Naruto Shippuden Kizuna Drive
5.5
10
22
22
Uzumaki Chronicles 4 - Bottom of the Barrel
This game continues the PS2 era Uzumaki Chronicles series, and in all honesty this game has to be the worst in the bunch. While the first game was flawed with rather simplistic combat and terrible graphics, but this game manages to do far worse in almost every category.
==========
Story
==========
Kizuna Drive much like Uzumaki Chronicles 2 is an original story that is merely meant to be taken as filler. The story starts out with a cut scene where a character impersonating Naruto unleashes the Kyuubi on a small hidden village that is allied with the leaf and manages to utterly decimate only leaving a small handful of survivors that target the real Naruto for revenge.
On a sad note I can't honestly offer an opinion on the overall story since, I can't stomach the thought of trudging through this game when I can't play something that is at least decent.
==========
Gameplay
==========
Kizuna Drive like all of its other predecessors is a rather simplistic beat-em up but manages to get almost everything wrong. The game removes the lock-on mechanic that was highly flawed in Akatsuki Rising, but the loss of the lock-on mechanic is an actual detriment for this game since your constantly jumping around to avoid enemy attacks making it difficult to keep track of your enemies. You'll constantly be needing to shift the camera instead of focusing on attacking and dodging enemy attacks.
On the downside boss fights tend to take way to long since your regular attacks do little damage. The game seems to want to draw attention to the Kizuna system but you can only use this mode if you manage to daze the enemy which is easier said then done in a lot of cases. The bosses will merely shrug off your attacks making landing a punishing combo rather difficult. And you'll need to send an enemy flying to daze them in most cases.
Another issue is that your jutsus require way too much chakra so even using the substitution jutsu a few times lessen your damage will leave you helpless. You can recharge your chakra by holding the square button, but once you enter this state you become unable to move. In all honesty if they were going to have this feature they should have allowed you to start and stop recharging when you wanted to. This way you can avoid enemy attacks instead of taking hits while your helpless.
And, finally the game suffers from rather poorly programmed allied AIs. The game doesn't offer you any control over the AI and this will come to frustrate you rather quickly if you want to heal one of your allied AI team members, but can't direct the medic to do so. And often times the AI will ignore other team mates in favor of healing you even if the AI unit teammate has only 10 HP while you have 75 HP.
==========
Graphics
==========
I honestly couldn't stand the graphical style of this game. It seems like it was trying to blend a manga visual style with limited movement, but it just comes across as rather lazy and incomplete.
==========
Sound
==========
The soundtrack is rather forgettable, and the opening song feels way to soft for a game about beating enemies senseless and then launching them between your teammates like at volleyball practice.
==========
Lasting Appeal
==========
There are some unlockable characters in this game as well as free missions that you can use to acquire scrolls.
==========
Scores
==========
Gameplay: 3
Graphics: 2
Sound: 5
Lasting Appeal: 3
Overall: 3.2 (Not an Average)
3/16/13
Possibly the worst game i have ever played.
This game is horrible, even for naruto fans, its really repetitive, theres not that many characters, its really hard and theres no difficulty settings. I really can't think of any good to say about this game, it was a waste of my money and im trying to sell it already.
2/19/12
Terrible game
I thought it was good,but it sucks.I wanna trade it.
10/30/11
could been better
this game is ok no many people to play with and get boring now mode where u can fight one on one and the graphics are really bad
10/11/11
No dont get it
This game is just down right terrible. I honestly don't see the point in it.
9/25/11
Fun game but a let down.
It has a good game but has lack of characters i recommend this to HARDCORE naruto fans. If you new to naruto i would check out Naruto shippuden ultimate ninja heroes 3.
9/8/11
Okay Game
This game is okay and all but I wish it would have had more characters and different opponents on each level not (including bosses).What kills me is that they only put one akatsuki character which I think they should of just left out or added at least three or two more akatsuki members because one seems dull
7/30/11
Repetitive.....Have had it for 2 weeks and it is..
Too repetitve for me....you fight the same dudes all game and the story isnt even that beast
7/15/11
awesome
i got this game a week ago and it's it pretty good. not to many character's but its all good, it's still a great game.
7/11/11
Good game
i think this game is good, just a few cons of little characters. although i bet 90% of the time ppl will just use naruto and some other MAIN characters
4/23/11