Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 Reviews

I don't know if either nobody else who waited for the game to be imported, or if those that did chose to refer to everything by it's Japanese name (neither would surprise me). Whatever the case, this is a review based on the stateside release of this game, known as Ultimate Ninja 3!

Audio-
The music in the game seems right along the line of the previous two titles, a nuisance at best. Good part, though, is you can turn the background music off at will. You can also switch between the Japanese and English voices at will, a plus for the subbies, no doubt. The sound effects are all great. Each hit sounds like it strikes with impact and all the special attacks sound just as they do in the anime, which is great. My only real complain would have to be constantly hearing “Yo!” every time I hit a button on the menu. It got old fast in the last game, and I'm still not liking it in this one. It's nice to give it an oriental feel at first, but after so long it quickly gets annoying.

Video-
I don't know what games some of these reviewers have been playing, but Cell Shading is far more often terrible then it is good. It takes a lot of effort to make it look good, and most companies aren't willing to put that much work into it. Luckily, Bandai made sure this game didn't end up that way. The Ultimate Ninja games are the best looking cell-shading I've ever seen, and this game is no exception. This time around the special effects have been juiced up considerably. Everything from the simplest Chidori to the largest Hokage-level explosion looks great! As with the previous games, every fight is marked with Manga-style goodness. From Japanese words appearing onscreen with effects, to the shading of the characters and the environment. It takes the best elements of the anime series and combines it with the manga to create this awesome fusion. Sometimes you'll be watching an Ultimate Justsu and swear you must've triggered a high-render cutscene, but that's actually just how good the characters and moves look.

Gameplay-
Naturally this is one of the most important aspects, and rightly so. Ultimate Ninja 3 follows along the same line as it's predecessors. Combat is fast and furious. Countering attacks with the substitution Jutsu is basically the same as before, requiring precise timing. Fights are similar to the likes of Super Smash Bros and some other fighting games past. It takes place on a two-dimensional plane in a three-dimensional environment. You can teleport form the foreground to the background and back at will, and there are multiple levels on each (fighting along rooftops, in trees, etc…) Certain objects in the background are destructible, and when broken drop items that can be used in battle. Sometimes these items will increase your health or chakra (energy) levels, sometimes they will give you access to special weapons you can throw at your enemies. One are this game has improved on a lot is with these items. There are many more kinds that you can use that can not only be used as weapons, but many can increase your stats, or decrease your opponents. Even if you're losing the match, these items can shift the tide of battle dramatically, and add a new level of depth to gameplay.

As with previous games your character has special attacks, called Jutsu, and super attacks, known as Ultimate Jutsu. Normal Jutsu is more effective in this game then in the previous ones, and you can pick which jutsu you want to use at the selection screen if you want. You can only use two Jutsu in one fight, but you can pick between that character's normal two, or one of a set of others from other characters. Only certain jutsu are available for other characters to use, and they need to be unlocked for you to do so. Also, this game features the new Jutsu clash. When certain jutsu collide with each other, it will instigate a power struggle between the two players. I've never actually gotten it to work, but I hear it's very cool looking. This time around you can only use one Ultimate Jutsu per battle. You can pick which one you want at the character select screen. This is both a blessing and a curse. While it rather stinks that you no longer have all of your characters Ultimate Jutsu at your disposal at will, it's nice that you can pick the one with the effects you like. If you play as Sasuke, for instance, you can chose the Ultimate Jutsu that activates his Sharingan, rather then start the Ultimate Jutsu sequence in battle and fail intentionally to get it. Also, there are quite a bit more Ultimate Jutsu in this game over the previous installment, which is a plus. Some Ultimate Jutsu induce a powered-up state, much like in Ultimate Ninja 2. Power-Ups are temporary, and give you infinite Chakra for a limited time (though you can use Ultimate Jutsu while Powered-Up). Some actually transform your character. Transformations are permanent power increases, and while they don't give you infinite chakra, you can still utilize Ultimate Jutsu while transformed. Also note that many transformed states have their own normal jutsu attacks, and you can sometimes pick to start the battle in your transformed state (after you've unlocked all the characters). Some transformations and Summoning Jutsu initiate Giant Battles. Yes, you can now play as giant characters like the Shukaku demon in it's full form, Manda the giant snake that Orochimaru can summon, etc… The only problem with Ultimate Jutsu is that this time around you have to unlock them, just about all of them. To do that, you have to play through both single player modes, and spend a lot of time dating pretty much every other character in the game (including the guys) to unlock the hidden items needed to use the Jutsu, and then you have to level up the characters by fighting as Naruto in the Ultimate Contest mode. It's a very long, very boring process.

Extra Content-
Here's where the game's lacking. While the Single player modes are fun, you can complete them in little more then a day or two. Once that's done, it's just a matter of doing tedious, monotonous tasks just to unlock the remaining Ultimate Jutsu and the handful of characters you'll have left by then (if you didn't already use the code). Versus mode is a lot of fun with friends, but not much good on it's own. The game also would've benefited from the use of things like Alternate Costumes, and a tag-team mode. There's really not much there to motivate you to playing this game again. It might even only be worth a rental, if you don't want to unlock all the characters and moves, or if you aren't a big enough fan to think you might want to play it again in the future. They also got rid of those nice little ‘intro' sequences they used to have for versus mode. It wasn't much, but it was interesting to see how different characters reacted to meeting one-another in battle, and it made the mode seem more cinematic, if only slightly. It was a nifty little add-on that they got rid of for no apparent reason.

Overall, I'd say this is a excellent game for the fans, a great game for anyone who's got friends to play with, and at least worth the rental for the rest.

Review by Herugrim from gamefaqs.com

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 is definetly a good game because of the multiple characters, custimazation, etc. The mode Hero's History could have been much better then what it was. It probably wasn't all that good because they devoted most of the time to Ultimate Contest, great mode by the way. In Ultimate Contest you can explore almost all of Konohagakure and even some of Tanzaku Town(outpost town). The fighting style hasn't changed much from the previous two, except for new areas, new changes to characters in battle(such as curse mark 2) being permanent, one ultimate jutsu per fight and the brand new summoning mode. All-in-all its a good game but Hero's History was definetly a disappointment to me. I say they could improve upon that.