Naruto: Rise of a Ninja

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is an Xbox 360-exclusive video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal, making it the first Naruto game to be developed by a non-Japanese company. The game is specifically based on the English dubbed version of the anime. Ubisoft has also released a free 60-mb download which includes a Japanese voice option, the ability to change the in-game voices to Japanese, while still keeping the English subtitles. A follow-up sequel titled Naruto: The Broken Bond has been confirmed for a Fall 2008 release.

Gameplay
The game itself consists of two major gameplay modes: one-on-one fighting and RPG, where Konoha serves as a main hub to access various missions players can go on. The main story mode alternates between these two modes, and takes place from the beginning of the series to the end of the Invasion of Konoha arc (episodes 01-80 of the anime), with included sidequests. It features gameplay similar to that of a 3D platformer, like jumping acrobatically from rooftop to rooftop or racing through checkpoints, as well as having one-on-one brawls much like the Naruto: Clash of Ninja series. Like with most Naruto games, it features cel-shaded graphics.The game also allows online versus multiplayer via Xbox Live, titled "The Forest of Death", enabling you to play with your friends. You start off choosing a character, and defeating other opponents to rank up and eventually gain points to complete the exam. If the player is defeated, they must begin from the bottom of the table all over again, but the points are still kept. Offline play, and two-player versus mode are also available.

The game supports downloadable content; five new characters have been made available (Shikamaru, Choji, Jiraiya, the 3rd Hokage, and Temari). Downloadable content also adds two new arenas to play in, and also additional achievements for each character played in the Forest of Death. Currently, the game has 37 achievements with a maximum of 1075 Gamerpoints.

Playable Characters

 * Naruto Uzumaki


 * Sasuke Uchiha


 * Kakashi Hatake


 * Sakura Haruno


 * Gaara of the Desert


 * Haku


 * Zabuza Momochi


 * Orochimaru


 * Kiba Inuzuka


 * Rock Lee


 * Neji Hyuga

Downloadable Characters

 * Shikamaru Nara


 * Choji Akimichi


 * Temari


 * Sarutobi


 * Jiraiya

Choji, Temari, Sarutobi and Jiraiya come bundled in packs of two: Choji and Temari, Sarutobi and Jiraiya. Each bundle also comes with two new maps/arenas. Each pack is 500 Microsoft Points which is $6.25.

Reception
The game has met generally good reviews from critics. It's Metacritic aggregate score is 78, indicating "generally favorable reviews". One main example of praise is from IGN, awarding the game 8.4/10 and stating 'the first great Naruto game' (despite giving praise to past games in the Naruto franchise). In addition to winning the best fighting game award at E3 2007, it was also praised for having a simple but fun and fast fighting engine. The game though was slightly criticised for giving players an abridged story, and many characters not being in the story as well.

Problems
Exclusive Shikamaru download (which was free) caused games to freeze when hitting a trip wire or log, while also rendering the Japanese voicepack non-functional. These have been solved through a patch in the Jiraiya and Sarutobi download (both trial and full version).

According to sources, Rock Lee's finishing move (Primary Lotus) was removed due to unequal results in both online and offline play, but Ubisoft has said it will restore this in a free firmware patch.

In addition, there are bugs within the achievements for the two new downloadable characters packs, meaning players cannot achieve the 60G promised when completing the exam with these four characters.