Naruto Review: It Finally Came!!!

So the game finally came on Friday, December 21st, and I was eager to open it. I couldn't believe that it was finally in the palm of my hand! I even recorded myself opening it, putting the disc into the Wii, and watching the opening credits. I knew it was about to be awesome. :-p

Honestly, it was a bit difficult to concentrate while being shocked the entire time I was playing. I was sooo impatient going through the tutorial for the controls. It felt like it would take forever to finish learning how to charge my jutsu (I guess I shouldn't complain because I'm sure that since it's a video game, it seems a lot easier than it looks... in real life). So I kind of rushed through it. I wanted to make sure that I got the dynamics down so I can start the story mode, but I didn't realize that I would be punished for it. SO once I was sure that I knew all the buttons and how to do the secret techniques, I began with the story mode.

I've been playing this game for a while now, and this is some things that I've noticed:

The Story Mode:

*You must read the instructions thoroughly! It takes me at least five tries to get past each level, and it is rather difficult. Sometimes it would look like the computer ran out of life, but they're still kicking your player in the neck. I thought that the game was cheating, until I read the instruction for that round, and it said that the fights over when I use a secret technique on them as a last blow. All I could say is, "ohhhh". The embarrassing part is this happened to me a couple of times.

*You must think your fighting tactics through. The levels get harder and harder as I go along. A few of them seems impossible to defeat, but all I had to do was switch up my fighting style (I usually just keep attempting to hit them, but then I realize that blocking is a good idea too). Plus, I learned to be more smart with how I use my chakra energy. It's used up whenever you use a jutsu, like a substitution jutsu (if you are in the middle of taking blows, you use the substitution jutsu to teleport behind them, and return the favor to the opponent). You can use it up by blocking too, but like I said earlier, you and do the hand signs to gain more chakra (the only problem is that give the opponent time to do a 10 hit combo on the back of you head).

* Almost inevitable failure. As you go along, the levels become so hard that it would take a miracle for you to get past them. The probability of a person being able to pass that particular level on a first try , in my opinion, is the equivalent of someone solving a cube in less than five seconds. You would have to be a computer graphic genius. A hard one was when Guy Sensei had to fight against another Guy Sensei that copied his every move. This is where the pressing random buttons took effect, and actually paid off. In the story mode as of today, I cannot seem to defeat this guy named Deidara (I think he cheats every time I have to fight him), while I have Neji and TenTen on my team. This is what I can tell: the more life he loses, the more stupid little spider bomb things and cloudy looking birds he keeps sending in my direction. I almost entirely gave up on the story mode because of it.

* Incessant reminiscing. In the beginning of the story mode, every single person who pops up on the screen (the protagonists that is) are nostalgic. They would not shut up about how much the Hidden Leaf Village "brings back a lot of memories", and how "so much ha changed since X, Y, and Z". Good thing there's a skip button.

Wi-Fi connection mode:

*Pretty awesome. It may take a while to connect with someone, but that's my only complaint as far as that goes. My only issue is that I have to go against people with experience, and I can't seem to ever win a battle of any sort. I had to have had about ten different types of battles already, and I lost all of them. I still think it's worth it though.

VS. Mode:

*Even more awesome! Once again, I have no problem with it. It's the only form of the game that I can win, therefore it builds my self-confidence for the story mode whenever I'm discouraged. I like doing the score attack since it lasts longer, and I can go against all of the computer players in my inventory

Extras:

*The market.  I appreciate how I can purchase other characters to use in battles. So long as I have enough ryos (you receive more ryos every time you win a battle), you can buy characters, places to battle, and more.

*Etc. There are some other things in the extras, but I have yet to use them.

Controls:

*Why isn't this button working? The controllers are pretty simple to use. I prefer using the numchuks, so I never tried it with the classic remote mode. My only complaint is that I cannot pause the game. The only way I can pause it is by pressing the home button, but the pause (+) button should work. It works for any other purpose, just not pausing the game.

So far, that's all I have to say about the game. It's a lot of fun, and I think it would be even ore fun to play against someone else. The graphics are as sufficient as expected, and I appreciate how the makers incorporated some of the details from the show into the game (not that they had a choice or anything). The story mode is borderline difficult, but it's a lot of fun to try. With this game, you can always expect a challenge that can be both frustrating, and exhilarating. That's what makes this game so awesome, and worth the wait. :-)