Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 — Not Revolutionary But Definitely Ninja
Fighting games based on anime have always been a strange bunch. They never really boasted game balance, nor have they ever really refined their mechanics. They are mostly all easily accessible button mashers that make most of their money off of fan service. Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 3, aside from having a title that is longer than any human being should have to say, aims to step away from the pack and take its place alongside Street Fighter 4, Blazblue, Tekken 6, and other hardcore fighting titles as a balanced tournament capable game. Long story short … it fails … but it has gotten a lot closer, which is an accomplishment in itself.
Naruto CONR3, has basically every mode a fighting game can brag about. There is the basic story mode, versus mode, survival mode, time attack mode, and also some other interesting additions, such as the 10 battle point based score attack mode, the kumite mode, which has you going up against an endless stream of ninja mooks, and a mission mode, which has you struggling to complete certain objectives in specific fights. There are a lot of options and although they all feel similar, they will keep you busy for some time.
For the first time ever Naruto has gone online through Ninendo’s Wi-Fi service. In a testament to good game design, this game actually includes leader boards and rankings which have been consistently absent in online Wii games. Unfortunately, however, the game is laggy as hell, and you will be hard pressed to find any battle that doesn’t hang or stutter in the middle. This is a fighting game people; lag is simply unacceptable. Also in the pile of grievances this game creates, is the fact that people aren’t punished for leaving a game early. Rage quits are EVERYWHERE! Good luck trying to get a legitimate win, because if your opponent is losing they can easily disconnect before the last sliver of life is taken and the whole battle will be null and void. If you ever needed proof that the Naruto fandom was comprised solely of whiny shit faced fourteen year olds who wouldn’t know good sportsmanship if it bit them in the ass, this is it.
So the online experience isn’t the greatest, but you can always kick back with the single player. NCONR3’s story mode’s strength lies in that it recreates the first story arc of Naruto Shippuden. Fights will ping pong back and forth between different characters, and some battles have to be ended in certain ways so that they mirror the anime. It really serves to drag you in, and it is one of the best story modes a game has boasted thusfar, if you are a Naruto fan.
NCONR3’s story mode’s biggest weakness however, lies in that it recreates the first story arc of Naruto Shippuden. Naruto isn’t exactly known for its fabulous writing, and much of the anime community takes pleasure in making fun of the series for horrible plot and near endless bouts of dramatic power up sequences. All of these flaws remain intact in the story mode, along with the shitty American dub voice actors just to make things worse, and to top it all off the game creators took tons of liberties with the plot-line, adding random battles that just don’t need to be fought for the ask of adding gameplay, and this makes the story even more confusing! If you aren’t a Naruto fan, you will be totally and utterly lost as far as the story is concerned.
Since Naruto fans will already know the plot, and non-fans will be totally lost, you don’t have much impetus to play the single player story mode, other than using it to gain money so that you can unlock more characters, stages, and other bonus goodies. However, unlocking certain characters requires you to complete story mode on certain difficulty levels, so if you want the full game, you won’t be able to skip this mode, no matter how much you may want to. Luckily enough, you can simply check on any strategy website to figure out what these settings are and you can pretty much do it all in one play-through, if you are bad-ass enough.
Once you have trudged through the single player long enough to unlock all the characters and stages the real fun begins, and that fun is versus mode. Every character in the franchise has been tweaked, and the game feels a lot faster and more responsible, but it still falls short of a truly tournament worthy fighting game. It’s the same basic weak and strong attack combo deal, with plenty of dodging and hyperactive cut-scene-esque jutsu moves. It is a lot harder to be cheap in this game, and button mashing is no longer as effective as strategic playing, which is nice. Still, with a roster this big, there is bound to be some balance issues, and there are. You will definitely see certain characters chosen over others time and time again, but this isn’t anything new to the world of fighting games, so it’s not like it ruins the game or anything.
Luckily enough, fighting in Naruto simply feels good. Movement is fast, hits feel good, and graphical effects make the whole thing feel like the anime it is based off of. The game is very accessible, so much so that the strongest moves in the game are reduced to one button presses. You won’t have to memorize any special move motions, however you will need to put a bit of time in to figure out individual character’s combo strings. However, with a basic grasp of attacking, dodging, and using your special moves, you will soon be hanging with the big boys. Once again, the game doesn’t win any awards for technical merit, but it is certainly accessible and fun, which is exactly what an anime fighting game should be.
The fighting is frantic and overdramatized just like an anime should be, and poofs of smoke, speedlines, and lots of other near manga like effects are drawn in over the action. Unfortunately, this means that it is easy to lose track of your character in all the graphic hullabaloo. You won’t have much of a problem with this in one on one matches but team battles, free for all, and other modes will frequently trying to figure out who you are and who you are attacking. In addition, no matter how good the graphics are in battle, out of battle, say, in the story mode cuteness, animation is stiff and barely believable. Add to this a couple fourth wall clipping errors and you will see how this game is really hit or miss on the graphical front, but at least it excels where it counts.
The problem with NCONR3 is that there isn’t a whole lot to say. There have been a lot of Naruto fighting games up until this point, and although NCONR3 wants to set itself apart from the pack, it is really more of the same. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Trying to make the game more tournament viable has tightened the game’s controls for the more casual fan base, and there is nothing wrong with that. Still, the game is largely the same as it ever was, a simple fighter meant to appeal to Naruto fans rather than the larger community of fighting game fans. This is not the game you want if you are a serious competitive gamer that memorizes frames, timing, and mix-up combos, but if you are a Naruto fan who simply wants to have some fun nailing your friends with a rasengan or two, you won’t find a better game. Stick to what you are good at Naruto, and leave the serious fighting to us.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
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