What. . . ?
Could've been way better, was lacking and somewhat overdone at the same time.
This game introduces a almost new way to battle in Naruto gaming, which ends up being the only thing worth getting this game for.
The battle system is remarkable. For past Naruto game players, it is a mix between Ultimate Ninja and Ninja Clash. The support character system is expansive and adaptable to your enemy.
The bad about this game is that it relies way too much on the mini-games, walking around, and it leaves way too much of the story out, it breaks it down to the raw minimum.
The mini-games are boring and only about 3 of them cycle over the course of the game, but adapt to the storyline.
After each mission you are taken back to the main city, where you are Naruto and you run around and gather items and scrolls, which you can buy things with. This process is time consuming and repetitive, and most of the things they present to you early on in these "run arounds" are unobtainable until later. You also must gather these items after each mission or they go away until you repeat that mission later.
The main missions also require Xp for you to participate in each mission gives you Xp and requires it, so you are required to play the extra games, which gets repetitive: Hide and seek, tree hopping, tree running. . . etc.
The storyline seems like it takes a while because the time between the missions, the gathering of items. Even then the story is broken down, compared to the anime or the manga.
The real only thing good about this game is the versus fighting. No battles are exactly the same and there is never a dull moment. There are a few downsides though: 1. You have to go through a lot of story mode to unlock a lot of skills, supports, and characters. 2. The command chart isn't very broad, you are confined to a small move base, which becomes increasingly repetitive, since they almost all look the same.
This game is awesome for party playing or having friends over, as long as you have a good amount of characters unlocked, which again, can become bothersome.
I definitely prefer the old gamecube/ps2 Naruto games over this one, in terms of story mode. But, again, the fighting in versus mode is unbelievable and awesome.
This game is definitely worth renting, but buying is mostly recommended for collectors or hardcore Naruto fans.