Average Customer Review:
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 game playJun 18, 2008
the game play is very smooth & colorful, it takes awhile to get use to the combos & special attacks, but over all its a great game to own.
 Pretty fun, definitely entertaining! Jun 09, 2008
Got this as a gift for someone, who said it was pretty fun though a little repetitive at times. Pick up coins...deliver ramen...pick up coins...deliver ramen...hear annoying voice...pick up coins...sexy jutsu. But that it was definitely a much better game than he had expected.
Fun, but short. Watch out for higher-level enemies...May 30, 2008
The first Naruto game i played. and overall, a very fun game. i'd seen a few episodes, and then to play out those events, was cool. but i think the game ended too soon. maybe adding more episodes and more side quests would have made it better. learning to fight is pretty difficult too! the AI controlling your enemies is pro, and without some practice, you'll be more aggravated than a baby without a teet.
 One of the best anime based games ever released!May 23, 2008
The mega manga/anime franchise that has been sweeping the states as of late is the Naruto franchise. The universe within the series pretty much says "game" written all over it. If you picked up a random Naruto game, however, chances are it had "not that great" written all over it. Many of them are shallow fighters or platformers that have no real reason to exist other than to make cash on the popular craze. Ubisoft, however, has decided to take on the reels of the franchise and deliver a Naruto game of their own. As the first game in the franchise to be developed outside of Japan, and the first to hit Microsoft's console, it attempts to deliver something that the other games have missed out on: being good. Does it succeed in its lofty goal, however?!
Story:
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja covers the first 80 or so episodes of the franchise, and tells of the beginnings of Naruto's rise of becoming the very best ninja, known as "hokage" in his world. He is known, however, as being a troublemaker, and try as he might, he never really seems to catch a break. Not only has he failed ninja school, but he has an ancient nine-tailed fox demon sealed inside him, which hasn't exactly made him the talk of the town, so to speak. Naruto now attempts to do everything in his power to win the villagers trust. The setup is not too complicated, yet it makes you want to help the young underdog on his quest to earn the one thing he's looking for: respect.
7/10
Design:
There are two different modes in Naruto: Rise of a Ninja: Story Mode and Fight Mode. The Story Mode is the main single player component of the game, and takes you through Naruto's trials and tribulations of becoming a respectable ninja. At the start of the game, no one really likes him. Your objective is to help out the villagers by taking on missions, quests, and several minigames through the Hidden Leaf Village. As you complete these tasks, you'll make the villagers happy, and it is also your main measure of your progress in the game. Also, like an RPG, doing tasks increases your Health Points and Chakra Points. The tasks have quite a bit of variety, and you'll find quite a lot to do in the single player component.
The missions take you through select exhibitions of the main Naruto story covered in the manga and anime. A lot of these exhibitions have plat forming elements, and you perform acrobatic feets, a lot like a simplified version of Ubisoft's own Prince of Persia. These segments require precise timing to jump over swinging logs, spears, and other nefarious traps. During the course of the game, you'll also learn how to climb up certain walls and surfaces, as well as walk on water. These abilities open up previously unexplorable paths, and you'll oftentimes want to exploit them to find another section you couldn't get to before. This is especially a plus, because some of the missions require you to hop onto treetops and get to the other side of the lake in order to complete a mission.
Quests are side missions you can do as favors for the villagers. Often, they consist of finding lost items, gathering a certain number of coins, and others. Most, if not all, are required to advance the story, but you still want to do them if you want to get the more elusive achievements toward your Gamerscore on your Xbox Live profile. Other side quests include delivering ramen, wooing lovelorn villagers with a certain jutsu, timed races, and hide and seek. There is quite a lot to do in the game's world, yet the main story mode doesn't last that long, ranging from about 7 to 8 hours if you don't do everything else the game has to offer. If you are, at least double that amount. It took me about 20 hours to do everything in the single player game, so that may be enough bang for your buck.
The other aspect of the Story Mode, which also has a separate Fight Mode, is the one on one fighting. The combat system in this fighter segment is simple, yet somehow also deep. The fighter is made so that newcomers can still have a reasonable chance to beat a vertran. There are standard combos, throwing knives (or kunai), and the jutsus that can be performed by holding down L trigger and entering a combination of movements on the two analog sticks. Successfully pull off one, and you'll initiate an event, where you have to enter a succession of either timed button presses, hitting the target at the right spot, and so on. The one being attacked can also possibly avoid the onsluaght by timing certain actions just right, so unlike other Naruto games, just because someone performed a jutsu doesn't mean that you will automatically lose if you're low on health.
Another thing that sets the game over the top is its support over Xbox Live. In the Marketplace, you can purchase additional characters and maps (Shikimaru is free, though) as well as download Japanese voice overs for the game (also free). Add online play for the fight mode, and you have a product that pulls a lot of punches.
9/10
Gameplay:
The controller functions quite admirably for this game. Naruto moves smoothly, and all the actions in the game are simplified. There are, however, the occasional rogue camera problems, where it'll get stuck in an object and you have no idea where Naruto is. There are also some minor glitches, like I encountered one where Naruto is mysteriously caught on a ledge and can't get off, and I had to reset the game in order to resume. I also encountered a problem with the Shikimaru download, where it causes the game to crash whenever you hit a tripwire in the single player mode and such. The Jiraya and Sarutobi download did fix this problem, whether it be free trial or pay download, but I figure it should be noted. Despite all these problems, you should have no real qualms with controlling in Naruto, in either modes.
Also, while the fight mode is fun and intense, it's implementation in the Story Mode lacks just a bit of pizazz. Sometimes, you do fight characters from the anime, but most of the time, you're fighting generic enemies. It's not really a problem for me, but it might be for some, so I figured it should be noted.
8.5/10
Presentation:
Perhaps the best aspect of Naruto: Rise of the Ninja is the presentation. The graphics look absolutely breathtaking. The Hidden Leaf Village is just a delight to explore, and oftentimes, you'll end up getting lost in Naruto's world just for the sake of exploring its lush, beautiful world. Oftentimes, it actually looks better than the anime it's based on. One nitpick however is the lips not flapping when they talk during the in-game cinematics. The game also has select cuts from the anime itself, though mostly, they have boarders on the left and right sides if you're using an HDTV. I assume this is done because the source material for the footage is still SD, which was provided by VIZ Media, but it is still a bit odd. Still, if it was full screen, I guess we would be experiencing a weak pressure, so this is understandable.
Audio wise, the package has the voice work from the American cast, love them or hate them. Still, it does make it sound more authentic. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the purists can download (for FREE) Japanese voice overs, which also do a respectable job. In fact, they actually do better, and are actually more funny, especially when Naruto falls into the water ("Flipeee!" Heh heh. I never get tired of that.) The sound effects fit the Naruto world and I found no qualms with any of them. Overall, this is an outstanding package in terms of presentation!
9.5/10
Overall:
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja isn't exactly the best game out there, but it is one of the best anime games ever released! It is great for fans of the show, and is very approachable for newcomers of Naruto's world. While some may still want more, overall I'm very pleased with this game, and it actually made a Naruto fan out of this former non-fan!! If that's not saying something, I don't know what is!!!
9.0/10 (Not an average)
Fun X360 PastimeApr 13, 2008
Faithful to the hit Japanese cartoon, this game is a lot of fun for 1 to 2 players either off line or online. It can be played as a story and as a 3D fighting game. Some of the achievements can only be unlocked by playing online as a fighting game while others can be unlocked by playing off line in its story mode. It has a few bugs.
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based on 18 reviews