Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles
Not even worth a rent. Believe it!
Tags: Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 6th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles is a radical departure from the other games based on the license. This is the first on the home consoles not to use cel-shaded graphics. It doesn’t seem like much, but taking characters from anime and making them look like they’re in “Shrek” just doesn’t fly. While the voice acting stays the same it takes awhile to get used to how different the world looks. This complaint is listed early because it is the first obstacle the game faces.
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Getting over the graphical issue, the adventure-RPG style game play lends itself well to the little orange Ninja. The combat skills are fairly simple, but do take some skill to master. The missions start off slow, and become rather monotonous quickly. There are too many times that you find yourself guarding a cart from faceless ninjas. What bothers me about this is that the anime offers some great characters and they’ve used them well in the fighting games, but here we are presented with waves of faceless enemies. The well seems to have run dry on the license here, which isn’t surprising considering this is the fourth or fifth game to come out within the last few months.
This is a shell of what could have been a rather enterprising game. However the only highlights are your battles with the other students. They are all rather well animated, but the CG rendering detracts from them. While the fighting game installments of the franchise recreated the feel of the cartoon, this feels almost alien.
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There is a thin statistic equipment system. Using what are called skill plates you can boost your various Ninjitsu powers, and health and stamina points. It adds to the RPG system at work here, but it seems pretty shallow. It doesn’t give you any real reason to bother working on them except for the occasional new power that can be purchased. The equipment comes in two flavors. The first are standard recovery items. They seem to be in rather short supply, but what’s even more annoying is that you have to pause the game to access these. It doesn’t seem like much, but it ends up allowing your opponent an opportunity to attack. The second are attack items that don’t really make much of a difference. The ninja stars and flash bombs don’t do much damage, even when wielded by the enemy. These feel tacked on, but at least these can be equipped.
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Worst of all – this game simply never gets fun, it was more of a chore to play through and try and get to the meat of it. While this comes from a great pedigree of console games, there just isn’t enough to play here. What made the other games great is all missing. There isn’t a compelling story, just an endless series of “busywork” missions. I shouldn’t have to tell you that video games are supposed to be fun and engaging, but it seems that the developers forget this small fact when working on this game. If the story would have been better developed, this may have been a better game. Without any reason to play this all that you’re left with is a pile of flaws.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + The concept of a Naruto action RPG was a great one. | 2.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Graphics are nothing like the source material - Equipment system is a shallow - Just plain boring. |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This feels as if it was rushed out for Christmas, and if they would have waited until there was more material from the show, it could have been worth the effort. | |
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Tags: Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles
Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Dec 6th, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
