Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes | a Review
originally published on 22/02/2021;
Hello everyone, I am the illustrious G.E.M.Simov, an amazing HOKAGE, becoming one after nearly 10 years of struggle, and today I’ll tell you about Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes (henceforth known as NUNH).
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
Gameplay
Right off the bat, this is a fighting game, so there are 2 options for it. Either it’s good, or it’s bad. Suspiciously, I think this one is on the GOOD side of the fighting game genre. It’s a PSP game (which stands for PlayStation Portable, for all you folks who haven’t even heard of such a console), which means it’s got a limited number of buttons to work with, but it manages to provide a decently in-depth gameplay experience.
Naturally, it being a fighting game presents the frightening potential for infinite combos, or, alternatively, the potential for NO combos. NUNH manages to avoid allowing infinite combos by introducing a mechanic that resolves every combo of attacks with a situation in which an opponent is DOWNED, meaning they can’t act temporarily, but are also immune to most sources of damage. That second part - the immunity - comes from limiting the attacks that can do damage to a downed opponent. On top of that, there is no means to knock an opponent out of being downed, as well as there being no opportunity for the opponent to be pushed against a wall and juggled.
This is not too bad, because there are combos that can be utilized - specific combinations of button inputs that allow the character to perform a different attack/move - but there are also no situations in which a player dies before being able to do anything. However, I’d like to urge you to not worry about lacking the opportunity to display your skill.
Naturally, a game that does not have an infinite combo potential might seem as though it lacks the potential to truly be mastered, and played in a manner that REALLY does appear skillful, but I’d wager that NUNH actually has potential. Because, unlike most other fighting games, it features a means to escape from being attacked - and that is the Substitution Jutsu.
Substitution Jutsus can be performed by pressing the button, used to guard, at the right moment an opponent’s attack connects. Then, if the timing was right, the player’s character is teleported behind their opponent, the damage that would have been dealt is negated, and a small amount of chakra (which is the resource utilized for performing most special moves) is consumed.
The presence of this mechanic allows for players who know how long an attack’s animation takes to truly go through, who know the collision boxes, and who have a decent bit of reflexes, to shine by utilizing the Substitution Jutsu mechanic to its fullest.
On top of that, NUNH doesn’t feel as sluggish as most other fighting games, because of the increased functionality of the jump. The player can double tap their jump button to quickly close the distance between themselves and the opponent, to then go into a string of attacks and go ham. That is really quite the pleasant addition, because movement is super important in games, and quite important in fighting games, yet almost all the other competitors in the genre seem hellbent on making every character move slowly and unpleasantly sluggishly, when it comes to getting placed.
The game has really, really good gameplay, to be quite honest, but, I believe that the way that the developers have gone about balancing the Substitution Jutsu, because, otherwise, it would have all just been players timing themselves and never landing hits, until somebody runs out of chakra first, after which the game is over for them (much like what has happened with the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm franchise), is not good.
So, the way it seems to work is that pressing the guard button at the time of the attack only has a CHANCE to trigger a Substitution Jutsu, because countless times I’ve used that mechanic and it has not worked for me. Additionally, when fighting the AI, on the highest difficulties, it becomes quite ridiculous how proficient they are at timing their Substitution Jutsus well, and, if there was no mechanic to throttle the effectiveness of Substitution Jutsus, I don’t think it would have been very possible to beat the AI at the highest difficulty.
Though, that brings about the issue of the player doing something, but nothing actually happening, which just does not feel good. In addition to that, there are some questionable choices - such as abilities that sometimes do something, other times do not. An example would be Tsunade’s jutsu - which requires that the opponent is close enough and gets hit. Then, a slot machine pops up, and the Tsunade player has a CHANCE of doing damage and getting a downed status on the enemy, or they could just not do that. Gambling in my game? No, fuck that out of my face.
Another problem comes about with “Ultimate Jutsus” or “Secret Techniques”, which, when used, drain all of the user’s chakra, deal a substantial amount of damage (around 30% of the opponent’s health), and then put the user into a special state. The issue is that some characters are put into states that are far worse than others. An example would be Sasuke’s ultimate state - he gets a “Curse” status effect, which does damage to him at a rate that is alarmingly fast - in exchange, his stats are boosted quite nicely, but, still, in an even matchup, getting that would just throw away the advantage obtained through the use of the “Ultimate Jutsu” to deal damage, as the Sasuke player would just lose about as much HP.
Other instances are Tsunade (what a surprise that she appears a second time), because the status she gets is, at first, “Regen”, which heals her for a duration, but, then, she gets the “Age” status, which makes her incredibly slow and also reduces her damage dealt, which, technically, just makes it incredibly unattractive to use her “Ultimate Jutsu” at all.
Now, while the gameplay itself is decent, there is a big problem, in my view. There are three modes of play - Heroes Mode, VS CPU, and Promotional Test. When winning fights, the player accumulates Ninja Points, which are tied to the characters used to win the fight, which can then be used to boost the stats of those characters. Though this only applies for the Promotional Test and VS CPU modes. Conversely, those are the modes one is least likely to want to play to enjoy the growth of their characters. In part, due to the fact that the Promotional Test is just a set of challenge fights, which cannot be replayed, and, because the VS CPU mode is just that - VS CPU, and does not feature any great prize. Heroes Mode - which is the main Mode of the game - does not take into account the upgrades, which is very underwhelming.
All in all, the gameplay is SOLID, and, as such, I’ll gladly give it the highest grade I could. 3/3
Presentation
NUNH has a presentation that was good for back when it was made, but, in hindsight, it is quite middling. The music is nothing special, the voice acting is, again, mediocre, the visuals are not too bad, but there is one great issue.
There is no tutorial, which is a harrowing problem, when it comes to fighting games. That deep system for combat just doesn’t exist. There are some things that get mentioned by name, but the player doesn’t know about them unless they have read the booklet, and then that isn’t even enough in some cases. The moves that each character does? Stop the game on pause, while playing that character, navigate the menus and read those moves. It’s quite unpleasant and it feels as if there was some kind of opportunity that was missed.
In addition to that, each character, upon landing their “Ultimate Jutsu”, has an animation that plays. Those are not bad, but they are quite awkward. All in all, it could have been better. 2/3
Story
NUNH has no story, nor does it have a story mode. This was very mind-blowing, as Naruto had been running for a while (the Anime) at the time of its release, and yet there was no story mode. As there is no story, there are no points. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Believe it - it does… not. While I would like to say I really enjoyed this game and it left an imprint upon me, I don’t think that is the case. It was fun, I have to admit, but it was not anything spectacular and beyond my wildest dreams. It was a game. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. I’d go as far as to say that this is an average game. I’d be incredibly pleased if most games that ended up getting 8/10 or 9/10 on SOME Game Review platforms were as good as NUNH, which would’ve been a 5/10, and yet this 5/10 game is better than a large portion of those games. Unfortunate, but it is what it is.
I am pleasantly surprised by how well this game holds up as a game. I’ve got to say that I recommend it, if you’re looking for a 2D fighting game that has a bit of a higher pace and a Weeb Theme to it.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display.