With the GameCube's Naruto: Clash of Ninja, anime fanatics could choose their favorite ninja kids and pound each other into the next decade. That's very much the case with the PS2-exclusive Ultimate Ninja, but our extended hands-on time with the title helped distance it from its Nintendo-bound cousin.
While Clash of Ninja was anything but tame, the constant wall-running, teleporting and counterattacking of Ultimate Ninja makes even the most peaceful match hard to follow if you're not keeping a
Given how effortless it seems to slap an English dub on a anime or manga-based game, the original Naruto: Ultimate Ninja turned into something almost better than we deserved. Well, certainly better than what were used to. Because along with a beloved license, Naruto: UN brought an incredibly intuitive, easy to play, yet hard to master, fighting style that lended the game an air of longevity far beyond the mere ability to exchange blows amongst your favorite cartoon
With all the new gameplay features and fan service heaped upon it by Namco Bandai and the impeccable license, Ultimate Ninja 3's complete package should have any Naruto fan curious enough for at least one more last-gen joyride.
One of the biggest announcements at the Bandai Namco event? The unveiling of the next entry in the licensed brawler you folks can’t get enough of. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm on the PlayStation 3 not only presents one of the better acronyms in all gamedom (NUNS!) but it offers a significant upgrade to a series, that honestly, was getting kind of stale. Year after year, offering little more than later storylines and increased character
The Naruto TV series descended onto the gaming masses as a flashy and frantic tweaked-up fighting romp. It was solid drive-by fun, yet it lacked the deep meat that keeps hardcore gamers chewing.
Maybe that's why the next in the Naruto lineage, Uzumaki Chronicles, is a thicker beast, still centered on frenzied brawls, but with a few slabs of role-playing steak stapled to the sides. We've just played through the game's early stages, and we're not yet sure if this is real beef, or just another
We're only slightly kidding with that strapline above: with three separate publishers riding the little orange-clad money train, there are far too many Naruto-based games coming down the pike. However, Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles 2 is unique in some important ways. First off, it's on PS2, which means it looks cruddy and old (though improved from the first Uzumaki game) but will be available on what is still far and away the most-played home console in the current
NASCAR is unbelievably popular, but the prospect of driving in an oval, lap after repetitive lap, has started to get a little tired... no matter how fast you go. Enter NASCAR 07, EA's attempt to spice things up by digging deeper into the sport than simply picking your line and blindly adhering to
It's got to be tough for mega-publisher Electronic Arts and NASCAR developer Tiburon to come up with new tweaks to the NASCAR formula every year. You don't have nearly the number of roster updates that other sports like football and basketball have, and other than occasional changes to safety gear or engine design, there are few new rules changes to incorporate. Yet, this is one of the most popular sports in the metaverse, so you damn well better give the folks something new every year. This
This year's NASCAR 09 will be about driving and making a really long sequence of left turns. Yeah, not much new there, but the brand name racing game from EA does have some new additions in store for racing fans. They've adopted Jeff Gordon (long-time big racing guy) to act as the new mascot and guide people through the game. He had a lot to say (even a new "Ask Jeff" function), but our time was limited, so we just had a quick look at the
There’s a lot of stereotypes about NASCAR. Many people dismiss it as a big loud spectacle for rednecks where drivers turn left for 500 laps and people only care about the crashes. Ironically, NASCAR is one of the most precise, subtle forms of racing out there; all the cars are carefully limited to prevent unfair advantages, which puts the focus on driver skill over mechanical superiority. Even after 500 laps, races are regularly decided by hundredths of a second. Races are so tight in fact, that winners and losers are regularly decided by their pit crews, some of the best in the world. But yeah, there’s no denying that the crashes are awesome.
