As you might know, as of now the first Naruto Clash of Ninja is the worst product I’ve reviewed. Not that it was just this terrible game that pissed me off, it simply had nothing at all to offer, which could be even worse. This time around however, they more than made up for the last game. Clash Of Ninja 2 first fixes the roster, which I will talk about first. It goes to the Gaara fight, so now needed characters like Neji and Kiba are now included with a total of over twenty two characters. However, there are several characters I don’t even want to count as characters. Two of which are Krow and Akamaru. This is Kiba’s dog and Konkoru’s puppet which are tools to those characters, and fight with them. It’s basically them without Kiba or Konkoru actually being there. They shouldn’t count as characters at all, and there are still two other characters I have a problem with. It is Sharingan Kakashi and Sharingan Sasuke. It’s basically the same character just modified a little bit. I haven’t used Sharingan Sasuke but did use Kakashi, and it’s the same thing to me. They again don’t need to be in the game. You could easily hit the z button and have the character use sharingan and then it’s done. Plus, Sharingan Sasuke cost a shit load of money, and is the only character I couldn’t get because I wasn’t going to spend that much time for one more character. Of course you could say Nine-Tails Naruto was also like that, but it’s a completely different character, and allowing him into normal fights would give Naruto a huge edge. Nine-Tails Naruto could have been integrated better, but he’s still an asset to the game and helps the roster even if he’s a different version of the already existing Naruto. Anyway, the roster is still a positive, and definitely hit’s the minimum, and goes a little beyond. They even surprised me by including Mizuki and Orochimaru, which added a nice touch. But how about the story mode. The story isn’t great by a long stretch, but is definitely an improvement. You get twenty fights with pretty much terrible cut scenes, but it’s good enough. You can buy extra story parts later in the game, and I bought each one, and it’s about worth the price you pay for them. If the story was the only mode it would be a real let down, but the story is only the beginning. You have a arcade like mode, a time attack mode, team fight mode, fight against the computer, Oboro mode, and survival mode. These will definitely keep you playing, and keep you grinding to make more money. The game modes are a huge plus, and blow the last game out of the water. Not to mention the money you spend is another huge plus. You have to buy your characters, buy extra story, buy numerous collectibles that can be seen in the extras, buy the more advanced modes, buy everything down to the hardest difficulty setting which leaves you playing for a much longer time than the last game. The shop is a huge asset, and if it wasn’t used this game would be a whole number grade down at least. But lastly how is the fighting, the most important part? It’s mostly copy and paste from the last game, but since you could count the last game’s amount of characters on two hands, you really couldn’t fully appreciate it. Now with so many new characters you can finally fight how you want. Each round is kept short and quick, and it defiantly gets your hands twitchy to move quicker. The chakra system isn’t at all like real chakra and you are limited when it comes to supers, but what can you do. The super moves that are there are pretty bad ass and feel right at place in the game. They took liberty with characters like Guy Sensei and Iruka Sensei who normally didn’t have a normal super move when you think of them, so they do moves that are bad ass or in Guy’s case funny. Also reading about the characters from their files and cards tells you things you things that you never really knew about them. The reason I like anime fighters usually more than traditional fighters is that they have a familiar roster that normally you can pick more characters for and the supers are based off their anime. Unlike the last game I felt this one actually paid respect to the anime rather than make a lazy game off it. With an extended roster, better modes, and ultimately better and more fulfilling time this game gains momentum to the series and gives you a good taste for Naruto games by living up to it’s potential. This one was dead between a six and a seven, and in the end I’ll have to give it a six. Average games are still positive, and this is even above that, but not quite high enough for me to saw it’s really nice. It’s worth my money and time, but not quite enough for me to place it on a list of higher games that have 7 out of ten place. Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 more than makes up for the previous disaster and gives a fulfilling experience I’m happy to have played.
Naruto: Clash Of Ninja 2 Review