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Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!!
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Score: 68%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Tomy Ltd.
Media: Cartridge/1
Players: 1 - 4 (Multi-Card)
Genre: Fighting
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Graphics & Sound:
Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!! is a fighting game that takes you through a good chunk of the Shippuden storyline that has Team Kakashi once again going out to find Sasuke, and Sasuke's own quest to finally take down his older brother.
Visually, Shinobi Rumble isn't all that impressive. The playable characters feel decidedly low rez and pixelated. Given the fact that the game is a 2D fighter and the characters are sprites, there doesn't seem to be much reason for this. I guess one possibility is that the artists were trying to go for more of an old-school feel with the visuals, but even 20 year-old classics like Street Fighter II (yeah that's right SF II is 20 years-old... damn) weren't quite this rough around the edges.
The backdrops of the fights are okay, but still rather low rez feeling. Again, since this is a 2D fighter, there shouldn't be any reason not to provide highly detailed images of both the characters and the lands. It should just be an image that is being painted on the screen. A lot of the locations are obviously from the show, but there are also a ton of generic places that could, quite frankly, belong to any fighting game.
The music does seem to hit the right chord as it feels very Naruto. Not only are the various iconic tunes there, but there never really seems to be just a generic song that feels like it might come from the anime just thrown in for filler. Then again, most Naruto titles have been pretty good about the sound, both in music and voicework, so this is more to be expected even from a simple 2D fighter like Shinobi Rumble!!.
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Gameplay:
Like I said before, Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!! is a pretty basic fighting game. There is the Story Mode that includes Team Kakashi's renewed pursuit of Sasuke, while Sasuke himself goes around forming his own squad, Hebi, and then goes after Itachi. The Story Mode itself isn't too long and can be beaten over the course of a few playing sessions. Because of that, only the biggest fights from the show/manga are present in the game itself.
Story Mode isn't all Shinobi Rumble!! has to offer though. I rather enjoyed the game's Special Missions Mode. Here, you select a character and go through a number of fights with different scenarios. Once you complete the mission, you get stamps on a Bingo card. Every time you complete a row, column or diagonal, you unlock a new jutsu to use in any of the modes except Story.
These missions can be anything from surviving a fight for a specific length of time, to defeating all of the opponents on the screen (up to three) while only using jutsu, or even without using any. There are also missions like collecting a certain number of power ups in a certain amount of time, while opposing A.I. tries to keep you away, of course, and ending a fight with a particular level of attack. The difficulty of the mission determines the number of stamps that you win on your Bingo card after the fight, and there are some tough missions mixed into this mode.
The game does offer modes that let you either go up against an A.I.-controlled enemy or up to three other friends. Oddly enough, not only is there no Wi-fi action in Shinobi Rumble!!, but the multiplayer that is in place is Multi-Card. Given the low detailed nature of the graphics, I would have thought the game would have gone the Single Card route, at least then the lower visual qualities would have been somewhat understandable and possibly forgivable. |
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Difficulty:
Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!!'s Story Mode has a few tough fights, but even those just take a second attempt to get past. Even the game's final fight between two of the show's most powerful characters wasn't that much of a hassle. But then again, there is a definite feeling that this game is meant for a younger audience, and if that's the case, then the lack of any real toughness to Shinobi Rumble!!'s primary gameplay modes is more understandable.
The game's Story Mode does let you choose one of three different difficulty settings before you start your adventure, and while you can't seem to be able to change that setting afterwards, you can always start another Story Mode with a different setting if you happen to find it too hard or too easy.
The only parts of the game that offered any real challenge to me were the Special Missions, and not all of them. In fact, I would say I enjoyed this part of the game far more than the Story Mode, not only because it had a wider range of difficulty, and I would often lose in the more difficult missions, but it also offered a wider variety of what the game could actually do. While this mode offered you the ability to choose the difficulty of your next mission, there was a good risk/reward mechanic built in because the tougher the mission, the more stamps you would get.
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Game Mechanics:
Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!! uses the Face Buttons for the various normal attacks. Everything from your standard weak and strong attacks to your jump and guard are done with the tap of one of these buttons. The touch screen is used to execute your special abilities. You are given three abilities for your fights. In Story Mode, these are preset, but you can choose whichever ones you've unlocked for your characters for the other fighting modes.
When you have enough chakra to pull off the move, you tap the big button on the touch screen and your character performs his or her move. If you've built up enough chakra, you can execute the move's Ultra version by tapping a part of the screen to the right of the ability's button. This unleashes a bigger and more devastating version of the attack.
There are a few more advanced moves you can pull off, like a substitution jutsu that gets you out of harm's way when you fall to the ground by pressing the (R) shoulder button, or being able to teleport short distances around the screen with the same button, at the cost of chakra, of course. The toughest move to pull off, at least for me, is the counter attack. Here, you want to hit guard and double tap a direction on the D-pad in order to not only block the attack, but unleash some major damage of your own. In the entire game, I was only able to pull this off a few times.
In the end, Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble!! isn't going to impress most gamers, much less most gamers who are enough of a fan of the anime to have played even a handful of other Naruto titles. It has a short Story Mode, and while amusing, the other gameplay modes aren't enough to really hold any interest for any real length of time. There might be some younger gamers out there who will find the game worthwhile, but it really doesn't feel like it has any sticking power, so I wouldn't recommend it for any kid who is even approaching their teenage years.
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
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