then - out of the blue - the game throws you into a battle with a story character (Zabuza, to be precise) which completely, utterly annihilates you. Struggle through, and you fight him again immediately; and note that your health doesn't recharge between battles, unless you use items to replenish it.

Compared with the incredibly simple delivery missions in Konoha village (which are, in fact, so simple that they start to get a bit repetitive after a while - another failing of the game being a lack of variety in the missions spread around your hometown), the character fights are bizarrely difficult. It reinforces the idea that the game really is two games in one; it feels like there was a total disconnect between the design of the adventure (simple, fun, light-hearted) and the beat 'em up (technically relatively simple, but absolutely kick-arse difficult), which they tried to resolve by throwing in memo clips. Indeed, if you get your butt kicked too badly you'll be given the option of fully refreshing all your memo clips - very handy, certainly, but a better difficulty curve would have been a lot more welcome.

'Naruto: Rise of a Ninja' Screenshot 4

Yes, you can punch smug, arrogant knob Neji in the face really hard. Run out and buy the game now.

Rise of a Ninja is by far the best Naruto game around, and its absolutely lovely cel-shaded graphics and gorgeous, authentic environments set it head and shoulders above the competition in terms of anime licensed games. However, the difficulty curve is nothing short of utterly random, and the Konoha missions lack the variety to make the game truly compelling - even if the series' wonderful drama shines through at all the key moments you'd expect. The lack of Japanese voice acting is a major negative point against the game, too, because the US dub is "controversial" to put it mildly; a huge number of Naruto's fans are familiar with the original Japanese audio, and the American voices on offer here will grate terribly as a result. Especially since most of the voice actors don't even seem to be able to pronounce the name of the series and its lead character consistently, let alone correctly.

The phrase "one for the fans" has never been applied more honestly than in this case; it may be flawed, but we're happy to recommend Rise of a Ninja to Naruto fans - albeit with a few reservations. Believe it. (Sorry.)

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • smoothn00dle #1 4 years ago

    cool. finally a good ninja game

  • Ciaran #2 4 years ago

    Didn't Ubi promise a japanese voice pack as DLC?

  • menage #3 4 years ago

    Yep

    Jp voices = +1:)

    I can't find this anywhere. Totally sold out. I'll Ebay it next year.

  • Kujata #4 4 years ago

    Bought this when it came out as i remembered quite enjoying the few episodes of the Anime i had seen back in the day.

    It's a really fun little game, crossing an adventure game with a one-on-one beat-em-up felt quite fresh (i can't remember playing anything else like that, bar the rather nasty Mortal Kombat Konquest mode). Add to that frenetic combat, OTT moves, and jutsus and the fight sections actually like they were a Naruto fight... rather than just another beat-em-up in Naruto clothing.

    Well worth a look, even if you aren't a big Naruto fan.

    (Been on this site for years, but this is my first post ever... um, go me?)

  • Kujata #5 4 years ago

    @ Ciaran

    I got the Jap voice pack off the US marketplace yesterday... so it may well be on the Euro ones now as well.

    Have yet to try it out though.

  • Xerx3s #6 4 years ago

    Thinking about picking this up when the autumn rush dies down a bit.

  • blicko #7 4 years ago

    As much as I enjoy the anime, I really don't think I could forgive the non-Japanese voice acting. *shivers*

  • LeD #8 4 years ago

    I'm pretty sure the Japanese voices pack is up on the Marketplace. Think I've seen it yesterday while browsing for new content.

  • blicko #9 4 years ago

    @ LeD & Kujata.

    Fantastic news. Cheers.

  • thefilthandthefury #10 4 years ago

    Yeah the Japanese Audio is definitely on the Marketplace.

    Brilliant game, by the way. Had a lot of fun with it. Trying to do the online Chunin Exam was a lot of fun, but I could never get past match four! :(

  • asphaltcowboy #11 4 years ago

    Awesome! Will be getting this for/after Christmas! Especially now the Japanese audio is out!

  • JediMasterMalik #12 4 years ago

    Excellent, looks like something to pick up when I get a 360.

  • Chojin #13 4 years ago

    I've never seen the anime but enjoyed this game a lot. I would say better gameplay and variety than Assassin's Creed. 8/10.

  • septimus #14 4 years ago

    Yeah, download the Japanese voices if you prefer your ears not to bleed. Again, +1 with the original Jap voice case.

  • Serraphin #15 4 years ago

    yup had this for a couple of weeks, but started playing again now the dlc is up.

    jap audio is indeedy a +1

    PS the audio also covers the anime bits \o/

  • absolutezero #16 4 years ago

    The fighting segement is'nt a patch on the Ninja taisen series. Which IMO is the best that Naruto has to offer.

    That said its still quite a fun little game, the rage mode is pathetic for what should be a huge moment in the story mode and some of the jutsus are just stupid and irritating to pull off.

    Delivery missions are never fun, ever.

    Then theres the fact that the anime segments have been taken from the cut US versions, i.e. when Naruto stabs himself in the hand to get rid of the poison.

  • Azazel #17 4 years ago

    it's pretty much the most popular cultural export from Japan of the last five years

    Wow, I really mustn't be interested in things Japanese.

  • BBIAJ #18 4 years ago

    The Jap voices have been on the UK MP for a few days now...

    I have found that when talking to the villagers though, there no subtitles, and then an arrow appears, and you have no idea what it is pointing to!

    I assume it's your next mission?

    Oh, and I'd never even heard of Naruto before, but that hasn't stopped me from really enjoying the game!

  • absolutezero #19 4 years ago

    If your on a mission at the time (find coins for a shop for example) talking to a friendly villager will point you in the direction in the nearest whatever it is your searching for.

  • jlaakso #20 4 years ago

    I have not seen or read any Naruto, yet I do enjoy the game. I actually like the fact that everything isn't exposed through force-fed narration. You can piece together stuff on your own and really, that's fine by me.

  • Telepathic.Geometry #21 4 years ago

    Bah. Dubs. >:(

  • Fyzzu #22 4 years ago

    It skips out on a hell of a lot of exposition, but it's not really a bad thing. It does make the later sections a bit jarring though, at least for a fan, and some things seem a bit odd (Orochimaru's single appearance!) Still, it's surprisingly decent. Considering how much other Naruto games have improved on their prequels, if a sequel retained the same major ideas but improved and expanded, then...

    And yeah, the Japanese voices make everything so, so, SO much more tolerable. I thought I'd gotten used to the English ones before I downloaded the voice pack, and it was considerably less ear-breaking. I do love having music from the series in the background, too.

  • BBIAJ #23 4 years ago

    @ absolutezero:

    I know that, because it's subtitled ;o)

    It's when you're just playing in general, not in a mission or anything, that it's not subtitled when you speak to the villagers.

  • absolutezero #24 4 years ago

    Im guessing itll just be coins in general then, why not follow the arrow and discover for yourself. Itll be like a little adventure.

  • Pulsar_t #25 4 years ago

    Naruto eh? Why not offer us a decent game based on Eva or Kenshin?

  • Strac #26 4 years ago

    the japanese voices are already dlc

  • Shinji #27 4 years ago

    Yep, Japanese voices are on DLC now - this review was written a little while ago, when the Japanese language DLC was still a rumour. That said, I don't think the score is an automatic +1 with the Japanese language pack - it's probably still a 7, but definitely a more palatable game for a lot of people :)

  • Pulsar_t #28 4 years ago

    English anime dubs are destined to remain stupid for eternity.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #29 4 years ago

    I think this might actually just beat out Assasin't Creed for me, especially with japanese voice overs.

    I was totally expecting this to be rubbish as well, yey!

    How do you like that, Ubisoft Montreal?

    ...oh, they made this too.
    Edited by 1 at 26/11/07 @ 09:10

  • The-Bodybuilder #30 4 years ago

    I would prefer a game on the boondocks, personally.

  • XdarXideX #31 4 years ago

    One for the fans? I'd not seen Naruto before buying this game and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it! It deserves an 8 in my opinion.

    EG's reviewers must really hate the cold weather because they all seem to be in shoddy moods when writing these days.

  • Lemming81 #32 4 years ago

    Ninjas look cool when they are wearing hooded masks et al, so I'll never understand why they'd want to ruin it by make him look like an 80's b-movie reject.

  • Kujata #33 4 years ago

    @ Lemming81

    I think that is kind of the point... ninja guy in all over black and face mask has been done to death. Ninja in bright orange with spiky blond hair is less common, and more interesting for it.

    Plus if you want brooding ninja stereotypes the Naruto series has them to. It all works out!

  • dfunked #34 4 years ago

    I'm surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this game, seeing as the last Naruto game that I tried to play was an utterly abysmal GBA outing...
    Defintely 8/10 material, and one that I'll be returning to in order to get the rest of the achievements.
    The first difficulty spike mentioned in the review was fairly unexpected, but once you get the dash move, combat becomes nice and easy again (up and Y or X)

    thankfully it arrived late, so I didn't have to put up with the horrible american voiceovers

  • merc2k7 #35 4 years ago

    I seen this game advertised, thought it looked fun and decided to a little research on it. I am now hooked on the Naruto Anime and will pick up the game (with Jap audio) soon.
    Edited by 1 at 30/01/08 @ 16:48