Intellivision Lives! For Microsoft Xbox

Intellivision Lives! For Microsoft Xbox, 6.0




Developer: Realtime Associates
Publisher: Crave Entertainment
Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube, PS2, Xbox, Nintendo DS
Release Dates:
Windows:
NA: April 30, 1999
Playstation 2:
NA: November 20, 2003
PAL: September 24, 2004
Xbox:
NA: February 2, 2004
GameCube:
NA: November 4, 2004
Genre: Compilation
Rating(s):
ESRB: E
PEGI: +3

Intellivision Lives! is a compilation game of sixty games for the cult-classic competitor of the Atari, the Intellivision. Made famous by its quirky numbered controls and its arcade-styled graphics, the Intellivision sold millions. The Intellivision released more than one-hundred and twenty games, so this compilation only brings the most memorable games of the console. The Intellivision also had a peripheral which could be connected to the system and brought voices to the games; however, the games that have this feature can be counted with one hand.

The game’s overworld is designed to look like an 80’s pizza parlor; the games are stacked over in different sections which are portrayed as Arcade machines. The overworld also has a jukebox with random music that can be played. The jukebox is a classic example of a feature that could have been better if the game enabled ‘custom soundtrack’ in the Xbox version, because the jukebox only brings strange nonsense music that plays even though when you’re playing a classic game. The option of music in the jukebox can be turned off, thankfully.

The graphics of the Pizza Parlor look dull and uninteresting, speaking of graphics; the game also boasts interviews and commercials as unlockables, most of them which have a horrible quality of video. It’s just unthinkable, because all interviews (Despite the fact that they were made in the 2000’s), look as though the quality were of the 80’s or even the 70’s.

Now speaking of the games, there’s not much to say here. Most games are playable, but there are some games that require two player controls in order to be playable, or just another controls. Some games are so awkward, they’re simply unplayable. For example, in the game Bomb Squad, you’re left to do something you really don’t have a clue. Some other games are playable and are actually fun, amongst the funnest I would probably have to mention Astrosmash and Space Hawk. But otherwise, some games are simply too abstract or just strange. Some games feature goals you must complete in order to see videos or other unlockable features.

Here’s a problem with the controls: While the controls say that they’re designed to mimic the construction of the original Intellivision console, sometimes you have bring up the select screen in order to see a giant Intellivision controller which must be used to select options in the game, instead of simply doing them in the main control you’re using.

Very few games feature music; most of them are played in simple silence with sound effects from the game.

Overall, the game isn’t bad if you’re an old-school game fan. Otherwise, there are better games. Not to mention, that this a poor excuse of a compilation game in general, with weak graphics, strange controls, and unnecesary music from a random jukebox.

Gameplay: 6.5, Some games are fun and playable; but others are strange and obscure.

Graphics: 4.5, the overworld is cheaply done, and the videos feature horrendous quality. Overall, the game’s graphics were top-notch during the time.

Controls: 5.5, Sometimes unorganized controls, and it’s painful when a game forces you to use two controllers for a one-player game.

Sounds: 6.0, Strange jukebox music which can thankfully be turned off; otherwise, very few Intellivision games feature music, but boast that nice old-school sound effects.

Overall: 6.0, The game isn’t bad if you were an Intellivision fan, otherwise, this game isn’t very great.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for Microsoft Xbox

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for Microsoft Xbox, 7.2

Developer(s): The Collective, Inc; Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s): LucasArts; Ubisoft SA
Engine: Slayer
Platform(s): Xbox, Playstation 2, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Mobile Phone
Release date: May 5, 2005
Genre: Science Fiction
Mode(s): Single Player, Multiplayer
Rating(s):
ESRB: T (PS2, Xbox); E10+ (DS, Gameboy Advance)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is based on the movie of the same name, and part of the culture icon saga that is Star Wars. Unlike most movie games, the Star Wars series always has interesting titles and a good gameplay. If you’re a Star Wars fan or a movie game fan, this game could be for you; otherwise it’s very passable.

In the main story mode you can play as both Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, each with their own different fighting styles based on the Jedi and on their own personality. Each character also has a health bar, a force bar (Energy used to throw people around or throw objects), and a special bar that determines how strong your attack is. Attacks range from fair, good, impressive, and masterful.

One of the main problems in the game is the recovery. When you die you don’t return with your full health bar, which causes you to die more usually in the game before you can recover health. Also, when you die, you are given the option to restart, to continue, or to end the stage; but if you choose to continue, you get a long loading before you enter the stage again.

During the stages you can unlock secrets which raise your force power, your health, or your attacks; once you unlock these secrets you also unlock different goodies in the main game (These which are usually concept art or even new bonus stages). In the stages you also win experience which can be used in the end of the level where you can give the characters more abilities in the game.

While each fighter has their own abilities and fighting styles, aiming can sometimes be a bit troublesome. Although this doesn’t happen as much, when attacking an enemy, sometimes you might miss the character and combo right behind the enemy while the enemy can attack you more easily. However, it’s important to say that the controls of the game aren’t defective, and usually work fine.

The bonus stages in the game usually let you play with characters you can’t play in story mode. All characters have different fighting styles and different motives. Some stages are survivals, while other are boss battles, and some are even jumping platformers.

The story mode also features movie cut scenes from the movie. In regard of this, the cut scenes are of very cheap quality. The movie cut scenes for Star Wars: Rebel Strike – Rouge Squadron III were vastly superior, and the game was released in 2003 and for the Nintendo GameCube.
The graphics of this game also look a tad unpolished and games of the year have looked better.

And to the music, while the music is the traditional Star Wars score and boasts pretty impressive voice actors for characters, sometimes the background music can leave stages randomly and leave you in silence.

One of the worst things in the game is how difficult it can be. More or less, the fact that you don’t recover your full health when you die is part of it. Sometimes large and strong enemies can gang up on you without time to recover, or give you brutal surviving tasks where you have low health without apparent recoveries and strong enemies on your way and not even getting to checkpoints afterwards.

It’s not that the game is exactly difficult, but it’s frustrating. It’s throw your controller at the TV kind of frustrating. This game will make you angry, this game will make you hate, this game will bring you to the dark side of the force.

Gameplay: 7.5, The game on its own right is actually fun, but there are some things to iron out here and there, especially the difficulty and the frustration levels.

Graphics: 6.5, Very average, movie cutscenes are bland and outdated, and the main game graphics look a bit unpolished.

Controls: 8.0, Very good controls, although you might sometimes miss the aim of enemies.

Sound: 6.0, Although the game features an excellent soundtrack and voice actors, the fact that the music can leave you in a stage is a bit of a turn off.

Overall: 7.2, It’s a good game, but it’s passable. If you can resist brutal frustration levels, maybe you’d like to play this game.

Shadow the Hedgehog for Nintendo GameCube

Shadow the Hedgehog for the Nintendo GameCube; 3.8







Developer: Sega Studio USA
Publisher: SEGA
Designer(s): Kazuyuki Hoshino, Hiroshi Nishiyama
Composer(s): Jon Senoue, Yutaka Minobe, Tomoya Ohtani, Mariko Nanba
Platforms: Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 2
Release Dates:
NA: November 15, 2005
PAL: November 18, 2005
JP: December 15, 2005
Genre(s): Platform, Action-Adventure, Third-Person shooter
Mode: Single Player, Multiplayer
Ratings:
CERO: A
ESRB: 10+
OFLC: PG
PEGI: 12+

Shadow the hedgehog is the stand-alone title for one of the Sonic series’ most popular characters of the whole franchise named ‘Shadow the Hedgehog’. The game was literally infamous for messing up the Sonic series more than it was amongst critics and most fans. Despite the game being reviewed negatively by most critics, the game still met with positive sales and managed a ‘Player’s choice’ on the Nintendo GameCube and other titles in other consoles the game was released in.

But why is the game so infamous? One of these reasons is the change of atmosphere in the Sonic series. The game introduced a much more darker plot not seen in the Sonic series before, packed with mild swearing, blood, and the use of firearms; all this causing the fandom to meet the game with skeptical eyes.

One of the most known features of the game is the fact that you choose the destiny Shadow takes. Shadow can choose from neutral paths, to dark paths, and to hero paths in all missions; characters both good and bad, help Shadow in this through the missions. Missions either revolve around doing a specific task or just to reach the end of a level. I’ve heard there are more than 300 different combinations for ending a specific destiny point; which, despite the game being rubbish, does increase replay value by tons.

The story itself takes part of Shadow’s amnesia problem and focuses on revealing the character’s past. Choosing a different path will enable you to view different alternatives for his past. In all of this, there are these alien creatures called the ‘Black Arms’ who claim they have knowledge of Shadow and his past which are not known to him; these ‘Black Arms’ are also blood-thirsty and enjoy destroying the whole planet and encourage Shadow to do the same.

Depending on the mission you want to complete in each mission, you’ll fill two gauges: The Hero gauge and the Dark gauge. Both gauges have different purposes; the dark gauge is used to destroy near-by enemies, while the hero gauge is used to zoom around the stage and completing missions faster. One thing, though: The Hero gauge is worthless if you’re playing hero stages. Most hero stages force you to do tasks around the stage, while the hero special just makes you zoom around the stage missing the tasks you had to accomplish to finish the mission.

In the game you can only play as Shadow the Hedgehog; as mentioned, you can use weapons to defeat enemies. The gun mechanics in this game are abysmal. Controlling in were the guns shoot is literally impossible, and sometimes, even if you’re shooting in the same direction an enemy is; you’re guaranteed to miss because there is no aim. There’s an urban legend stating that the guns do actually have an aim that you can activate in the controls, but I say ‘legend’; because I’ve never once in all the years of owning this game, seen this feature.

Long-ranged weapons such as swords have incredibly low ammunition making them almost worthless through the whole game. You even loose ammunition if you don’t hit anything, which at the same time doesn’t make sense since I’ve never seen a sword you need to re-charge in real life.

In the game you also have access to vehicles. You won’t have an use for most vehicles anyway, since most of them go even slower than Shadow and don’t really do anything.

Then there are the controls of the game. The Controls in this game are literally broken, no doubt about it. The controls are extremely sloppy, causing Shadow sometimes to fall unnecessarily in pits, or simply feel awkward when you’re moving him. When Shadow runs too fast, it’s impossible to move him and avoid obstacles that take damage away.

The Camera also takes a big responsibility in making the controls look awful. Sometimes the camera will put you in strange angles causing you to fall or have difficulty in shooting enemies. It is as if the camera didn’t let you see enough of some areas you could be cautious of where you will jump or evade falling.

These are one of the worst graphics I have ever seen for 2005; eye bleeding bad. It’s as if they’d make fun of you, because the game’s opening features decent GCI cut scenes; but the in game graphics are just awful. While there are breakable objects, the whole game looks ugly and dull. Features on humans look blocky and the human soldiers even resemble legos’s.


You thought all of that was bad enough? The voice actors are even worse. Without the ability to change the game’s language (A feature that was shown in other Sonic games for the Nintendo GameCube), you’re stuck with damned awful voice actors that are just inadequate and cheesy. The music isn’t bad, but sometimes they don’t even fit with the stages they’re shown in. The only musically productive things in this game are the songs with are sung, my favorite being the one by the Metal band, ‘Powerman 5000’.

The worst thing about the game is just how boring it is. Shadow the hedgehog doesn’t have any redeeming qualities because it’s flat-out dull. All these problems just make the game unplayable and not worth your time. If you were actually one of the titans who managed to complete all the basic endings in the game, you’ll be rewarded with a last mission.

Before I forget, the last mission takes place after the second ‘Hero’ ending; Which completely obliterates the purpose of having multiple endings.

Gameplay: 4.0 Boring and dull, the only interesting feature is choosing different paths through the game.

Graphics: 4.0 Blocky, feature-less, and not pretty to look at.

Controls: 3.5 Lame and broken controls which may cause accidental deaths and difficulty to manage.

Sound: 5.6 Horrible voice-actors and inadequate music for some stages. Sung songs aren’t half bad, though.

Overall: 3.8 This game sucks ass. There’s no fun while playing this game, this game gets saved from a 2 because of the music and the interesting outcomes of the different paths you can take.

StarFox Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube

Starfox Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube 7.0




Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Designer: Lee Schunemann
Artist(s): Kevin Bayliss, Johanni Christensen, Keith Rabette
Composer: David Wise
Series: Starfox
Platform: Nintendo GameCube
Release Dates:
NA: September 23, 2002
JP: September 27, 2002
PAL: November 22, 2002
Genre: Action-Adventure
Mode: Single Player
Ratings:
ELPSA: 3+
ESRB: T
OFLC: G8+
PEGI: 3+


Starfox Adventures may very well be one of the most memorable games for the Nintendo GameCube; it was mostly known to exchange the flight combat mechanics present in Starfox games to a more action action-adventure game with the result of being a game that could have been overall better.You might probably not know how Starfox Adventures came to be, so I’ll explain it quickly.

Starfox Adventures was originally planned to come into the Nintendo 64 by the name of ‘Dinosaur Planet’, a game that had nothing to do with the Starfox series. When Nintendo realized that the character designs were strikingly similar to Starfox’s, Nintendo made a deal to make ‘Dinosaur Planet’ what we know today as ‘Starfox Adventures’ for the Nintendo GameCube.

The story takes place eight years after the death of Andross from Starfox 64; Fox McCloud and his buddies live a life patrolling the Lylat System. Bored out of their wits, they’re simply begging for a new mission to come aboard. Suddenly General Pepper calls for a mission in which a planet called ‘Dinosaur Planet’ was literally falling apart and was being ruled by a tyrant called ‘General Scales’. It is up to Fox to destroy General Scales and stop the planet from falling apart (Literally, as in, you can see chunks of land in space related to the planet).

So when you start the game, you’ll first be playing as a fox girl called ‘Kystal’; now I’ll make a whole story short and say that it’s not long until she gets trapped and Fox finds out he needs to rescue her. In all of this, Krystal dropped her staff in the starting point of the game; a staff which will be ultimately Fox’s main weapon through the game.Fox can use the staff to attack enemies, block attacks, and solve puzzles. When you attack an enemy, you’ll be fighting with combo mechanics, and although this might sound fancy, there is no difference in damage dealt to an enemy, so it’s just button mashing. You can block attacks by pressing the ‘Z’ button, but this is completely worthless, I mean, you’ll never use it in the game; and finally, you can as I said, solve puzzles with the staff.

The staff runs on its own meter which can be refilled by gems found in the planet; you’ll acquire different attacks you can use like the ‘fire blaster’ (Which enables you to shoot fire balls at special panels) or the quake (Which you can use to defeat larger enemies or solve puzzles related to the ground), and plenty more of other attacks. Now here is when the controls fail. Some attacks of the staff force you to zoom in on targets, and the controls are so sloppy, the aim will start to move on its own, thus forcing you to be exactly precise when shooting the target; this just makes your staff bar loose more energy than what you had planned. Then there’s another problem with the controls: You can access the inventory while playing the game in motion with the ‘C’ stick. To use the item or action selected within the inventory you have to press the ‘A’ button; and to attack an enemy with the staff you have to press the ‘A’ button as well. Here’s an example if you don’t get it.

Let’s say you’re fighting an enemy and you need to use an action in your inventory. You use the ‘C’ stick, check on your inventory, choose the action and press the ‘A’ button; if you’re not lucky here, you’ll end up attacking with the staff instead. Sure you can command an action or item to be used on the ‘Y’ button instead of the ‘A’ button, but it’s only temporary, and you’ll make this mistake tons of times through the game.

It won’t be soon in the game when you discover your greatest ally in the game, a dinosaur called ‘Tricky’ who’s prince of the EarthWalker tribe. He can help you by solving puzzles, finding secrets, and even aiding you in battle. Tricky runs by a meter called the ‘GrubTub’ meter where you have to find little mushrooms in the game to refill it. There’s not much to say here, so let’s move on.

Now here’s something that just blows my mind. In this game, Fox can’t jump. This is an Action-Adventure game, jumping should be one of the most important aspects of the whole gameplay. Well guess what, Fox jumps when necessary. This is just weird in my opinion; I think the game could have even been more fun if Fox could have jumped.

You can pause the game and you’ll be encountered with a number of accessible options; these which are a save and an exit along with talking to your comrades from the Starfox team. You can save the game, and to be honest, I really don’t get this; while you can save the game at any given time, you’ll be transported in some area of the game were you didn’t save on, it just saves the game’s progress. It’s like having both benefits and no benefits from saving.

You can talk to General Pepper in which he gives you the overall progress of the game, what you have and what you don’t; you can talk to Peppy Hare, when he’ll show you the map of the game; and finally, you can talk to Slippy Toad, where he can tell you advice of the situation in which you are in the game. You know what sucks? Sometime’s Slippy Toad’s advice is so horrible; you won’t be able to understand him at all. I actually had to use Gamefaqs because he shows no help whatsoever at times.

Some missions require you to move from Dinosaur Planet to chunks of land in space which are related to it; in the time it takes you to go to the chunks of land, you’ll be playing bonus missions with the arwing. This is a bit of a tribute to the original Starfox games where you can shoot enemies and even get power-ups. The main objective here is always to get a number of gold rings in order to successfully enter a chunk of land.

The game is graphically-wise impressive; it offers one of the greatest visuals I’ve seen in the Nintendo GameCube and the game’s from 2002, it showcases fur and features tremendously well and is one of the strong points of the game.

The music is okay, it’s simple game music with ambient related sounds and it really isn’t half bad. But then there are the voice actors, and here is where the game gets horribly cheesy. There’s a point in the game were Slippy makes a translator and you can understand people from Dinosaur Planet, and instead of them speaking ‘Dinosaur Language’, they’ll just speak English.But most of the voice actors don’t even fit in with the character they’re speaking! At least in the dinosaur language they sounded well. Here you get a strange mix of Irish/Scottish accents with characters they don’t even fit well, Good job Slippy!

Gameplay: 8.0 While Fox can’t jump, you’ll encounter a lot of interesting puzzles and the game is actually pretty lengthy.

Graphics: 8.5 Superb; great graphics, one of the strongest points of the game.

Controls: 6.5 Unorganized and sometimes sloppy controls, really could have been better.

Sounds: 6.0 I really don’t get it. While the music sounds fine, voice actors are horrible. Too bad Dinosaur language gets discarded WAY to early into the game.

Overall: 7.0 It’s really an okay game, but when you play it enough to realize all the faults the game has, you’ll realize the game deserves a 7.

Starwars: Rebel Strike - Rouge Squadron III for the Nintendo GameCube

Starwars: Rebel Strike – Rogue Squadron III for Nintendo GameCube 7.0

Developer: Factor 5
Publisher: LucasArts
Platform: Nintendo GameCube
Release Date:
NA: October 15, 2003
PAL: November 7, 2003
Genre: Action
Mode(s): Single Player, Multiplayer
Ratings:
ESRB: T
OFLC: G8+
PEGI: 12+

Starwars: Rebel Strike – Rouge Squadron III is based on the incredibly famous Starwars franchise, and I think the Starwars franchise needs no explanation. Starwars games have appeared thorough videogame generations in general, whether it’s the first generation or newer generation consoles bringing quality movie based games. This game appears to be a sequel to another game that had appeared on the GameCube called ‘Starwars: Rogue Squadron’.

The game’s story is based after the destruction of the Death Star and the rebellion; Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and the rest of the alliance face an invasion that assaults the Rebel Base at Yarvin 4. TIE fighters swarm the skies and imperial forces storm the base to capture any remaining high-ranking Alliance officers; it is up to the rebellion to repel the Imperial forces swarming them.

In Rebel Strike, missions revolve around objectives you must do before completing a mission, these which usually revolve around destroying a number of things, protecting objects, or simply getting to the end of a level. There are three ways to play the game, by land, by air, or by using machines such as ‘Walkers’.

You spend most of the game fighting by air; before starting a mission, you can usually decide which craft you would like to fly with. Flying is pretty good with abilities to either shoot or throw bombs, plus change camera angles and using good use of the control; there also good quantities of enemies by screen which is pretty cool.

By Land, you usually play as a character either wielding a gun or a lightsaber, you can pick up guns from enemies and also throw bombs when available. There’s one problem related to the foot missions, though, and that’s the camera. The camera can sometimes either leave you behind or can get too close to you, while it’s not much a problem, it’s not perfect, and makes some foot stages seem awkward; nevertheless, they are playable, and it’s not much of a big deal.

Finally, playing by using machines is definitely the most tedious way to play the game. Using vehicles like motorcycles isn’t very annoying, but playing with walkers is a living hell. You move the walker by pressing the R button and aiming with the joy stick, which is really a very an odd way to play; it’s clunky, and the only time of the game were the controls really do suck. You can get stuck and aiming can be the most imprecise thing in the world.

Now to how the game actually works, you can choose different campaigns as you progress in the game, this being by playing as Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles or unlocking bonus levels from medals you’ve acquired in the game; with all these missions you will be either playing them by land, by machines, or by the air.There game isn’t really broken so there’s really not much to say… but there’s one great problem the game has. It gets too hard way too fast; and I’ll mention why. For example, in the game you go by never dying in a mission, to try to complete a mission five to eight times in a row. You only start with three lives, and while some air crafts and machines may recover energy, you can never get any more lives in a mission, and trust me, you’d wish you could get one. In fact, the game would have been a lot more enjoyable if it simply weren’t as hard as it is.

Rebel Strike is too difficult, whether it’s being confused to how to complete a mission to the actual playability of the game. If you’re lucky to actually play the game right you’ll be awarded by a medal, in which medals, depending on the one you get, gives you points for unlocking goodies in the game. Gold Medals give 10 points, Silver medals give you 6, and Bronze Medals give you 3. Getting Gold Medals is literally impossible, there is no way possible one could get one, unless you’re some sort of master player or something crazy like that. But apparently, the game expects you to get them, because it’s not long enough before some bonus missions request large amounts of points; meaning you’d have to turn into a Starwars pro to actually unlock every single mission in the game.

The graphics in the game are ugly. I’ve seen games from 2002 look like a Godsend compared to this game’s graphics, there’s no real excuse. It’s also funny since the cover and back of the game box shows really nice graphics compared to the actual game. The game can also show cut scenes of past movies, and although they look really cool, shouldn’t be the main graphic point of the game.

The music in the game is pretty much one of the most professional things about the game. You’ll be listening to tracks from the original trilogy along with good voice actors and good sound effects. There’s nothing lacking in here.

Overall, Star Wars Rebel Strike – Rogue Squadron III is a pretty good game, but also passable. If you can get past the bad controls of the Walkers and stand the difficulty, you’ll probably find a good game here.

Gamplay: 8.0 A good game in terms of playability. It’s really cool on how you could actually choose between three types of game play, but it could have worked out even better.

Graphics: 6.0 Ugly by the time. In all honestly, facial features are pretty weak and some of it isn’t very pretty to look at. Movie cut scenes are pretty good, though.

Controls: 7.0 Good use of lesser known buttons of the Nintendo GameCube. The controls would have been almos perfect if it weren't for the use of the Walkers, thank God you don't use them as often.

Sound: 9.0 Top Notch stuff. Music from the old trilogy packed with good voice overs and great sound effects.

Overall 7.0: It’s passable, but it’s a good game if you can get past all the issues within it.

Naruto: Clash of Ninja for the Nintendo GameCube

Naruto: Clash of Ninja for the Nintendo GameCube 6.8






Developer: Eighting
Publisher: TOMY
Release Date(s):
JP: April 11, 2003
NA: March 7, 2006
Genre: Fighting:
Modes: Single Player, Multiplayer
Ratings:
CERO: A (All ages)
ESRB: T (Teens)

Chances are, that unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know there’s a new Dragon Ball Z called ‘Naruto’. If you don’t know what Naruto is, I’ll offer a back story. Naruto is an anime based on a twelve year old ninja that goes by the same name, his dream is to become ‘hokage’, or the best ninja in the village; however this proves to be an obstacle for him since he’s a prankster and everyone else thinks he’s annoying. Now that you know the basic plot of the anime, you’d think that a game based on that would be pretty much awful. You might be wrong just there, though; Naruto Clash of Ninja is actually a pretty decent game.

First I’d like to talk of the origin of the game, Naruto Clash of Ninja was a fighter released in Japan in the year 2003, later re-packaged, dubbed into English and sent for the United States around three years later when the anime series got dubbed into English and became a hit. The game features seven different fighters plus an unlockable one and a different version of one of the seven characters.The fighting game itself is pretty simple, apart from the traditional life bar you have a ‘chakra’ bar in which you can save energy for special attacks and other handy attacks, activating your special attack is extremely easy, just revolving around pressing a simple button when the chakra bar is full, doing combos is also pretty easy and you never really have to look at the combo list. I know what you’re thinking, while the game itself is pretty easy, all characters in the game are very unique and feature different and complex playing styles in which gives the game a good advantage over other anime fighters.

There are some faults of the fighting concept in the game other than the easy nature of it, like the grab attack, honestly, it’s useless and a complete waste of time, chances are you’ll never use it because it does so little damage, and on top of that your enemy can use it to his or her advantage by performing a ‘substitution jutsu’ (A type of move that takes energy from your chakra bar but let’s you dodge some attacks easily).The game features eight modes in total and seven in which you can actually interact with them; it brings the traditional Story Mode, One Player mode, Player against Computer, Training, Survival, and Multiplayer. The Story mode is lacking since it’s just a one player mode with dialogue and just one playable character.

The game also has the lamest unlockables ever, consisting of just unlocking two characters, character profiles, sound test, and unlocking a mural filled with Naruto pictures. Now I have a deal with the mural, because unlocking all the images in it is simply impossible and imprecise, since there’s no hint of how to unlock them except fighting your ass off in ‘One Player’ and ‘Survival’. Speaking of that, the game does get awfully repetitive in One Player mode since that’s practically where you get most of the unlockables in the game.

Overall, Naruto Clash of Ninja is a decent fighting game (Believe it or not) since the characters are really unique in fighting modes, but it gets too repetive and there’s barely any significant unlockables at all. The music in the game is pretty uninspiring but it does have pretty decent voice overs, sound effects are good, and the graphics are actually pretty cool being cell-shaded but then again, pretty simple

.Gameplay: 7.0 Pretty simple stuff, not bad. Newcomers to fighting games will get used to it quite quickly.

Graphics: 6.5 Simple cell-shaded graphics with not many 3-D elements in the game. The game uses constant anime cut outs as well.

Controls: 7.0 Very simple and chances are you won’t get lost at all.

Sound: 7.0 Features bland music for the background, but character voices are pretty decent and sound effects aren’t bad either.

Overall Score: 6.8 It’s a decent fighter and a good example of decent anime videogames. It has its fails in the game but it’s not bad. It’s definitely passable, but Naruto fans should certainly pick this one up if they can.