“The Best Fighter On Wii!”

So says the back of the box that houses Naruto Shippuden: Clash Of Ninja Revolution 3. That’s a pretty tall order, but if you’re going to be so bold as to make that claim, then prepare to be judged against the best. So how does NSCONR3 stack up against the generally acknowledged best fighter on the Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl?

Well, there are actually many similarities between the two games. Both are rated T for Teen. Both are essentially two-button fighters that result in gameplay that is easy to pickup, but with enough variations on those two button attacks to make it hard to master. Both give you many different controlling options, but you really should only play with the Classic Controller, or, better yet, the Gamecube Controller. Both offer excellent local multiplayer experiences. And that’s about where the similarities end.

Nothing to lose your head over.

That’s not to say that NSCONR3 isn’t a good fighter. It is, though you will really only appreciate it if you’re a Naruto fan. For that reason, I asked my brother-in-law, who’s big into the anime/manga scene, to help me out with this review as he’s familiar with the series and can help fill in the gaps when I was scratching my head, not knowing what was going on. Aside from a couple of really hardcore fanboi type complaints (no Japanese language option, bad voice acting, skipping large amounts of storyline), we did find that the game represents a good chance for Wii-owning fans to fight with their favourite characters.

The fighting system itself is ridiculously deep. That’s without even taking into account that you’ll use two main attack buttons, with some dodging, tagging, throwing, and special attack (jutsu) button hits sprinkled in for variety. Sure, you can button mash your way through some of it if you’re inclined, but it’s not going to get you very far. How you time your attacks, teleports, blocks, and other mechanics has a big impact on your success. How you build and use your Chakra meter affects what kinds of attacks and defenses you can execute. And then add in the option to have two-on-two tag matches, where you can tag in your partner to either let you recovery some health, perform impressive tag attack combos, or best of all, devastating double team jutsu attacks. Fighting fans who want a challenge and some depth will like what they see here, as long as they like Naruto or can tolerate the sometimes whiny or vague characters.

Speaking of characters, this game boasts 40 fighters, including some that my brother-in-law said may have appeared onscreen for at most a few seconds in one episode, but it’s still impressive. If you can unlock them all. Yes, that ol’ gag of having a ton of characters, but only giving you a few out of the gate is alive and well in Naruto, which gives you a whopping eight fighters to start with. That said, you also start with a decent amount of money to buy more characters, and you acquire money for completing fights, missions, story mode fights, and other things. Unfortunately, some characters are not even up for sale until you complete certain tasks, one of these being finishing Story Mode.

Don't expect to see THIS anytime soon.

I say “unfortunately” because Story Mode is awful. Not in a “this is boring/tedious/unentertaining way.” No, it’s awful in a “soul-crushingly difficult, cheap, and unbalanced” way. My brother-in-law and I were both calling BS many times while trying to advance through the Story Mode fights. I’ve done Story Mode fights before in other games. Sure, sometimes the computer AI got a little cheap, so you had to try again a couple of times, but you eventually could get through it. Not Naruto. The first fight was fine, a simple one-on-one, first-to-drain-the-other-guy’s-health-bar-wins variety. But after that, you faced things like having to finish off the opponent with a finishing jutsu, or a special kind of attack, or even worse, having to fight one-on-two against characters that can tag and regenerate, and other shenanigans. No, really, we actually called “shenanigans” once. I checked GameFAQs to see what kind of tips I could get for clearing one battle, and the author basically said things like good luck, took 20 tries, etc. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could just ignore the Story Mode, but since it’s necessary to complete to unlock characters, that’s simply bad form. We simply couldn’t continue, which is probably good, because research on further fights in Story Mode showed that things just get worse. At least Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a fun, challenging, yet completable way to unlock characters.

Okay, so Story Mode is an issue, but the single player can always go online and fight it out with other Naruto fans out there, and NSCONR3 does let you go online to test your skills. Unfortunately, the random unranked fights we tried suffered from lag issues, making it somewhat difficult to play. Smash Bros. was pretty inconsistent with online performance as well, and maybe it’s just another indictment of Nintendo’s online offerings, but it’s still disappointing, since other than Missions, the only other  options the single player has that don’t suck are endless Vs. Matches against a CPU opponent, which get repetitive after a while.

That basically means that NSCONR3 is best enjoyed as a local multiplayer experience (not unlike Brawl), and that’s where this game can really shine. If you can get past some annoyances with the fighting system such as characters refusing to turn and face their opponent who just appeared behind them, or figuring out why your chakra bar just drained for what seemed like a basic attack, Naruto fans will really enjoy getting together a friend’s house and battling it out for ninja supremacy. It’s not as good as Brawl as an overall experience, but as a pure fighter, it is certainly deeper and better, though you really need to be a fan of the series to fully appreciate it.

Special attacks are nicely animated and over the top, just as you'd expect.

There is a definite sweet spot for this game. If you’re a Naruto fan who doesn’t have like-minded friends (or doesn’t have friends in general), I don’t think you will enjoy this game very much. Story Mode is nearly impossible, and the online matches are laggy to the point of frustration. But if you belong to an anime/manga club, or just have friends who are into Naruto like you, this game can provide hours of enjoyment in a local multiplayer setting. There’s lots of variety, whether you play one-on-one, two-on-two, etc. And if you’re a bit masochistic, maybe you can take turns trying to beat the Story Mode as a bonding experience.

Naruto Shippuden: Clash Of Ninja Revolution 3 is published by TOMY for the Nintendo Wii, and rated T for Teen. A review copy was provided to GamerPops.

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