The Naruto manga has not only spawned a popular anime series but also expanded into several video games. Two of the most recent titles are Naruto: The Broken Bond on xbox 360 and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm on Playstation 3. The former is a sequel to 2007's Naruto: Rise Of A Ninja and the latter is a next generation HD version of the Ultimate Ninja series.
Naruto: The Broken Bond builds on Ubisoft Montreal's Naruto: Rise Of Ninja and continues Naruto and squad seven's quest after the Chunin examinations. The game plays like an action adventure game with role-playing elements. Players relive events seen in the 4th and 5th series on the anime. The story focuses on Sasuke Uchiha, and his jealously of his partner and friend Naruto Uzumaki. Players unfold the story and are introduced to characters such as Sasuke's brother Itatchi and Tsunade (the new leaf village Hokage). Fighting is handled in a revamped fighting system first seen in Rise Of A Ninja. Each character has special Justu attacks that they can pull off using directional combinations of the two analogue sticks. These Justu vary from character to character and include fan favorites like Naruto's Rasengen and Shadow Clone technique.
Overall The Broken Bond is an excellent effort as it refines many of the problems with Rise Of A Ninja (an unfair combat system being the most obvious). Now that Ubisoft have covered all of the manga until the series takes a time jump hopefully they will pull out a Naruto Shippuden title for 2009.
Ultimate Ninja Storm was first unveiled as simply the "Naruto PS3 project". The project promised to finally blur the line between the Naruto anime and video games. The game was a sight to behold. Not only does the title developed by Cyber Connect 2 deliver in the visual department it also manages to create exciting dynamic gameplay. Look out for more on Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm as soon as I finish the game.
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