A Ninja's Guilty Pleasure

As much as I hate to admit it, I've always been into the idea of Naruto. After years of DBZ, the show's trite format bothered me a little bit, but the action is so good! Surprisingly, it wasn't playing an action game based in the Naruto world that sucked me in. I imported a couple of the Gamecube fighters and played their cheap 3d action, with their 1-button supers, so I've gotten the "OMG! IM PLAYIGN AS ROCK LEE!" out of my system. This game (Naruto: Rise of a Ninja) is a legit platformer. It's frustrating at first. I said aloud "It doesn't make any sense to not have a double jump." I was rewarded with a double jump minutes later.

SIDE NOTE: I don't understand why, in some games, you can double jump freely, then in other games your window to double jump is so small. This game is a good example, you can only activate your double jump while going up or during hangtime (the hangtime, by the way, looks forced and feels funny). If you've started falling, you missed your chance. I don't understand why a developer would choose to do that. If you're going to bend physics to your will, you might as well do it big.

I asked the game "Where's the sprint ability? This isn't how ninja run." After a couple missions you get the ability to sprint. Holding the Right Trigger you throw your arms back to your side and start sprinting. You can pull the Left Trigger to DRIFT and take sharp corners.

The game does do a few things that piss me off:

1. You can't swim. Whenever you fall in the water you lose a little health and Naruto says something hilarious (/sarcasm).
2. You're only allowed to punch/fight in the fight sequences.
3. When you get too close to an edge Naruto just falls. No balancing animation. No quick grab back on to the ledge. He just falls. A ninja would never make this mistake. Even Link saves from an accidental ledge fall.
4. The missions are super-simplistic. Coin collecting around town and the overdone "Go get that guy! (and fight all his henchmen that show up every x steps and get a little harder as you go)" mission are getting to the point of being unacceptable in any game.
   

I haven't gotten too far into it (only like 25% through the story that I followed), but I'm saying it's worth renting right now. At its core it's a well-made ninjaish platformer with semisweet 3d fighting action and fun to do jutsu techniques. You might not appreciate it as much if you have no investment in the Naruto world. Don't get me wrong, I hate Shonen Jump as much as the next semi-elitist, but teenager ninja-training action is a force that I simply cannot deny.

Quickie: Stranglehold.

It's a waste of the Unreal engine. Short of its few "That was sweet!" moments, the game's not worth playing. Definitely not worth buying. If you're really into Max Payne or are interested in short lived, mindless, occasionally frustrating fun, you might as well play Stranglehold.

Worth playing. Maybe just the demo because it will cover the best part(s) of the game.