What are the best Naruto games to play? Masashi Kishimoto‘s anime series, Naruto, is undoubtedly one of the most popular animes in the world. Kishimoto began publishing the manga series in 1999 and ended in 2014. The anime adaptation has two parts. It began airing in 2002 and ended in 2017. Even being one of the longest series, fans are never bored to watch Naruto on repeat. The anime’s plot and characters just tie the audience to the show. Currently, another sequel manga and anime series, Boruto: Naruto Next Generation, is ongoing. The new series follows the events after the original series.
The anime is full of characters that connect with every Naruto fan. The best thing about Naruto’s story and character is that even being a fictional storyline, it portrays some important aspects of life. Further, it takes us all on a roller coaster of emotions, from happy moments full of laughter to moments where we all cracked into tears. The series also showcased some of the best anime fight scenes. Because of so much ongoing, all Naruto fans also wanted to live that life, or more like play the life and see it from their perspective. Therefore what can be better than a game, where fans can control their favorite character and take part in the story. Many Naruto games have come out since the release of the anime series. But in this article, we will take a look at the best Naruto games to play.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact
This Naruto game was released in 2011 for PlayStation Portable. The game features around 50 characters, but only 26 are playable. This game covers the anime plot from Kazekage Rescue Mission to the Five Kage Summit. This game is quite similar to other Naruto games, but what made it unique is it’s 1 vs. 100. Unlike other games where the player can only take part in one-on-one combat with opponents. This game pits characters against an army or huge group in front of you to fight. This unique style attracted a lot of popularity from the audience. However, the developers never implemented this 1 vs 100 combat in future games.
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
Rise of a Ninja came out in 2007 but it is only for Xbox 360 gamers. Usually, most anime games are developed by Japanese game developers. However, this game installment is the first Naruto game to be developed by a non-Japanese developer. Ubisoft Montreal, the developers of Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia, are the developers of this game. This game is one of the Naruto titles that explored the open-world setting. This game required players to complete some shinobi running and jumping and racing through checkpoints to reach the main one-on-one combat with the opponent. This feature divided fans into two groups. One who liked to do these mini-games before the main fight. But some felt annoyed and just wanted to get directly into the fight. This came covers the events till Konoha Invasion arc from the anime series.
Naruto: Clash of Ninja
This is the first Naruto video game, released in 2003 for Nintendo GameCube. This game only featured ten characters and didn’t have much to do after completing the game’s story. Clash of ninja covers the events till episode 19 from Naruto Part I series. The game was well for the time it was made. But because of not having much to do and the release of new Naruto game titles, it lost popularity among the fans. However, it can be said this game was a prototype for developers to experiment with what will be the response to a 3D naruto game. Thus, it served that purpose very well because of its success; we got so many Naruto games.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations
It is the third installment in the Ultimate Ninja Storm video game series. It was released in 2012 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game’s story didn’t engage much of the audience. However, it still got popular among fans because it’s simple and easy-to-learn controls. This game introduced the Awakening Mode, which became a huge part of the later Ultimate Ninja Storm. This game also featured faster gameplay. Thus, players spend a lot of time mastering the game and play against other players. We can say this game was a prototype released to check the response on the fighting mechanics.
Naruto Clash of Ninja 2
Soon after the success of the first Clash of Ninja, Developers released a sequel that year. The game had 12 more characters in this installment. Clash of Ninja 2 also introduced a four-player multiplayer setting in the game. After the complaints from the first game, Developers introduced features like unlocking features after completing certain tasks. Also, in this game, players can use the money they won into buying items from the game’s shop. The game covered the story of the first game and also the Chunin Exam arc.
Naruto: The Broken Bond
This Naruto game was released in 2008 for Xbox 360. Further, it was the second and last Naruto game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The Broken Bond is the direct sequel to Rise of a Ninja and follows the events from the Konoha Invasion arc to Search for Tsunade and the Sasuke retrieval arcs. The game features 30 playable characters. Further, this game had quite similar gameplay to the first game, but they used 3D animation for cut-scenes whereas, the first one had 2D animations. This game also had music and voice actors from the original Naruto series.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
This Naruto game is the first installment in the Ultimate Ninja Storm Series. This game was released in 2008 by Bandai Namco and developed by CyberConnect2. This game covered the events of the Naruto Part I anime series. The game was unlike the past installments like it had a 3D environment instead of a 2D environment. This game also had an Awakening Mode, which activates when the health bar drops and the required health is different for every character. Further, this game allowed the players to explore Konoha when they were not on any missions. The new gameplay and settings gained a lot of attention from gamers and Naruto fans. Because of introducing entirely different gameplay, it became one of the best Naruto games to play during that time.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is the sequel to the first Ultimate Ninja Storm. It was released in 2010 as a multiplatform Naruto game. This game also had single-player mode and multiplayer mode. In single-player, you could either play one-vs-one with other players using two controllers or play against AI. Further, you can also play the story mode, which covers the plot from Naruto Shippuden’s first episode to the Pain Attack Konoha and Sasuke Kill Itachi arcs. Further, after completing the story, players can play the mission where Sasuke and his team go after Killer Bee. Apart from single-player, you can fight one-vs-one against other players in the multiplayer mode online.
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
We all wanted to be a shinobi like Naruto. This game allows you to create your character and master many techniques and play against other players to become the best shinobi. Soleil. Ltd developed this game, and Bandai Namco released it on August 31, 2018. This is a multiplayer game where you can play in three 4v4 modes like Combat Battle, Flag Battle, and Base Battle. This game allows players to make four different types: Attack types excel in close combat, Ranged type who fight from a distance and are good for supporting the team, Healer types who have medical ninjutsu and acts as the teams medic, and finally comes the Defense type who defends the base and allies. There are 46 original naruto characters with who you can train and learn their techniques. This is one of the best Naruto games to play.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
This is the sequel to the Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, released on March 5, 2013. The game became a huge hit among Naruto fans and gamers because of keeping the same mechanics from past Ultimate Ninja Storm titles. But this one had better graphics, and the mechanics were similar but improved and were more fluid than before. Further, the gamers and critics praised the Ultimate decision and the boss battles. Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 covered the plot from the Five Kage Summit to Naruto facing the Masked Madara and the tailed beasts. The game was the best seller for Bandai Namco in 2013.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Bandai Namco released the final Ultimate Ninja Storm game on February 4, 2016. It is the sequel to Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and continued the events from the predecessor game, and covered the entire Fourth Great Shinobi War. But upon its release, it got some critics because of the bugs, but once they were fixed, it became the best naruto game to play. However, many fans were not happy because the open-world setting was removed and instead had chapters that are game missions that the players need to complete to move forward. However, later the developers added Road to Boruto arc, which followed Boruto Uzumaki’s story and also brought back the feature of roaming in Konoha between missions. Further, players can play against other players in the online mode. Ultimate Ninja Stor 4 is part of many esports tournaments where players fight against each other in 1v1.
