[Gamers' Day 2007] Tag Team Ninja Mash Up
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes is a licensed portable 3D fighting game that's... fun? Our early impressions say so.
Published: May 17, 2007
The mere idea of a good 3D fighting game on the PSP isn't exactly unheard of Tekken: Dark Resurrection proved it could be done with few compromises, but a good licensed 3D fighter on a portable is sort of a recipe for disaster (licensed game + portable + 3D + fighting = too many wild cards).
Imagine our surprise, then when we fooled around with Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes and actually ended up having a great time. It helps that the game started with the base of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, which was in itself a pretty strong fighter made by Bandai's CyberConnect2 studio (they of .hack fame). The big change-up for the PSP version is in the ability to swap out fighters, bringing up to three of them into the battle (though you can have anywhere up to 3-on-1 fights if you're a jerk or a masochist), along with Hero Mode, which basically bolts an extra set of challenges onto the otherwise normal fights, stuff like doing a certain amount of damage or retaining a chunk of your health by the end of the fight.
Meeting the goals nets you Parameter Power-Up Points which let you boost your base stats in areas like chakra power, attack, defense, speed, specials, and so on. You'll also earn currency that lets you unlock extras for Naruto's pad, but the obvious emphasis was on building the game for unlockables that could then be traded with other PSPs via an Ad-Hoc connection (you can also do battle this way too, of course). Combined with the game's system for giving specific bonuses depending on the team you bring into battle (you can mix and match from 20 different stars from the series), there's actually an impressive amount of depth to be found.
We sadly had to move on to other games before we could really dig in, but given that the game is still a good three-plus months out, we should hopefully have time to digest the US- and EU-exclusive little brawler in more detail.
Imagine our surprise, then when we fooled around with Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes and actually ended up having a great time. It helps that the game started with the base of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, which was in itself a pretty strong fighter made by Bandai's CyberConnect2 studio (they of .hack fame). The big change-up for the PSP version is in the ability to swap out fighters, bringing up to three of them into the battle (though you can have anywhere up to 3-on-1 fights if you're a jerk or a masochist), along with Hero Mode, which basically bolts an extra set of challenges onto the otherwise normal fights, stuff like doing a certain amount of damage or retaining a chunk of your health by the end of the fight.
Meeting the goals nets you Parameter Power-Up Points which let you boost your base stats in areas like chakra power, attack, defense, speed, specials, and so on. You'll also earn currency that lets you unlock extras for Naruto's pad, but the obvious emphasis was on building the game for unlockables that could then be traded with other PSPs via an Ad-Hoc connection (you can also do battle this way too, of course). Combined with the game's system for giving specific bonuses depending on the team you bring into battle (you can mix and match from 20 different stars from the series), there's actually an impressive amount of depth to be found.
We sadly had to move on to other games before we could really dig in, but given that the game is still a good three-plus months out, we should hopefully have time to digest the US- and EU-exclusive little brawler in more detail.
