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The game is obviously the fourth iteration in the series, which basically lets you fight as just about any character, against just about any character. Want to fight Sasuke in evil form, as the fourth hokage? No problem. Additionally there are quite a few specialized modes, and a great load of things to unlock, such as levels, characters, character info, and more.
After booting the game, you’re treated to a nice introduction sequence. It doesn’t really show off any interesting story bits, so it can easily be skipped. At the main menu you’re in for a surprise that’ll probably only excite those that can read written Japanese very well. You see, the only western characters you’ll find are numbers. It’s impossible to guesstimate much at all, so you pretty much have to try the various menu sections and see what happens. The only indicator is a small image that pops up for each section, so if you have fair memory and imagination you should at least quickly find the main modes, where you’ll spend the majority of the time.
One of the big features in Naruto 4 is the ability to not only play as one character versus another, but also three versus three and two versus two at the same time. The closest thing to a story mode is a mode where you select three characters and work your way towards a tournament of sorts, the one thing you can count on seeing in just about every anime to date.
As all of the text is basically encrypted, you’re mostly left appreciating the game mechanics. I suppose the dialogues revolve around ramen, doing one’s best, power hunger, and cheap jokes. Fortunately the gameplay is quite good. Not counting unlockable characters you can choose from no less than twenty characters. Each of these has just about every signature move, though it appears that Naruto’s “sexy ninjutsu” isn’t included. There are two basic attack buttons that alone let you do quite a few attacks pr character. X is used to perform special attacks, if your chakra meter is filled up sufficiently. Y is used for grappling / throwing moves. The left trigger teleports you behind the enemy, but again, only if your chakra meter allows it. This is useful if you can see the enemy is about to do a long, painful combo-move that you’ll probably not be able to dodge. Finally there’s the Z button, which is used to trade places with another person in your three person team. This also uses a bit of chakra, so you can’t just hop back and forth the entire match. Since the chakra recharges you could for instance “hop out” when a character is low on health, have it recharge his or her chakra, and then “hop in” and quickly do a special attack, possibly removing as much as half of the enemy’s remaining life.
Besides the modes I’ve mentioned you’ll also find a tutorial, practice, and various sections that probably make a whole lot more sense to the Japanese.
Similarly to the other recent import title Bleach for Gamecube, the graphics in Naruto 4 is cel-shaded, though slightly differently. Where in Bleach they focused on a style more along the lines of the anime, here we see something like the anime, only in 3D. It certainly feels more alive, because of even if looks somewhat aliased the developers put great care into the various attacks. Gara, as an example, is quite impressive, because he can use his sand attacks in many impressive and certainly effective ways. It looks organic, and it feels that way too.
The special attacks will, provided your opponent didn’t dodge it, play an animated sequence that you can’t skip. These are quite nice, and can provide a nice surprise the first time you see them; a bit like the fatalities in Mortal Kombat, sans blood.
In terms of audio Naruto 4 does really well. All of the characters from the show voiced the counterparts here, and sound just as you’d hope and expect they would. The story elements seem to take place relatively early in the overall storyline (for those who have watched/read it from the start), so for instance Naruto sounds more childish than he does in the more recent episodes. The music certainly does sound like it could’ve come out of Konoha somewhere, but personally I didn’t enjoy it as much as the official soundtrack. While the songs are reasonably varied some of them just don’t sound appropriate for a game where the goal is to beat the snot out of the opponent. You can say it makes it a bit too “HAPPY HAPPY VIOLENCE” at times and it shouldn’t.
Finally, the sound effects also sound every bit as good as you’d expect. Even though the sounds sometimes sound as if they came out of the box of generic sound effects they do serve their purpose. One could wish for more bass and dynamic range at times, but it could’ve been worse.
Multiplayer is fun too, of course, because of the many modes and character combinations.
Conclusion:
As an import title this should be worth ordering for fans of the show. I really wish at least some western words could’ve been used, so that you wouldn’t have to spend as much time in the menus, and things like the unlockable character info would actually make sense.
Naruto 4 scores quite well in graphics, audio, and gameplay, even if it’s in a bit of a different league than, for instance, Dead or Alive 4. Even so, it’s an enjoyable game and more entertaining than the current episodes.
