"Naruto: Rise of a Ninja" is a novel and relatively well-done combination of a platform-adventure game, a fighting game and a role-playing game (RPG). For those unfamiliar with the anime/manga story of the hyperactive ninja in the Hidden Leaf village, Naruto is an epic tale in the Japanese media that began airing dubbed episodes on Cartoon Network several years ago. "Rise of a Ninja," from the Ubisoft Montreal development team, is the first game to actually communicate the spirit of the Naruto story and not just cash in on the anime character's popularity.
For those who enjoy the Naruto world, the game's main story mode is the biggest attraction. The development team put together a 3-D carbon copy of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, complete with Ninja Academy, City Hall and a cliff carved with the faces of previous village leaders. The player takes control of Naruto and runs him through this village, attempting to make the villagers like him while doing ninja missions and embarking on personal quests.
The game's focus on pleasing the villagers is the first indication that the designers really paid attention to the Naruto fiction. At the beginning of the game, Naruto is hated by all the villagers - just as he is in the show before he graduates from the academy. Naruto's overriding personal goal is to earn the respect of all in the village and be selected as the next "Hokage," or lead ninja. Thus, what would normally be a chore - pleasing all the villagers in the game - becomes an enjoyable game mechanic to fans of the series.
Some lazy game design, however, is evident in the missions, bringing down what could otherwise be a class-A narrative. The side missions, which are not in the main plot course, often make no sense, or involve gathering a huge number of collectibles to complete them. For instance, one mission is "Go to the Country of Waves," where Naruto has to race around on a bridge. This is just an excuse to re-use the "Race" technology - and while this makes a lot of sense from a budgetary standpoint, it is sadly unimaginative.
The racing sub-missions are the game's biggest flaw. They consist of running and jumping from one green ring to another through the game world, passing through each checkpoint in order to earn enough time to make it to the next one. While one or two of these would not be too upsetting if perfectly executed, there are a ton, and the controls are not quite refined enough to make any of them enjoyable. They are far from a deal-breaker, but they are quite annoying.
The fighting in the game, however, comes across quite well. The use of kunai, a ninja weapon, is just right, the balance between combo attacks and use of special abilities is perfect, and the visual style is spot-on. The only thing the game does poorly as far as fighting is concerned is the repeated use of generic enemies.
While this again is probably due to budgetary issues more than lack of originality, it's still disappointing to fight a generic "Genin Ninja" rather than an actual ninja shown in the source material. Hopefully the sequel will address this and not use any generic enemies - or at least have a vast number of skins for any given class of generic enemy.
The way Naruto's abilities increase over time is the RPG part of the game, though in this case they are leveled up not with experience but with collectibles. This mechanic is both a gift and a curse: While the player easily finds a number of the collectibles during the normal course of gameplay and thus can level up to his satisfaction, a player who fails to collect enough coins will be severely limited in his fighting abilities for the hard fights towards the game's end.
Games with massive numbers of collectibles tend to be incredible time sinks aimed at the hardcore gamer, but "Rise of a Ninja" bucks the trend slightly here. While there are over 600 collectibles in the game, the playable area is small enough that these do not have to take more than five hours to collect, a paltry amount of time in the frightening framework of typical RPGs. However, that's still not an insignificant investment in the busy world of college life.
All in all, "Naruto: Rise of a Ninja" is an exceptional game for fans of adventure games, and especially for fans of Naruto. Those who watch the anime - or just enjoy good games - should definitely pick this up. It has its flaws, but overall, Naruto leaves the player chomping at the bit for the inevitable second installment in the series.
