Topic: Naruto Community Day

[S-U-P-E-R]

Hands-on with Naruto: Clash of Ninja and Naruto: Ninja Council!

Naruto: Clash of Ninja and Naruto: Ninja Council are being co-published by Tomy and D3Publisher, who were nice enough to invite us out to Naruto Community Day! This includes hands-on with the first English releases of Naruto games, interviews and Q&A, and delicious ramen.  

 Naruto: Clash of Ninja releases on March 7 (MSRP $39.99) and features eight core characters from the TV show; Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Lee, Iruka, Kakashi, Haku, and Zabuza, plus "Sharingan" Kakashi and "Kyuubi" Naruto as secret versions. This is in fact the same game as the first Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen released in Japan; a head-to-head fighting game with great gameplay.  

 

 In English!  

 Naruto: Ninja Council releases simultaneously (MSRP $29.99) and is a side-scrolling action game developed by ARC System Works (known for their Guilty Gear series). Previously released in Japan as Naruto: Ninjutsu Zenkai! Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu, features graphics and gameplay somewhat similar to Gunstar Super Heroes (awesome). Playable characters are Naruto and Sasuke (and an unlockable third character) and plenty of other characters challenge them as bosses and mini-bosses, dialogue (and comedy!) included.  

 There are plenty more Naruto games to come (including Clash of Ninja 2 this fall) as long as sales are good (that doesn't include Jump Superstars, being a veritable licensing nightmare, sadly). So why not skip right to Clash of Ninja 3 or 4 right away? The answer, of course, is marketing; as characters are introduced in the TV show here in America, the games have to be released to match (and that means it's going to take about 130 episodes to reveal all of the characters that appear in Naruto 4).  

 

 Gaze upon the U.S. box art!

[KDR_11k]

Didn't GNT1 have severe balancing issues?

[S-U-P-E-R]

I dunno, probably. It felt like Zabuza and Rock Lee for top tier (even though he can't open gates yet), S. Kakashi for second, ?? for Haku and K. Naruto...  if Sasuke was supposed to be really good in this one, I didn't see it (his teleport kick was still getting owned). It still felt like GNT3 - (more like a demo disc for it omglol) but it didn't seem like I was able to replacement jutsu after landing like you can in the later GNTs. I don't think anybody had secondary super moves in this game yet, either.

Anyway, characters are obviously and easily tierable as far as I could tell from a couple hours, but it's definitely not broken all to hell like ZatchBell or something. I will probably tell my friends to get/try Naruto 1 so maybe they'll get into the import scene after trying it, or at least know what they're doing if they come over and play 4 with me.

I wonder if I should review the English Clash of Ninja when it comes out?

As for Zosha's reviews, the numbers seem right on, but her comments about the gameplay seem button-smashing-nublet-ish to me. Also, hilarious that the game is like three years old already.

[Tuxedo.Bond]

Does it have Japanese audio as well? That's the one thing I want to know.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Nope, rerecorded starring the US voice cast.

Fun factoid they dropped on me: Rock Lee's voice actor recorded all the lines for the game before he even did any for the show

[KDR_11k]

It's just that I think the review for 3 said it removed some infinite combos present in previous versions. Or were those only introduced in the second one?

[Bill Aurion]

Quote
Originally posted by: S-U-P-E-R
Nope, rerecorded starring the US voice cast.

Game ruined... >=|

[Pale]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion

Quote
Originally posted by: S-U-P-E-R
Nope, rerecorded starring the US voice cast.

Game ruined... >=|

Haha, whatever.

[NotRimmer]

Quote
Originally posted by: S-U-P-E-R
I dunno, probably. It felt like Zabuza and Rock Lee for top tier (even though he can't open gates yet), S. Kakashi for second, ?? for Haku and K. Naruto...  if Sasuke was supposed to be really good in this one, I didn't see it (his teleport kick was still getting owned). It still felt like GNT3 - (more like a demo disc for it omglol) but it didn't seem like I was able to replacement jutsu after landing like you can in the later GNTs. I don't think anybody had secondary super moves in this game yet, either.

Anyway, characters are obviously and easily tierable as far as I could tell from a couple hours, but it's definitely not broken all to hell like ZatchBell or something. I will probably tell my friends to get/try Naruto 1 so maybe they'll get into the import scene after trying it, or at least know what they're doing if they come over and play 4 with me.

I wonder if I should review the English Clash of Ninja when it comes out?

As for Zosha's reviews, the numbers seem right on, but her comments about the gameplay seem button-smashing-nublet-ish to me. Also, hilarious that the game is like three years old already.

This is my favorite part of her review:

If you’re looking to import a serious 3D fighting game though, you’re best off grabbing Soul Calibur II instead

lol

[Infernal Monkey]

I have no interest in Naruto but that GBA game sounds pretty awesome.

[Bloodworth]

Again, I want to make it perfectly clear that I was barely familiar with Naruto when I bought GNT3.  I thought the game was awesome without knowledge of the show and started watching the show about a month or two later thanks to a little peer pressure.  

[p1ck]

So the Naruto GC won't have any option to turn for the Japanese voices?  If not, then I won't be purchasing this title.  I only wish they import price for GNT 4 wasn't so much.  I'd like to get my hands on that.

[Pale]

--ignore me--

not worth the can of worms.

[S-U-P-E-R]

I don't know if the option is there or not... I can probably find out, though.

[p1ck]

Thanks dude.  I'd appreciate it a lot.

[ThePerm]

it better be there...!!!!!

[KDR_11k]

Expensive to import??? Dude, it's cheaper than retail!

[p1ck]

Any luck on finding out whether or not the Naruto GC has the option to turn on Japanese voiceovers?