Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution

Rating Teen Genre action Publisher D3 Publisher/Tomy Corporation External Links Official D3 Publisher Website

Naruto; Clash of Ninja Revolution is a rare game that managed to draw out a wide range of emotions in me. On one hand, Naruto excited and delighted me with its gameplay elements. But, the game also frustrated me to no end in many regards, making me want to chuck the disc and my Wiimote out the window in one felt swoop. For those of you who are like me and are unfamiliar with the Naturo series, this game is based off of the animated series of the same name. Centered on the main character, Naturo Uzumaki, the series follows him on his journey to be recognized as the strongest ninja in his village. In Clash of Ninja Revolution, players continue to follow along with this story ark as they compete against other ninja’s and characters.

Naruto plays like your standard next-gen fighter. Players are put up against other competitors in several modes, including old favorites like Story and Tournament modes. The Story mode in Naruto doesn’t really offer much that hasn’t been seen outside of a normal episode of the show. Select your character and guide them through a series of battles, driving them to become the best ninja in the land. The regular Tournament mode plays like your standard fighting game, where you end up getting into a series of fights where you advance on if you win two out of three rounds.

This was the first time I had ever used the Wiimote for a fighting game, so the control scheme was interesting and fun for a while. Naruto allows players the option of using a variety of control types. Players can choose to link up an old Gamecube controller and play a classical style fighter, or those who bought the Wii because they like flailing their arms around like fools can opt to utilize the Wiimote and Nunchuck for an experience like no other. Players move their characters around levels while utilizing the Wiimote to kick, punch, and pummel their opponents in to submission. Being the adventurous go-getter than I am, I opted to use the Wiimote/Nunchuck combonation. At first, I had no clue what I was doing. I swung my arms around as though I were shooing bees away from me, yet I still managed to win my first few matchups. Once I figured out the control scheme and how to perform special moves, I slowly began to master Naturo. In all honestly, it was a rewarding feeling, being able to learn a fighting game’s special maneuvers by myself without the assistance of a guide or manual.

My biggest, and only, complaint about Naruto is that the difficulty becomes immensely challenging out of nowhere. Playing through the game, I noticed that occasionally, the opponents would go from being a breeze to defeat to nearly impossible. Some opponents took numerous attempts to get past. Typically, you would expect a gradual shift in the difficulty. Fortunately, players can continue playing until they upend the challenges in front of them and defeat the game.

Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution isn’t going to win any awards for being a groundbreaking, original game. We’ve played games like it before and will continue to play them in the future. However, thanks to the Wiimote control scheme, Naruto is much more fun than your average punches-and-kicks fest. For any other system, I honestly probably would have hated this game. Because I got to use my Wiimote in an innovative manner, I enjoyed Naruto much more than I expected.