The latest installment in the Gekitou Ninja Taisen series proves that little by little, improvements are made.
Unfortunately GNTEX did away with about 25 of the cast members, and removed a lot of the content that I liked so much about GNT4. So I bided my time, and waited until GNTEX3.
As a GNT fan, I can safely say that the wait was well worth the while. The newest additions include new characters (about 5) and a new story mode which puts you on the battleground against rogue ninjas and the evil Akatsuki organization.
First things first, there is notable lag in the story mode missions. Unfortunately because of the different character models and the number of enemies on the screen at one time, the frame rate drops to probably about 20-30 fps. It's unfortunate that there is lag in something like this, wheras the Dynasty Warriors series coped with a lot more than 9-10 enemies on the screen at one time.
The levels in story mode are cookie-cutter. Basically, you're running around a giant maze, with all the glamour of a map in Dungeon Maker (the maps are not randomized either).
Most characters behave the same as their battle mode equivalents, with a couple of changes to spruce up the gameplay. Although defeating lots of enemy ninjas is always fun, the task can get extremely repetitive, since they spawn infinately and are very annoying. You earn most of the game money from this mode, and they do offer a choice of players.
Story mode itself is told via voices and textboxes, nothing new there. Storymode will last you about 4-5 hours, but even so, you can repeat any stage and try and beat your high-score.
Battle mode is fairly similar to all of the other GNT/Clash of Ninja games. New characters Hidan and Kakuzu are particularly well-made and are pretty fun to play as. You'll also get Yugao, Baki and Asuma (which are the same as in the CONR2 release).
As far as modes go, there is a great deal of choice, you have 1v1 battles, 2v2 tag matches, 4 player free-for-alls, score attack, time attack, survival and shadow clone mode.
The shadow clone mode can only be played one player, and is basically your character beating up lots of grey ninjas, and trying to beat your high score.
A lot of modes can be played with a second player, competitively or co-operatively, which is a nice addition.
There is also the option to play with 3 or 4 people, with a variety of control methods. Although you can play with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, you can choose to play with the classic controller or the gamecube controller, which feel more at hom e with traditional fighting game fans.
Aside from the story mode, the game hasn't undergone a major overhaul, so fans of EX2 should probably wait a little longer before buying this.
I think this game is good as far as fighting games go, and provides a lot of replay value, especially if you like the source material. Multiplayer is frantic and very fun. I would recommend this game to any anime fighting-game fan, they don't come much better than this.