Naruto

A little more than a year ago, I went to Ubisoft Montreal to do a feature on Naruto: Rise of a Ninja.  The team on that game was not just talented, they were anime enthusiasts—making a game because they loved the license. Rise of a Ninja was not the greatest game ever made, but it delivered a unique Naruto experience unlike anything else on the market for the VIZ juggernaut.  A free-roaming Konoha city center. Delightful tree-hopping action sequences. A surprisingly deep fighting engine. What’s more, the game featured a Japanese voice track . . . meaning that for Naruto purists, it was the closest thing to living in the country of the leaf that we’d ever get, apart from taking hallucinogens and duct-taping our foreheads to the television during episodes of Shippuden.

I liked Rise of a Ninja enough to finish it. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to review the game when it came out, but . . . hey, there are plenty of other Naruto games, right? (Sigh.)

So, here I am, getting a chance to review the sequel to Rise of a Ninja. I should be ecstatic. But I can think is, “Man, I wish I were reviewing that first game.”

That’s not to say Broken Bond sucks. In fact, the sequel gets a few things better. First off, let me say that the tree-hopping stuff is so much fun, and so gorgeous to behold, that it should be its own game. Ubisoft improved the sequences by making them largely first-person, save for small sections where the camera pulls out to a close third-person, when Naruto and friends are dashing across long branches or pools of water.

Another improvement on the original is the inclusion of three-man ninja teams. Players can switch between Konoha’s finest and deploy their unique skills on the plains of adventure or, at least wherever a brightly colored icon suggests they should. For example, when a switch needs to be pulled to deactivate a trap, players toss control over to Shikamaru, and use his shadow jutsu to navigate a maze that stands between the team and their goal.

This game is not designed for new fans of the Naruto world, nor the uninitiated. Covering episodes 81-135, the game picks up in the middle of the story, and never attempts to explain what the hell is going on. As a long time Naruto fan, I greatly appreciate this, but I can understand why it would limit the title’s audience. Another thing I applaud is the decision to grant Naruto almost all of his abilities from the end of Rise of a Ninja. I don’t want to spend eight hours relearning Shadow Clone Jutsu, or the ability to run really fast, and the game gives these back to the player nearly immediately. Thank you, Ubisoft, thank you. Running fast and double-jumping were very simple joys in the first game, and I dreaded waiting for them to be unlocked again.

Now, what does the game get worse? The animation in cut-scenes seems stiffer, though it may be my imagination. Also, the fetch quests start almost before the game’s title screen, and I don’t want to find another block of wood for a boat, nor do I want to run around the forest to get coins anymore. If these coins are so valuable, why are people leaving them lying around in the forest?  How come no one else has picked them up? They are GIGANTIC and GLOWING. To put it another way, if I were sawing a piece of wood in a field, and there was a coin the size of my torso rotating next to me, I might drop my saw and bring it to town to see what it was worth. Why are people hiding these coins in big blue barrels? There’s a lot of quality in The Broken Bond, but gamey garbage like this drags it into the gutter. The producers should learn that just jumping across rooftops is fun. I don’t need a reason to do it, and even if I did, it doesn’t have to be enormous floating currency.

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