Since Naruto: Rise of a Ninja was released almost 15 years ago, it has largely been forgotten in the annals of history. While it was far from a flawless effort itself, it remains an important title due to the fact that it laid out a near-perfect template for subsequent anime games to follow. It was one of the first anime games to blend together two genres and treat neither like an afterthought. At its core, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is a satisfying fighting game, but it also treats players to an engaging and interesting adventure game.

On its own, the idea of blending two genres is far from innovative, but the way in which Naruto: Rise of a Ninja managed to leverage both genres to complement one another is a queue that future anime games should follow. Even recent releases like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles that play in a remarkably familiar manner to Naruto: Rise of a Ninja manage to improve significantly on the arena fighting aspects of games but most fall short of updating the action-adventure portion to a similar degree. Still, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and its spiritual successors layout the perfect blueprint for anime games.

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Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Plays Like a Shonen Anime

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Chunin Exams Sasuke Gaara Neji

A successful anime game has to stay true to the spirit of the show. While Naruto is absolutely centered around combat, presenting it solely as a fighting game fails to capture a significant portion of what fans love about the series. A game like Naruto: Rise of a Ninja allows fans to explore and interact with the world of its respective show and experience all the brilliant moments in between fights, which, for a series like Naruto—and indeed most shonen anime—can be a lot. This isn't to say that pure fighting games based on shonen anime can't be successful, but they lend themselves better to even more battle-heavy franchises like Dragon Ball, as evidenced by titles like Dragon Ball FighterZ topping most lists of best games based on Dragon Ball.

The key, however, seems to be that developers need to treat the story mode aspect of any anime game with the same level of seriousness that they treat the mechanics of the core fighting game. While subsequent Naruto titles like the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series presented marked improvement on the combat aspects of past games like Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, the story mode and exploration have always been a point of weakness that undermine the overall effort.

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Pairs the Story with Practical Purpose

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Story Mode

Ultimately, games like Naruto: Rise of a Ninja face one major obstacle. If the core fighting aspects are done well enough, the story mode will inevitably be in danger of feeling like a serious lull. Luckily, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and its sequel offer a remedy for this situation by doubling the story mode as an effective tutorial. As players traverse around the Hidden Leaf Village, platforming and progressing in the story, they are introduced to various combinations which can later be used during fights. It's a brilliant way to ease players into a rather complicated combat system and simultaneously keep them invested in progressing through the story.

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja also has a handful of platforming puzzles that reward players with coins that can later be redeemed for items like the iconic Miso Chashu Ramen at Ichiraku Ramen that can be used for healing, as well as various weapons, and upgradable scrolls. It's probably here that Naruto: Rise of a Ninja left the most room for improvement, with a relative dearth of items and upgrades, but the basic concepts laid out in the game can still inform future titles for years to come.

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is available on Xbox 360.

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