Naruto: Rise of a Ninja (Xbox 360)

From highly acclaimed game creators, Ubisoft comes an exclusive Naruto experience on the XBOX 360, known as Naruto: Rise of a Ninja. Play through as Naruto, as you fight your way through over 80 of the original series' episodes, with many cut-scenes brought to life in this ultimate gaming experience.

There are many objectives, quests and just areas for you to explore, as you travel through renowned places from the Naruto series. Freely roam Konoha village and its surrounding environments in full 3D, where you'll be able to accept quests, sub-quests, search for bronze and gold coins, and learn new moves to become the ultimate ninja. Naruto, is basically a one-to-one fighting game, but with the style that is done, you go into battle mode, and fight your enemies, which can be characters from the series' or minor characters, such as random ninjas, pirates, bandits and the works.

With it staying true to the story, you will be able to learn moves from the series, such as, Naruto can learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu(known for technique), which allows him to create numerous clones of himself to gain a great advantage in battle and deal destructive damage to his opponent. You can also learn other jutsu's, for those who are familiar to the series, you can perform both Ninjitsu's and Taijutsu's.

Though you don't have to go through the story if you want, the game also offers head-to-head battle, where you can play with more then just Naruto, such as Sasuke, Sakura, and even the evil Gaara, in numerous different battlefields. You can play against a computer, or you can play against friends, or even take it to online and face off against the world. You can also do a tournament, which you play through several battles and attempt to become the champion!

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is entirely perfect though, its main flaw is the shortness. I completed this game within 7 hours, did it in one day, and completed majority of the side-quests. But those 7 or so hours were a very fun experience.

I found the game very enjoyable, being a fan of the Naruto series, this game was defiantly up my street, with being able to harness the power of the jutsu's, and fight in a decent next generation combat system that brings further enjoyment as you attempt to master it. I found the game very addictive, as stated earlier, I completed the game in one day, and was constantly playing it to do so, and I still come back to it now and then to play with the very fun combat system with some friends. The game is original, you can travel through numerous places in full 3D, as well as follow the storyline of the exciting Naruto anime series, with its fun combat system, unique experience of jutsu's, and much more.

Graphically, the game is great; the style it is done in is very anime esc, which really serves the series well, the beauty of the different environments is great to marvel at, from numerous heights. The soundtrack for the game is pretty decent, sounds just like from the series, with its unique sounds for this game. The voice actors are exceptional; they used the original English voice actors from the series, which does the game justice. The sound effects are also good, from running on the ground, bashing enemies to a pulp, and running on water, sound very realistic and stylish.

The game can get quite difficult, especially that you have to think fast with the combat, as it can get very hardcore with all the disappearing, and jutsu's going on, but nothing that can't be overcome with patience. The game is still relatively new, so it'll still be around £25 - £35, so due to its shortness, it will probably be best to wait till it reaches a lower price, but it is defiantly a game that should be in anyone's XBOX 360 collection. In short, I really enjoyed this game, I'm a big fan of the Naruto series, and to see a game so true to its story is just amazing, I can't wait for the sequel, where it follows through more of the story.

Overall: 8.2/10