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NARUTO: THE BROKEN BOND Posted by Dan Pearson on Dec 30, 2008 12:21 (Dec 30, 2008 12:21) |
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Naruto : The Broken Bond has arrived and is to give fans of the series something to get excited about. Broken Bond follows on from the first game, Rise of the Ninja and due to that newcomers may feel a bit alienated, but once you have gotten used to the characters the game moves along quite smoothly.
The Game kicks off with a fast paced action start in which Hidden Leaf Village is being attacked and The Third Hokage (a kind of ninja master) sacrifices himself for the good of the village. The game then takes on a sombre mood at the funeral before things start off for real, with Naruto running around the village and surrounding areas helping out people and getting into fights. The first thing you will notice is how well presented the game is, the characters look like they have been pulled from the TV show and the villages and rivers look amazing. I was also impressed by the music, which while soothing at times also ramps up to a more frenzied beat during the battles.
 The main game mode is adventure based with Naruto and friends (at times you can have up to four in a team including Sakura, Choji and Sasuke) running around the village helping out others, in reality this is really just lots of people after a certain item that you need to find and bring back. To make it more interesting there are traps and blocked paths to figure out how to get passed. Most of the time you can use your chosen characters Jutsu, which is a special ability that you can trigger during the game, Naruto for example has his Shadow Clone, this will make loads of Naruto clones who then form a bridge while other characters can destroy certain boulders, command a shadow to flip switches or save a character from falling into a trap. The fetching part of the game does get repetitive quickly early on but thankfully the fighting side more than covers for this. Here the game goes to a classic VS mode, whilst each character has different fighting styles and Jutsu the controls are the same, with 2 attacks and a block.
You are taught early on that the best way to defeat opponents is to use combos, here you can then stun them whilst you charge up your Jutsu move. Combos are very easy to pull off, most of the time they are just three of the same hit or an alteration of attacks. Like in the adventure mode you can also use the more powerful Jutsu moves, Naruto can summon loads of clones to dish out damage or turn into a beautiful woman to confuse the enemy so you can get a few extra hits in.
It’s not all wandering the lands and fighting in Broken Bond though, during the adventure mode you have some great cutscenes plus you are also able to climb into the trees at certain points and run through them at high speeds to get to the next area. This again is graphically impressive and breaks up the game well.
 On top of the huge adventure mode you also have a more classic fighting game. Just like in the adventure you can tag in other characters, but this time you have 30 to choose from. Online is a very frantic experience, get enough fights under your belt and you will start to rank up, are you good enough to get to Hokage ranking?
Naruto : The Broken Bond is a real treat to play and is a huge improvement on the previous game. Great for fans of the game or for those looking for something a bit different.
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