Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2
Score: 90% ESRB: Teen Publisher: D3 Developer: Tomy Ltd. Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Fighting/ Themed
Graphics & Sound: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is not only the second Clash of Ninja game for the Wii, but the second American exclusive game as well, and this time, instead of following the show's storyline, the game introduces a new story placed after Sasuke leaves the village. Visually speaking, the game isn't bad at all, especially considering the Wii's lower graphical capabilities when compared to the PS3 or Xbox 360. I even liked the look of the new characters like the two Anbu Black operatives, Towa and Komachi. Fighting locations also look good. Areas like on top of the Hokage's house, the Forest of Death and The Final Valley where Naruto and Sasuke had their face off all look pretty close to the way they did in the series. Sound is actually an issue at times. During cutscenes, the music overpowers the voices so its often hard to know what exactly is being said. Of course, if this followed the show's story, then followers of the series would have an idea of what was going on, but since it's a new tale, then it can be an issue. In-fight comments aren't perfect either. The voices have an odd, metallic twang to them making the voices sound off and distracting at times.
Gameplay: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2's Story mode has the villagers behaving rather oddly. It seems that some of the fighters are deciding to turn on the others. Their aggression levels are high and they are definitely getting friend confused with foe. Naruto and a couple of others that don't seem to be under the spell start attempting to snap the others out of it, but soon discover that its all the work of a former Leaf Village Anbu operative and her minions. For some reason, she has a grudge against her former village, and would like to see it turned to rubble. Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 introduces a few new features to the line. For one, there is a tag-team system where you can switch between two characters, for another; there are a few new types of fight styles available. For instance, some missions will require more of a free-for-all style than the standard one-on-one fights. During these fights, the game feels more like a brawler where up to four characters can go all out against each other. Typically though, these fights are three on one or two on two, never really every man-for-himself. Similar to these fights are missions where you will control a character as wave after wave of enemies spawn until you have defeated a certain number. The variety of fight-types really helps to break up the pattern of the game, so things tend to stay interesting for a while. The previous game's win conditions return, but some of the issues I had with it before seem to have been smoothed out some. Before, if you had to beat an enemy with a particular move, you had to make sure their health was low enough that the move would finish them off. There were plenty of times when I would use my move and I would leave them with a little health, and I wouldn't have any chakra to attempt the special move again. Consequently, I would have to hit them, win the fight, but fail the mission and have to retry. Well, that particular issue has been resolved by not ending the fight just because the character that has to be defeated a certain way has run out of health. You have to use the move on them for them to be stopped. This means that, if you use your move and they still have some life, you can keep wailing away at them in order to regain your chakra, and provided you fight the extra time, you will be facing the person, use your special ability yet again and meet the win condition.
Difficulty: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is just as tough as its predecessor, though the difficulty feels a bit more natural this time since they were able to resolve some of the win condition issues mentioned above. In the last game, progressing relied heavily on being able to finish off opponents with certain moves, typically because that's how the fight ended in the show. The issues from that are detailed above, and while the game still requires opponents to be defeated with certain moves, the fixes for that are also detailed above. Now, the difficulty of the game is based more on the actual A.I. toughness, and it just feels more beatable that way.
Game Mechanics: If there is one thing the first Clash of Ninja Revolution game had, it was controller options. You could play with either the standard Wii-mote/Nunchuck option or plug in the Retro Controller, or use just the Remote itself, or even grab your old GameCube controller. Well thankfully, Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 didn't take any of that away (which is nice since my brother actually prefers the game with the GameCube controller). Quite frankly, I was surprised the developers didn't try and figure out a way to make the Balance Board act as an input device somehow. Anyway, because of all of these options, I don't want to try and explain the different combinations. Suffice it to say that, for the most part, they are fairly intuitive and easy to pick up and play. But, if you do happen to use one of the non-motion controlling options, then you won't be able to use the new Hand Signs feature. This in-fight ability allows a temporary boost in the amount of damage your next few attacks will deal out, increase chakra or even transform certain characters. The Hand Sign system has the player mimicking certain actions with the Wii-mote and Nunchuck. It's a fairly simple concept, but taking the time to do it in the middle of a fight is always a gamble since it leaves you open to attack. Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is definitely a solid follow up to the previous game. Not only does it bring a lot of the characteristics from the first that made it stand out, but it seemed to fix a few of the issues I had with it as well. Naruto fans looking for some solid action on their Wii should definitely take a look at Clash of Ninja Revolution 2, and if the first one didn't quite sit well with you, then rent this one to see if the issues you had with it were resolved.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
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